DG Recruit Podcast
DG Recruit helps you maximize your career in agency recruitment. Hosted by Dandan Zhu, top-billing headhunter, the DG Recruit Podcast breaks down EVERYTHING you need to know about your career in agency recruitment and how to achieve success in our exciting industry of headhunting. With Dandan's and her guests' interesting, honest, and insightful commentary, learn more about what you can do to start, improve, and grow your career and business. Submit all questions to [email protected] to feature Dandan's answers to help you on the DG Recruit Podcast!
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DGR 150 Deal Killers The 6 C's
02/08/2024
DGR 150 Deal Killers The 6 C's
There are some distinct deal killers to watch out from and it doesn't start at the closing table. Make sure you heed these 6 C's of deal killers so that you're not blindsided! What do you think? Any other deal killers to add here? As always, if you need advanced coaching one to one, reach out to for more bespoke training!
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DGR 149 10 Client Negotiation Tips in Down Recruitment Markets
11/16/2023
DGR 149 10 Client Negotiation Tips in Down Recruitment Markets
In down recruitment markets, clients are looking to kick recruiters when they're down. You can't even blame them because that's the obvious play to deploy that the general public is used to doing. That's why it's critical to learn the RIGHT word tracks so that you don't lose negotiation ground with clients on rates and expectations on how to partner. Too many average headhunters have let clients walk all over them - this is a travesty that could've been avoided. Top headhunters do not allow this to happen and they deploy these exact strategies I'm sharing with you to make sure this NEVER happens to you. 10 tips on how to navigate client conversations to put yourself on top - how many have you tried and what do you think of them? Best of luck - I'm rooting for you to do right by your business to stay strong even in down markets!
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DGR 148 6 Communication PRO Tips!
10/18/2023
DGR 148 6 Communication PRO Tips!
As a terrible communicator in my teens and really struggling to connect with humans, it was a LONG journey for me to grow into a top salesperson by the time I hit my early 20s in my recruitment job as a globally top-ranked headhunter year after year. Here are 6 communication PRO tips that I've learned along the way to become really good at my sales job. It came through practice, implementation, and improving day in day out. As with all things recruitment, nothing is brain surgery - it's just tenacity, learning, and implementation without fail. Put these 6 tips into practice and keep me posted on how these strategies work out for you! As always, write us a review on your favorite podcast platform or send any q's and comments to [email protected]
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DGR 147 7 Tips to Build Wealth and Achieve Success
09/05/2023
DGR 147 7 Tips to Build Wealth and Achieve Success
These 7 tips have helped me change my mindset from being a broke waitress at 22 to millionaire by 30. Seriously. These 7 tips was how I built wealth & achieved success. It was a journey, an adventure, and a challenge that was fraught with twists and turns, all of which who made me who I am today. I hope these 7 tips can apply to your life wherever you are in your journey!
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DGR 146 KPIs to Become a Top Biller
09/01/2023
DGR 146 KPIs to Become a Top Biller
Over time, your KPIs are going to change and vary as your business grows, but when you first start out, volume is your best friend! Hear how I got started in the industry to build my client book from scratch. These are the KPIs my manager expected me to hit. I took their word as gospel and went all the way to the top of the billing leagues with the targets I was given and THEN some. If you have any questions, hit me up at [email protected]
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DGR 145 5 Trends in Agency Recruitment You're BOUND to Face
08/16/2023
DGR 145 5 Trends in Agency Recruitment You're BOUND to Face
In the next 5-10 years, here are 5 trends I predict will seriously impact recruiters' lives in the agency side of the business. These are based on observations that I've noticed that has changed the way the market works, the way I work, and what is important headed into the next decade to set yourself and your business up for success. If you're serious about this industry, then you have to compete at a whole another level - it's a different ballgame at the top if you want to monopolize entire recruitment market sectors which is feasible, you jsut have to know how to do it and spend lots of time to achieve it. Business is brutal but if you do it right, you'll sleep easy and money will come your way bc you'll be top dog in the space! If you have any questions, hit me up and make sure to join the next webinar training and sign up at
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DGR 144 4 Tips to Cold Call like a PRO!
08/10/2023
DGR 144 4 Tips to Cold Call like a PRO!
As a cold caller shot caller since 2011, I have benefited massively from cold calling like a pro. Here are 4 tips to help you get your cold calling head on straight. It's like bungee jumping. Seems like a terrifying thought but once you make the leap, you're having the best time of your life (not that I've ever bungee jumped, but I definitely did skydive so it's kinda the same idea lol). Make sure you learn what the pros do and GET PREPARED so that you can make your calls count. Like I say in this episode, cold calling is something you don't practice ON the call. Practice AHEAD of time and make sure you nail it on your actual calls instead of floundering and learning the hard way what works!! For more recruitment and sales coaching, message me at for one-on-one coaching rates as well as other topics you'd like me to cover. Pls review this podcast if you're enjoying it!
