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For anyone working in recruitment, the past few years have probably felt less like a recession and more like a slow grind.

Opening his keynote at Recruitment Agency Expo, REC Chief Executive Neil Carberry described the market with a single word that immediately struck a chord with the audience: "bleh". It wasn't an economic term, he joked, but everyone in the room knew exactly what he meant.

Recruitment hadn't experienced the sharp rise and fall seen during the pandemic. Instead, agencies had been navigating a market that had weakened gradually, month after month, leaving many feeling as though they were working just as hard for fewer opportunities. Yet, according to Carberry, that's only half the story.

The interesting question isn't how recruiters feel about the market. It's how their clients feel.

The assumption has often been that employers must be equally pessimistic. After all, hiring has slowed, budgets have tightened and economic uncertainty has dominated the headlines. But the REC's own research paints a rather different picture. While employers remain cautious, many are still optimistic about the future of their businesses. They're continuing to invest, they're thinking about growth and they're wrestling with one challenge that hasn't gone away: how to find and retain the people they need.

That distinction matters because it changes the conversation recruiters should be having.

Much of the recruitment industry's sales messaging still revolves around vacancies, candidates and placements. Those things are obviously important, but Carberry's argument was that they aren't the reason clients pick up the phone.

Employers aren't lying awake wondering how to appoint a finance director or recruit another software engineer. They're worrying about growing the business, delivering projects, improving productivity or replacing skills they've lost. Recruitment is only one part of solving those problems.

That's why Carberry believes agencies need to stop leading with what they do and spend more time understanding what their clients are trying to achieve. It's a subtle shift, but an important one. Instead of asking, "Can we help you recruit?", the better question might be, "What's stopping your business from growing?"

The answer might still involve recruitment, but it immediately changes the relationship. Instead of acting as a supplier responding to a vacancy, the recruiter becomes someone helping to solve a commercial challenge.

One of the strongest themes running through Carberry's session was that recruiters often underestimate the value they already bring.

Good recruiters don't simply introduce candidates. They advise on salary expectations, labour market trends, workforce planning, employer branding and skills availability. They help clients understand what's happening in their sector and often spot problems before those businesses do themselves. Yet many agencies continue to package all of that expertise as though it comes free with a placement.

Over time, that has helped reinforce the idea that recruitment is a commodity – something to be bought as cheaply as possible. Carberry challenged that thinking. If agencies continue to position themselves as interchangeable suppliers, they shouldn't be surprised when procurement teams compare them purely on price.

The agencies that stand out aren't necessarily those with the biggest databases or the lowest fees. They're the ones clients involve in conversations before a role has even been approved. That's because trust isn't built when a CV lands in someone's inbox. It's built over time, through advice, insight and an understanding of the client's business.

Throughout his presentation, Carberry returned to the idea that recruitment firms should think more broadly about the role they play. In a labour market shaped by skills shortages, demographic change and increasing complexity, businesses need informed advisers as much as they need recruiters. That creates an opportunity for agencies willing to move beyond transactional conversations.

Towards the end of his keynote, Carberry summed up his message with a line that neatly captured the whole presentation. "There is so much noise in this world," he said. "It's the signal that matters."

For recruiters, becoming that signal isn't about sending more emails or making more calls. It's about becoming known for the quality of your thinking. It means helping clients understand problems, sharing market insight and offering advice that has value long before a vacancy appears. When agencies are recognised for solving business problems rather than simply filling jobs, they're no longer competing with every other recruiter in the market. They're competing on expertise, relationships and trust.

In a market that has felt like "bleh" for far too long, that's a far stronger position to be in.