Has Recruitment Lost Its Sales Culture? | Adam Turner (EP 101)

<p><b><i>Why are recruiters becoming afraid to pick up the phone?</b></i></p><p>In this episode of The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast, I'm joined by Adam Turner, founder of Global Veterinary Careers (GVC). Having worked in veterinary recruitment since 2007, Adam has built GVC into an international recruitment business operating across the UK, US and Australia. </p><p><br></p><p>We discuss why recruitment needs to get back on the phone, what's happened to sales culture since COVID, and why phone-first recruiters can instantly differentiate themselves in a world dominated by emails, LinkedIn messages, automation and AI.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><b>Topics Discussed:</b></p><p><br></p><p>✅ Why recruitment needs to get back on the phone</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Has sales culture declined in recruitment?</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Why younger recruiters can be more reluctant to make calls</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Building confidence and overcoming rejection on the phone</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Creating a phone-first recruitment culture</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Why recruiters shouldn't hide away to make sales calls</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Learning by osmosis and the importance of the sales floor</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Relationships vs transactional recruitment</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Standardising processes across international recruitment teams</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Giving recruiters structure without removing individuality</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Balancing AI and automation with traditional recruitment fundamentals</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Why over-reliance on AI could impact recruiter development</p><p><br></p><p>✅ Why consistency is a superpower in recruitment</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>⏱️ <b>Timestamps:</b></p><p><br></p><p>00:00 – Introduction & welcome</p><p><br></p><p>02:27 – Adam's recruitment journey and building GVC</p><p><br></p><p>03:24 – What happened to phone-first recruitment?</p><p><br></p><p>06:16 – Gen Z, rejection and getting recruiters on the phone</p><p><br></p><p>12:28 – Has recruitment become too transactional?</p><p><br></p><p>14:44 – How the recruitment boom changed what "good" looks like</p><p><br></p><p>16:50 – Short-term BD vs building long-term relationships</p><p><br></p><p>20:32 – Why relationships and customer service still win</p><p><br></p><p>23:15 – Why recruiters hide away to make phone calls</p><p><br></p><p>27:34 – Building confidence on the sales floor</p><p><br></p><p>35:31 – Dealing with imposter syndrome as a founder</p><p><br></p><p>39:48 – Standardising processes across int