Have you seen the ‘Shopping List’ technique?

My colleague Katie called me last week and she sounded upset;

“Mike, have you seen this?!”

It was a list of jobs from another recruitment company, but it was about as long as your weekly shopping list.

When she showed it to me, I glanced at it and went back to work.

“Aren’t you worried?”

She asked

I sipped my tea.

“Nope.”

“Why not?!”

“Well,” because it’s not a real job list. It’s a marketing stunt.”

You see, half those roles probably aren’t even real.

And the other half?

We’ve seen them. We know them. And we also know why they haven’t been filled…

The salaries are too low
The culture’s not a match
Five days a week in the office (good luck with that)
No real career progression

Jobs like that don’t fly off the shelf.

And yet, there they are, on full display like a Tesco Clubcard offer.

Here’s what I said to Katie:

“If we stripped out the dodgy 50%, could we fill the rest?”

She thought for a second;

“Yes. We’ve got great candidates for those. They’ve registered recently, filled in our salary survey, are at the right level, and we’ve actually spoken to them – and they trust us.”

That’s the clincher – trust.

We know our candidates. They trust us. Because we don’t just fire jobs into the void; we match people with real opportunities that move their careers forward.

I recently heard my good friend Mark Whitby’s podcast, The Resilient Recruiter. One of his guests, Grace Marlin, explained that hosting the events helps your candidates trust that you are there to help them and their careers.

That’s the clincher – trust.

You don’t get it by listing a hundred so-called ‘hot jobs’ on LinkedIn and crossing your fingers.

You earn it.

And not overnight either.

You earn trust by showing up. Over and over again. Even when there’s no fee in sight.

You build it by helping candidates figure out their next step – even if it’s not with you.

By being a sounding board, not a sales pitch.

Sometimes that means saying,

“This role isn’t right for you—and here’s why.”

Other times, it’s offering benchmarking data through our Treasury Salary Survey, or pointing someone to a free webinar, career guide, or even just an insightful episode of the podcast.

We’ve been doing that for 25 years. Our trust isn’t built on marketing gloss or flashy job boards.

It’s built on:

Actually talking to candidates
Giving honest advice
Telling people when a job isn’t right for them
Running live events with real education
Creating salary surveys, career guides, our podcast, and newsletters like this one.