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DGR 143 5 Tips to Success in Sales
08/03/2023
DGR 143 5 Tips to Success in Sales
Recruitment is a dual-sided sales job: you must sell the candidate to the client and the job/req to the cando. In order to both well, I have 5 tips to share with you in order to increase the effectiveness of your sales efforts. As always, review our podcast if you're enjoying the coachings & send any questions/comments to [email protected]
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DGR 142 5 Market Updates AND Coaching TIPS!
07/19/2023
DGR 142 5 Market Updates AND Coaching TIPS!
This podcast episode covers some market updates headed into second half of 2023 and includes a WEALTH of coaching tips on the following topics: Entrepreneurship vs working at a recruitment agency Switching agencies or staying Market conditions & what everyone else is seeing! Career advice on how important it is to get into selling Notes about technology advances like AI and Machine Learning If you have any questions or want to coach with Dandan directly, message her at [email protected]
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DGR 141 Preview of My Book: Agency Recruitment 101!
07/14/2023
DGR 141 Preview of My Book: Agency Recruitment 101!
In this podcast, I go through the 13 chapters of my book & what it all entails! I wrote Agency Recruitment 101 with this mission in mind: spread the gospel of agency recruitment far and wide so that more people can understand this career, business, and profession more! If you'd like to join my book launch, make sure to sign up on dandanzhu.com and reach out with any questions and comments!
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DGR 140 5 Qualities of Highly Profitable Recruitment Niches
07/12/2023
DGR 140 5 Qualities of Highly Profitable Recruitment Niches
Recruitment success is very much centered around how your business is set up and what niche you're searching. Like any endeavor, environments matter and if the commercial market you're operating in is unfriendly or inhospitable, you could work hard and be sorely disappointed. This is why picking the right niche is so important. Many recruiters are assigned their market starting out but it may not be your "forever" niche. Make sure to consider these 5 qualities that the most desirable and profitable niches possess. Think carefully about your next move and strategically put yourself in a position for more success. Contact with comments, questions, and drop us a review!
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DGR 139 How to Dominate Your Recruitment Market
05/24/2023
DGR 139 How to Dominate Your Recruitment Market
In recruiting, I play a game called monopoly. I want to have the most market share in any niche market I endeavor to take on. This is the POINT of the game and how many top-billers survive and thrive without having to stress out and work themselves to exhaustion every year. The foundation to dominate your recruitment market is no easy feat, but it's pretty straightforward what activities drive market share consolidation. Take a listen at the 8 tips I have for you from A-Z to dominate your recruitment market as the go-to market specialist clients and candidates think of for anything and everything related to your vertical! Pls drop us a review if you enjoy our podcast and how it's contributing to your recruitment and sales career!
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DGR 138 The #7777rule
05/19/2023
DGR 138 The #7777rule
The #7777rule was and is still something I adhere to in order to reach financial, career, and professional success in any endeavor I undertake. Listen to the full episode for what it is, how I came up with it, and 5 reasons why it's critical to set yourself up correctly to actually achieve your goals instead of just dreaming about them.
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DGR 137 Mike Williams Carnegie Search Interview
04/19/2023
DGR 137 Mike Williams Carnegie Search Interview
In this interview, Mike Williams, founder of Carnegie Search, shares his journey from learning the business to becoming a business owner of a niche recruitment firm that is thriving. Mike shares his tips and tricks, as well as personal experiences and insights on recruitment as an industry both philosophically as well as tactically. Both are important elements of understanding the underlying motivation and drive of recruiters as well as how to succeed at doing a great job of it. If you have any questions or comments on this ep, reach [email protected]
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DGR Ep 136 How to Qualify Clients & Reqs
04/14/2023
DGR Ep 136 How to Qualify Clients & Reqs
I recently had a terrible client call in which he (a recruitment owner) lambasted contingency search since "so many clients were not serious". Ironically, he was also one of those clients, which I revealed during the call. Whether you do contingent or retained, you should carefully vet out the seriousness and commitment of the client to fill to the role versus sending you on a wild goose chase. Even for retained, you want to avoid this situation bc our game isn't to collect part of the fee... It's to get the whole enchilada. And you're not going to get anything if your client is just shootin' their shot and going on a fishing expedition on your boat. Do not let these clients get outta control. In this podcast, I share the sound bites and word tracks to use to gauge their seriousness for you to get paid. For q's and comments, email [email protected]
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DGR Ep 135 6 Tips on Mental Health In Recruitment
04/13/2023
DGR Ep 135 6 Tips on Mental Health In Recruitment
Recruitment is a long game. It's not a reactive job like working in a factory or in retail. You have to keep yourself going to reach your goals and achieve on a daily basis. As much as your manager may try to keep you motivated and help you, at the end of the day, all you got is yourself to be your cheerleader and accountability partner. Here are 6 tips that help me keep my eye on the prize as an agency recruiter. At this point, money can't be the sole reason to keep hustling - it goes deeper than that and we must dig deeper.
