Is Recruitment a Sales Job… or a Marketing Job? | Kris Holland (EP 77)
In this episode of The 1 Percent Better Recruitment Podcast, I’m joined by Kris Holland, Founder of Kitto, to debate a big question in modern recruitment: Is it still a sales job… or has it become a marketing job? Kris has spent years working with recruitment founders and growth-focused agencies on brand, positioning, demand generation, and sales enablement. That puts him right at the centre of how recruitment businesses actually win work in 2026 and beyond. This isn’t about replacing sales. It’s about enabling it. We talk about personal branding, content, ICP clarity, multi-touch outreach, and how recruiters can move from being transactional CV senders to consultative, trusted partners. We cover: ✅ Is recruitment a sales job or a marketing job? ✅ Why cold calling alone doesn’t cut it anymore ✅ The role of marketing in sales enablement ✅ Multi-touch outreach and the 20-touchpoint reality ✅ Why most recruiters don’t truly know their ICP ✅ How to uncover real client problems and build content from them ✅ Personal branding that actually drives inbound ✅ Why posting only jobs damages your brand ✅ Trust, positioning, and standing out in saturated markets ✅ Why recruitment is now a team sport, not a lone wolf game ✅ What recruiters need to rethink for 2026 ✅ Kris’s 1 Percent Better advice for recruiters and founders ⏱ Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro and the big debate: sales vs marketing 03:00 – Why recruitment has changed 08:00 – The shift from cold calls to multi-channel 14:00 – Sales enablement and marketing’s real role 21:00 – ICP clarity and identifying client pain points 29:00 – Email, LinkedIn, and content strategy 38:00 – Personal branding done properly 47:00 – Differentiating as a recruitment agency 55:00 – Marketing mindset vs sales mindset 01:03:00 – What recruitment businesses must do in 2026 01:10:00 – Kris’s 1 Percent Better tip 🐋 Podcast Sponsor – SourceWhale This episode is sponsored by SourceWhale, the multi-channel outreach platform I personally use and recommend to recruiters and founders. SourceWhale helps you combine email, LinkedIn, calls, and tasks into one structured, consistent BD workflow, without relying on spray-and-pray automation. If you want better conversations, not just more activity, this is worth a look. 👉 Book a demo here: https://sourcewhale.com/book-demo/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=&utm_term=charles_kyriakou&utm_content=book_a_demo Mention The 1 Percent Better Recruitment Podcast or my name, Charles Kyriakou, when you book. 🔗 Connect with Kris Holland 💻 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kris-holland/ 🔗 Connect with Charles Kyriakou 💻 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleskyriakou1/ 📲 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charles.kyriakou 🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1-better-recruitment-podcast/id1775201502 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46LjJfw 📰 LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7244346543967731712/ 🌐 Website – https://www.inf1nitelearning.com/ 👇 If this episode challenged your thinking, like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a recruiter who still believes recruitment is “just a sales job.”
