Recruitment Blog

Building a high-performance BD culture: What the top recruitment agencies get right

Melinda Jennings is JobAdder's Content Marketing Manager. With over 13 years of industry experience, she has a passion for creating compelling and informative content.

In recruitment, business development (BD) can’t just be a job title, it has to be a mindset.

While many agencies pour money into new tools, automation, or outreach campaigns, they often overlook the real driver of sustained business growth: culture. Specifically, a culture where every team member understands how to build relationships, spot opportunities, and help the agency grow.

In a market where 63% of agencies want to invest in BD, but only 5% are completely satisfied with their strategy, the biggest differentiator isn’t just what you do. It’s how your team thinks about business development.

So what does a high-performance BD culture actually look like? Here’s what top agencies understand and how they’re able to set themselves apart.

1. BD is everyone’s responsibility (even if they don’t realise it)

In top-performing agencies, business development isn’t a siloed function. It’s woven into every role.

When you think about it, opportunities are everywhere. For example:

A candidate shares intel about a company that’s scaling fast.
A client casually mentions they’re expanding into a new region.
A consultant hears that a competitor isn’t delivering on service.

In a BD culture, these moments aren’t ignored – they’re actioned.

Encouraging every team member to think commercially helps your agency spot warm leads and build stronger client relationships, without adding headcount.

2. Training isn’t optional – it’s the culture

Only 21% of agencies are investing in upskilling and training as part of their BD strategy. That’s a missed opportunity.

If you want your team to feel confident having business conversations, you need to teach them:

How to ask better questions.
How to position your value.
How to qualify a real opportunity.

Good BD requires skill. And like any skill, it can be taught and coached with the right structure, playbooks, and feedback loops.

3. Success is measured, shared, and celebrated

Top agencies measure what gets done. Not only that, they celebrate what gets done well, and then they repeat it.

If you want to embed a BD culture, track the right activities and outcomes, such as:

Conversations that led to new briefs.
Warm leads shared between teams.
Referrals from existing clients or candidates.

Then talk about it. Celebrate wins. Show that BD efforts (not just closed deals) matter.

That could look like sharing wins on your internal messaging platform, calling out initiatives in team meetings, or rewarding BD behaviours with incentives.

4. Leadership sets the tone

Your leadership team sets the culture. If managers only talk about hitting KPIs, that’s what the team will focus on.

But if you want BD to become a shared value, then leaders should instead ask questions like:

“What BD opportunities came up this week?”
“Who did we help that we could build a relationship with?”
“Where can we go deeper with an existing client?”

The most successful agencies have leaders who coach BD, not just track it.

Long-term BD success starts and ends with your culture

Recruitment is still a relationship business. Tools and tech can help, but it’s your people and the culture you create that will drive business development success long-term.

The agencies winning in 2025 and beyond will be the ones that: