Staffing / Recruiting: Best Referral Sources
Who should be sending you clients, and the rooms they are already sitting in.
Get the networking events worth showing up to
Tell us where you are. We will send you the best rooms for staffing and recruiting firms and the next meeting dates. Add a ZIP and this page will also show your local chapters and which seats are open.
Most business owners network where their competitors are, not where their referral partners are.
Your own trade group is for learning. Your partners' groups are where the work comes from. Everything below starts with one question. When something happens that makes people need staffing and recruiting firms, who else gets a call that same week?
Staffing and recruiting firms sell to other businesses, and most of the work starts when a business puts its first employee on payroll. It moves fast, so being the name already in hand matters more than being the cheapest. Clients come back, which makes one good introduction worth years.
- First hire / payrollwhen a business puts its first employee on payroll
- New lease or locationwhen a business signs a lease or opens a location
- Job changewhen somebody changes jobs or gets relocated
- Business formationwhen somebody starts a company
- Sale of a businesswhen an owner sells the company
Who should be sending you clients
Who you should be sending clients to
Ranked by what starts the job, not by who sounds close to your trade.
The same list, turned around. Give first and the rest follows.
- 01
HR Consulting / PEO
They send you work78Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
HR consultants and PEOs hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 02
Payroll Services
They send you work73Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
Payroll providers hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 03
Commercial Property Manager
They send you work70Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
Commercial property managers hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 04
IT Services / Managed IT
Two-way69Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
You and IT and managed service providers both get the call when a business puts its first employee on payroll, usually the same week. This one goes both ways.
- 05
Insurance Health & Benefits
Two-way69Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
You and health and benefits brokers both get the call when a business puts its first employee on payroll, usually the same week. This one goes both ways.
- 06
Facility Manager
They send you work69Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
Facility managers hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 07
Attorney Business & Corporate
They send you work67Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
Business attorneys hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 08
Attorney Real Estate
They send you work67Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
Real estate attorneys hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 09
CPA / Accountant
They send you work66Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
CPAs hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 10
Commercial Kitchen Equipment & Service
They send you work65Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
Commercial kitchen equipment companies hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 01
HR Consulting / PEO
They send you work72Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
HR consultants and PEOs hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 02
Insurance Health & Benefits
Two-way71Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
You and health and benefits brokers both get the call when a business puts its first employee on payroll, usually the same week. This one goes both ways.
- 03
Payroll Services
They send you work71Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
Payroll providers hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before you do. This one sends you work rather than trading it.
- 04
Attorney Employment & Labor
You send them work67Trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
You hear about it when a business puts its first employee on payroll, before employment attorneys do. Expect to give more than you get back here.
- 05
Radio / TV / Media Advertising
You send them work67Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
You hear about it when a business signs a lease or opens a location, before media and advertising reps do. Expect to give more than you get back here.
- 06
Telecom & VoIP
Two-way66Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
You and telecom and VoIP providers both get the call when a business signs a lease or opens a location, usually the same week. This one goes both ways.
Where those people actually are
Ranked by how many of your best partners are in the room, and how much work each one can send you.
LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities
Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
Works when your buyer has a job title. Useful comments on your partners' posts beat posting your own.
Find your local chapter →Give someone nine choices and they pick none. If you do one thing from this page, do this.
- 01
LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities
Online communityYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
Works when your buyer has a job title. Useful comments on your partners' posts beat posting your own.
Chapter finder → - 02
Your city or county chamber of commerce
Chamber of commerceYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and commercial property managers.
Too big and too broad on its own. The value is in one committee. Pick one and go every time. The same fifteen people show up, and they get to know you.
Chapter finder → - 03
Vistage
Paid peer groupYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, IT and managed service providers, and business attorneys.
Run CEO peer groups. You are buying advice, not leads, but the group turns into a warm list over time.
Chapter finder → - 04
Software & platform user groups
Vendor & supply chainYour partners are in this room: facility managers and IT and managed service providers.
Groups for the software your customers use, like practice management, property management, and accounting. You meet people in the middle of a problem.
- 05
BNI
Structured referral groupOne seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above.
The biggest referral group in the world. You meet every week. Only one person per job. They expect you to show up.
