A stronger pipeline contains opportunities your team understands and can progress. Growth depends on qualified requirements and the work done at each stage. Review those stages to identify where better follow-up or information could help. The tips below are not a script. Each is a habit that improves either the quality of what enters the pipeline or how quickly it moves.
1. Define your target clients
Focus on sectors, roles and commercial terms the agency can serve well.
A target list is as much about what you will not chase as what you will. Look at where you already have a candidate pool, compliance experience and acceptable margin, such as mental health nursing in one region or allied health for community services. A hospital that needs grades you rarely supply, on rates that leave little margin, is a weak target however large its spend. Write the profile down, with sectors, regions, grades and minimum commercial terms, so every consultant prospects against the same criteria.
2. Review existing relationships
Identify active, previous and lapsed clients with a relevant reason to reconnect.
Existing and former clients already know how the agency works, so a good conversation with them tends to progress faster than a cold approach. List the clients who have not booked for a while and check the record for the reason: a contact who moved on, a service that closed or a delivery problem that was never resolved. Each answer calls for a different approach. A client who left over a compliance delay needs to hear what has changed, not a general update.
3. Learn from successful placements
Ask where similar needs exist and which other teams may value your service.
A placement that went well is evidence you can use. If an agency nurse has worked well on one ward for months, the ward manager may know of similar gaps in neighbouring departments, or colleagues at another site in the same health service. Ask at a natural moment, such as when an extension is agreed or a timesheet query is resolved quickly. Record who referred you and why, so the next conversation can point to the work already delivered.
4. Use relevant candidate knowledge
Discuss suitable candidate availability with target clients, respecting the candidate's preferences and information-sharing arrangements.
Telling a client that an experienced, compliant theatre nurse is available for nights from next month is a stronger reason to call than a general check-in. Share only what the candidate has agreed to share, and lead with grade, experience and availability rather than identifying details. Keep it selective: a few well-matched candidates offered to the right clients, not the same list sent to everyone.
5. Act promptly on client requirements
Use AI to capture supported incoming vacancy emails, then focus consultant attention on qualification and progressing the opportunity.
Speed matters most when a client sends the same requirement to several suppliers. Time spent retyping a vacancy from an email is time not spent calling candidates. RecSphere's vacancy capture reads supported client emails in connected inboxes, flags likely duplicates and missing details, and leaves the consultant to confirm the record. The consultant's time then goes where it counts: confirming rates, shift times and the decision process, then calling the right candidates.
6. Set a next action
Record the outcome of each conversation and a dated follow-up where needed.
A conversation without a recorded next step tends to become a missed opportunity. Good looks like "call the ward manager on Thursday with two night-shift candidates", assigned to a named consultant. Bad looks like a note saying "follow up" with no date or owner. Review overdue actions at the start of each week, and close the ones that no longer matter so the list stays trustworthy.
7. Develop more than one client relationship
Understand the contacts involved in requirements, decisions and approvals.
In a hospital or health service, the person who sends the requirement is often not the person who approves agency spend or signs timesheets. Map the people involved: ward and department managers, the staffing office, procurement and the finance contacts who handle invoices. For your key accounts, aim to know someone in each of those groups. If your only contact leaves, an account built on one relationship can disappear quickly. Record each contact's role and the last meaningful conversation on the client record, so the team can see where a relationship is thin.
8. Protect business development time
Schedule regular account development alongside delivery work.
Delivery is urgent by nature: unfilled shifts, late timesheets and compliance gaps all demand attention today. Business development rarely feels urgent until the pipeline is thin, by which point it is late. Block a fixed time each week, when shift requests are usually quieter, and protect it. Decide in advance which accounts and prospects that time is for, so it is spent on calls and meetings rather than research. Treat it like a booked shift: if it has to move, rebook it the same week.
9. Measure conversion
Review how opportunities move from requirement to submission and placement, using consistent stage definitions.
Conversion shows where effort is lost. For each stage, count the opportunities that entered it in a period and how many reached the next stage. If plenty of requirements arrive but few reach submission, look at qualification or candidate supply. If submissions are healthy but placements are not, look at match quality and client feedback. Compare like with like, such as shift-based nursing against shift-based nursing, and watch the trend over several months rather than reacting to one.
10. Follow up with a useful reason
Bring relevant information, a suitable candidate or a specific answer to the client's last question.
"Just checking in" gives a busy ward manager nothing to respond to. A useful follow-up might be a candidate who matches the shifts they struggled to fill last month, a clear answer to a timesheet query, or an update on how you would clear a new starter against their checklist. Before each follow-up, read the record of the last conversation, so you pick up where it ended rather than starting again.