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DGR 134 NO Excuses Mindset
04/07/2023
DGR 134 NO Excuses Mindset
To become successful, mindset is critical, as we all have heard. Having experienced the highs and lows of mindset, I personally know this to be true. It's no coincidence my best years in production have always been a result of not making excuses & being highly action-oriented. Here are 6 tips on how to curate a NO EXCUSES mindset as it relates to agency recruitment! Now, go on and get that $! As always, rate this podcast & message me [email protected] with anything and everything you'd like me to speak on next!
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DGR 133 Which KPIs Leads to DEALS
03/28/2023
DGR 133 Which KPIs Leads to DEALS
There are 3 main categories of KPIs and then mini-KPIs that lead you to the result of the intended reward. In this podcast, I break down how the KPIs connect to one another and how important QUALITY is. You can hit your KPIs numerically but it's a moot point if the quality isn't there.
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DGR 132 How to Navigate Toxic Sales Environments
03/27/2023
DGR 132 How to Navigate Toxic Sales Environments
A lot of agency recruiters start off at college grind shops aka boiler room type sales environments where toxic sales culture is the norm. I grew up in such a shop and stayed, thrived for 5 years, which is abnormally long considering the dropout rate to be close to 80-90%. These 7 tips are from my lived experience of how to navigate toxic sales environments to win at all costs. TRIGGER & LANGUAGE WARNING: negativity, mentions of sexual harrassment, alcoholism in the sales workplace; explicit language
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DGR 131 5 Tips on Minimizing Droppers
03/17/2023
DGR 131 5 Tips on Minimizing Droppers
Droppers are everyone's worst nightmare. I believe strongly in never putting up deals in the first place that don't stick. There really is no point in doing that and it hurts everyone in the process. My dropper rate is about 1 every 2-3 years (I'm perm so that's a contributing factor for why it's low). For some reason (actually many reasons), I just have an insanely low dropper rate which is why recruitment is very profitable for me and has made me wealthy. It's not by coincidence, it's by formula, by design, and EVERY headhunter can achieve this, I truly believe. Here are the 5 things I do that always ensure that my dropper rate is as close to 0 per year as possible.
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DGR 130 Tips on Client Meetings
01/25/2023
DGR 130 Tips on Client Meetings
People have been asking, now that client meetings are right back to it, how to best prepare for and win over people during these high pressure business opportunities to drive relationships. In this podcast, I break down 6 major tips on how to best handle client meetings so that you can maximize each get together to the best and ideal outcomes. As always, make sure to join dandanzhu.com in order to keep in touch on all my trainings, advice, and tips on sales & recruitment. If this podcast has helped you, consider leaving me a review, that would be greatly appreciated.
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DGR 129 How to Never Get Laid Off
12/07/2022
DGR 129 How to Never Get Laid Off
Agency recruitment is an extremely recession/depression/layoff proof profession, assuming you can produce. Like many revenue generating roles, if you're good at generating revenue, you're always going to be safe from layoffs. Regardless, I break down a number of factors to consider for any role and hopefully you can help utilize this in determining the market you recruit for or evaluate your existing labor market headed into a rough year ahead. As I've continued to say, please do leave us a review - if you've enjoyed this podcast, make sure to rate us! Lastly, we have a free sales coaching this Friday Dec 9th at 3pm Eastern - join us here: See you soon!
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DGR 128 Coaching on Candidate Calls
11/03/2022
DGR 128 Coaching on Candidate Calls
As an agency recruitment professional, we literally live off of this skill. The better you are at handling candidates on calls, the more money you make and the more you get per hour since you're doing it better than your competition. Master your candidate calls by following these tips and tricks! If this podcast is helping you, make sure to DROP US A REVIEW - pls do it - I thank you! In the meantime, hit me up at with any comments or questions!
