A contingent agency filling 84.6% of its jobs? I wanted to know how.
That was Bilingual Source’s search-assignment fill rate in 2023. Every assignment comes with mandatory exclusivity. And Greg Benadiba has a way of earning that commitment even when the client is already working with other agencies.
After taking a detailed brief, he asks how confident the client is that those other agencies really understand the role. In 25 years of coaching recruiters, I hadn’t heard that question used in this way.
Greg is President and CEO of Bilingual Source and the author of Recruitment Principles. In this conversation, he explains the standards behind his team’s results, from choosing clients who will cooperate to making sure personal commission doesn’t get in the way of the best placement.
He also shares a mistake: a candidate he didn’t call back, the bad review that followed and the potential referral it put at risk. It’s a practical example of what keeping your word means in a business built on trust.
If you’re spending hours on jobs that never turn into placements, Greg’s approach will give you plenty to rethink.
What you’ll learn:
How Greg earns exclusivity through a more detailed job intake.
What asking for interview slots upfront reveals about client commitment.
How consistent business development gives you the confidence to turn work down.
How he tackles internal competition over candidates and commissions.
Where to start with allocating 10% of your time to improving the business.
How he uses AI to track the commitments he makes on calls.
How his Recruitment Principles GPT helped an account executive get a response after six weeks of client silence.
Episode highlights:
[01:56] The numbers behind Bilingual Source’s fill rate
[05:47] Two questions that help Greg earn exclusivity
[17:56] Testing client commitment before sending CVs
[26:28] Why colleagues are each other’s number one customers
[30:59] Making time to work on your business
[43:42] The missed callback and the cost of broken trust
[49:16] Getting a silent client to respond with the Recruitment Principles GPT
About Greg Benadiba
Greg Benadiba is President and CEO of Bilingual Source, a Toronto-based French and English recruitment firm. He started his career in customer service at Dell, joined Bilingual Source as a recruiter, and now owns the company. More than half of the firm’s placements come from network referrals, and it holds a 4.9-star Google rating. Greg is the author of Recruitment Principles: Timeless Truths in the Age of AI, which is required reading for everyone on his team. He first appeared on The Resilient Recruiter as guest number 14 in March 2020.
Connect with Greg:
Website and newsletter: https://gregbenadiba.com/
Recruitment Principles book: https://gregbenadiba.com/book/
Recruitment Principles Companion GPT: https://gregbenadiba.com/gpt/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbenadiba/
Bilingual Source: https://bilingualsource.com/
Podcast Partner:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an an AI-native ATS and CRM with built-in AI agents that structure your data, monitor job changes and capture call notes into your CRM.
Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow
Free Resources:
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