Most recruitment agencies believe in training.

Very few build a structured system that consistently produces top billers.

Larissa Gerlach experienced the hard version first. In year one, she earned $40,000 and questioned whether she would make it in recruitment at all. By year three, she had reached President’s Club. Soon after, the CFO of a private equity-backed recruiting firm asked her to replicate her results across 25 offices.

That request became the foundation of a national recruiter training programme.

In this episode, Mark Whitby and Larissa unpack what actually drives recruiter performance, why activity metrics alone don’t create top billers, and how recruitment business owners can build scalable training systems that reduce ramp-up time and increase recruiter billings.

If you are serious about recruitment agency growth, search firm leadership, and building consistent performance inside your team, this conversation goes beyond theory.

It’s about systems.

What You’ll Discover

• Why 200+ calls per week worked — and why most recruiters still fail at high activity
• The difference between knowledge and live desk performance
• How to turn individual billing success into a national training framework
• Why daily role plays accelerate recruiter revenue
• The three structural reasons founders struggle to implement training
• Why cohort-based onboarding produces stronger long-term performance
• How to build recruitment agency systems that scale beyond one top performer

Episode Highlights

[03:56] From fashion sales to recruitment after the 2009 recession
[08:37] The $40,000 first year and the meeting where she nearly quit
[12:35] Why most recruiters struggle in year one — and what actually starts to click
[22:15] The 200-calls-per-week discipline that changed her trajectory
[26:07] The CFO email that led to building a national sales training programme
[28:17] What the training playbook looked like — from binder to LMS
[35:51] Why daily role plays create elite performers
[1:05:49] The three reasons most founders struggle to train their teams
[1:10:29] Why group cohorts outperform one-to-one onboarding

About Larissa Gerlach

Larissa Gerlach is the founder of Vibrant Talent Group, an executive search firm specialising in marketing, product, and design roles across New York and San Francisco. She has over 15 years of experience across billing, business development, national learning and development, and agency leadership. At a private equity-backed recruiting firm, she became the fastest-growing salesperson in company history before leading national recruiter training initiatives.

Resources Mentioned

Recruiter Training Programme
https://recruitmentcoach.com/training

Seven Figure Freedom Scorecard
https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Recruiterflow
https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Trusted Voice Video
https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

Book a free strategy session with Mark Whitby
https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

If you want weekly conversations with recruitment business owners, executive search leaders, and top billers focused on recruitment agency revenue, recruiter performance, and long-term business resilience, follow The Resilient Recruiter on Apple Podcasts.

The difference between average billers and elite teams is rarely motivation.

It’s structure.