Chapter finder → - 06
LeTip International
Structured referral groupOne seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above.
Weekly referral chapters. One person per job. Strong with trades and home services.
Chapter finder → - 07
Network In Action
Structured referral groupOne seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above.
Referral groups that meet once a month. Good if you cannot give up a morning every week.
Chapter finder →
LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities
Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
Works when your buyer has a job title. Useful comments on your partners' posts beat posting your own.
Find your local chapter →Give someone nine choices and they pick none. If you do one thing from this page, do this.
- 01
LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities
Online communityYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
Works when your buyer has a job title. Useful comments on your partners' posts beat posting your own.
Chapter finder → - 02
Your city or county chamber of commerce
Chamber of commerceYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and commercial property managers.
Too big and too broad on its own. The value is in one committee. Pick one and go every time. The same fifteen people show up, and they get to know you.
Chapter finder → - 03
Vistage
Paid peer groupYour partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, IT and managed service providers, and business attorneys.
Run CEO peer groups. You are buying advice, not leads, but the group turns into a warm list over time.
Chapter finder → - 04
Software & platform user groups
Vendor & supply chainYour partners are in this room: facility managers and IT and managed service providers.
Groups for the software your customers use, like practice management, property management, and accounting. You meet people in the middle of a problem.
- 05
Prime Time Business Network
Structured referral groupOne seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above.
A South Florida referral group. Only one person per job in each chapter. So your competitors are kept out, and your referral partners have the other seats.
See chapters → - 06
An independent local leads group
Structured referral groupOne seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above.
Most cities have small leads groups you will never find online. A realtor or insurance agent usually starts them. Ask three people in your trade who they meet with.
- 07
State bar practice sections
Your partners' associationYour partners are in this room: real estate attorneys and business attorneys.
Classes, standards, and lawyers who share cases. The exception is across practice areas. Estate and family lawyers refer to each other all the time.
Chapter finder →
SHRM local chapter
Most staffing and recruiting firms join this room first. It is also the one most likely to be the wrong pick. HR managers. They buy benefits, training, staffing, background checks, and legal help. Everyone in it does what you do. Join it for the training, the licences, and the ties to manufacturers. Do not join it for referrals, and do not join it instead of the rooms above.
SHRM local chapter →Let us be straight with you. For staffing and recruiting firms, a weekly referral group is not the best pick. Your partners gather in professional groups instead, so spend your time there. We would rather say that than sell you a seat you do not need.
Is your seat open?
Prime Time takes one staffing / recruiting per chapter. Put in a South Florida ZIP above and we will show you which seats are open.
Add a ZIP code at the top of the page to see which seats are open.
Prime Time doesn't operate where you are yet.
We have fifteen chapters in South Florida and none near you. Telling you to join would be bad advice. The rooms above are the real answer where you are. We can email you the one page version and let you know if we open near you.
Send me those roomsHave the next meetings sent to you
The rooms above are the answer. This is when they meet. Tell us where to send it and we will email you the next dates for staffing and recruiting firms, with the one page plan.
We already know your trade and your area from this page, so there is nothing else to fill in. We do not ask for a phone number. Every email we send has an unsubscribe link.
Your one-page action plan
Five partners, five things to say, three rooms. Print it and keep it in the car.
Networking plan: Staffing / Recruiting
The five people who should be sending you clients
- HR Consulting / PEO (They send you work)
Shared trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll - Payroll Services (They send you work)
Shared trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll - Commercial Property Manager (They send you work)
Shared trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location - IT Services / Managed IT (Two-way)
Shared trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll - Insurance Health & Benefits (Two-way)
Shared trigger: a business puts its first employee on payroll
The three rooms to be in
- LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
- Your city or county chamber of commerce: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and commercial property managers.
- Vistage: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, IT and managed service providers, and business attorneys.
- LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and facility managers.
- Your city or county chamber of commerce: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, payroll providers, and commercial property managers.
- Vistage: Your partners are in this room: HR consultants and PEOs, IT and managed service providers, and business attorneys.
Don't confuse this with networking: SHRM local chapter. Learning and supplier access, not referrals.