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DGR 127 WHAT YOU NEED to start a Recruitment Firm
09/29/2022
DGR 127 WHAT YOU NEED to start a Recruitment Firm
I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea running a recruitment firm without sales or recruitment experience is. There is a reason why headhunter fees are 20-35%. It's because this ISN'T an easy pop-in and win business. It takes expertise, experience, perseverance, cleverness, will-to-win, investment of time, and ingenuity to sustainably succeed. If you're one of the very rare exceptions to the rule, bravo for you. But the majority of people would be well off to heed my advice on this: You don't want to learn and earn on your own dime - do it on someone else's. This business is very challenging and you can't just pick it up from the womb - this is a taught and learned business. For questions/Comments - reach Enjoying this podcast? Please drop me your 5-star review - I greatly appreciate it!
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DGR 126 Master your MPC Pitch (Most Placeable Candidate)
09/23/2022
DGR 126 Master your MPC Pitch (Most Placeable Candidate)
MPC - most placeable candidate - was a term I heard once I started DG Recruit, my recruitment firm only services top-billers or up and coming billers. But this was something that I mastered. In my world, we called this the "candidate sell-in". I used this exclusively to drive client engagement and sign-on new accounts. This is the ONLY thing that works to get clients signed up. There is no point to reinvent the wheel or to try something new. This is it, day in and day out. Nail your MPC pitch, nail the client, nail the role. Heck, you'll probably set yourself up to get retained on it too while you're at it. Here are the top things to do to master the MPC process & how to get new accounts signed up. For more training, hit me up [email protected]
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DGR 125 How to Stay Positive in Agency Recruitment (and life)
09/07/2022
DGR 125 How to Stay Positive in Agency Recruitment (and life)
In this podcast, I share 4 strategies on how to regain your positivity, motivation, and hope when it comes to recruitment (and life). Everyone has moments of doubt, unhappiness, hopelessness, and fear. This is normal. How you react to it determines the outcome, no doubt. I've used each of these 4 mindsets to help myself out during tough times and I hope it will help you get what you need out of this episode. As always, a nice bit of swearing and a plea for reviews at the end, you've been warned! Lastly, I do mention the importance of mental health, if you do choose to check out betterhelp, pls be sure to use my affiliate code here:
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DGR 124 Stacy Kelly Recruiter Prep Feature Interview
08/31/2022
DGR 124 Stacy Kelly Recruiter Prep Feature Interview
Stacy is an absolute boss at recruitment, sales, and mentoring/supporting other top billers. As a top-biller herself, she broke 6 figures her first year in the biz and regularly earns in the $400k mark (Covid was an exception but even then was $200-250k). Like many other top-billers, Stacy also holds real estate assets and has a successful work-life-balance and fulfilling family life. She shares so much valuable advice here that is sure to benefit both those considering recruitment as well as those IN recruitment. Make sure to take notes for this interview from Recruiter Prep!
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DGR 123 How I built an Executive Search Desk from Scratch
08/31/2022
DGR 123 How I built an Executive Search Desk from Scratch
I was 26/27 when I decided to take on the challenge of building out executive search as the next step of my career after 3-4 years of working the pharma market as a niche recruiter for a specific vertical. Now, I wanted to make even MORE money while working 'less'. Due to the size of exec placements, you could absolutely make less placements but make MORE money! The beauty of this magnificent desk of exec search revealed itself shortly. Within 1 year of working at half-mast, I broke $600k in billings and left my firm on a high note after the holidays the following year when I decided to quit employment forever more. Despite the intimidating task of building another market from scratch, it wasn't anything new but required more diligence, effort, and detail-orientation. In this ep, I walk you through exactly what went down so you can use the strategies I did in your own business and see how it goes for you. Reach if you have any questions/feedback!
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DGR 122 6 Pro Sales Tips (Phone Sales Only)
08/23/2022
DGR 122 6 Pro Sales Tips (Phone Sales Only)
*explicit language warning Of course selling today isn't just about phone sales. If that's how you're going to do it, it's 100% the hard way versus leveraging the internet, but I digress. Today's topic is about old school recruitment phone sales to land clients. There are 6 major tips that I certainly learned the hard way that actually works to build a book of business and convert cold contacts to live clients. Drop me a line at if you have any questions/comments.
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DGR 121 What EVERY Junior Recruiter NEEDS to hear
08/16/2022
DGR 121 What EVERY Junior Recruiter NEEDS to hear
*Explicit - language warning This is a heartfelt spiel that I genuinely want EVERY. Single. Junior Recruiter (or someone who isn't already a global top biller) to listen to. Recruitment at the highest levels requires a strong mental state and confidence to persevere. It isn't a game but you have to find the fun in it. I share 6 tips here that I hope can be useful to you as you look for ideas, mentalities, and approaches that can get you up and running asap and on your way to stardom! #r2r #rec2rec #headhunter #sales #salescareer #salescareers #headhunters #recruiters #recruiter #recruit #recruiterlife #motivation #success
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