A Newcastle-based recruitment consultancy’s campaign to reach potential recruiters “who would run a mile from a sales job normally” is targeting professionals from the automotive, aerospace, food, drink, and other major industries.

The Nigel Wright Consultancy’s “Keep an open mind” campaign has drawn “a few hundred” CVs and up to five new hires every month since its launch earlier this year.

The company aims to double the existing team of 75 recruiters to 150 as the business expands.

“We really felt the need to ramp up the drive. It’s a big, bold statement aimed at a specific audience,” chief executive Nigel Wright told Recruiter. “It’s about making the right level of noise in the streets.”

The company already employs a significant number of recruitment consultants who previously worked in industry-specific roles such as engineering and food-and-drinks buying, and Wright wants to continue along that path.

“The people we want would run a mile from a sales job normally,” he said. “What we look for are people who are bright, intelligent, well-qualified, who have succeeded in whatever they’ve chosen to do, with a winning mentality and a strong work ethic.”

Wright’s company is not the only recruitment firm taking a chance on industry specialists to fill its ranks.

Executive search firm Norman Broadbent also employs industry specialists as recruiters.

“It’s something we’ve always considered if we meet up with people with relevant senior-level experience,” said Beth Cauldwell, managing director of the company’s industry and manufacturing practice.

But she warns that some industry professionals may come into executive search seeing only the potential of “big fees and taking people to lunch”.

Denise Walker, who advises start-up recruiting companies on behalf of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, says the greatest drawback for bringing industry professionals into the fold is often that “they don't know how to market themselves”.

Nevertheless, she added, their potential for success as recruiters depends on their aptitude to learn sales and marketing as well on the individual work circumstances, “and some sectors lend themselves to this better than others”.