This has contributed to the loss of about a third of the UK’s consultant population in the last two years, he contended.

Giving a hard-hitting talk about the need to return to sales basics in recruitment businesses, Barnes suggested that “85% of companies have been in survival mode these last two years”. Conversion, he said, is the issue.

“Conversion is the issue – it’s conversion rate, and we have forgotten how to work good business or to close.”

He went on to argue that no recruiter has a unique selling proposition (USP). “None of you, zero, no one!” he said. “A lot of people can do the same thing as you do. We provide the right people at the right time. Really, well done,” he said sarcastically. “So does everyone else.”

Instead, he said, recruiters have to develop their “experiential proposition”, he said. “How do you make people feel? How do you make your colleagues feel? How do you make your candidates and clients feel? That, to me, is everything.”

Barnes also decried the recruitment industry’s ability at tracking candidates and mapping markets as “not very good. When I see most businesses, they’re awful at it. I honestly believe 90% of recruitment companies, even if they’re here today, would fail if they didn’t have [professional networking platform] LinkedIn. That’s a really dangerous position to be in, right?”

He also urged his audience: “Don’t worry about strategy. What is the behaviour that happens in your office on a daily basis? That’s way more important than strategy because that’s reality.”

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