Separating yourself from the also-rans and improving performance was one of the themes of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation's (REC's) IT & Comms Sector Group conference held in London at the end of February.

Alison Humphries, managing director of Amelius Consulting, a company that provides staff learning and development to recruiters, told the audience at the Institution for Mechanical Engineers that differentiating yourself from your competitors "was the biggest issue facing recruiters".

However, she said the dearth of talented consultants made her seriously doubt whether recruiters had the ability to distinguish themselves from competitors and so were "missing out on millions of pounds worth of sales".

Her own research revealed that 45% of consultants could not identify the competencies required of candidates during interviews. Humphries said that the average placements per consultant had fallen since she worked as a recruitment consultant 22 years ago. "I know enough about recruitment to be very scared by the results," she added.

Humphries said there were a number of ways recruiters could differentiate themselves, with dramatic results. These include: giving feedback to candidates and clients; asking clients why their vacancy exists, about their organisation, the job description, then making recommendations on the person specification; and better candidate referencing. The key was "doing the basics but doing them better", she suggested.

Olympic 400m silver medal winner, Roger Black, continued Humphries' theme in the keynote conference address. There are "great similarities" between the world of sport and the recruitment world, he suggested.

Drawing on the ups and downs of his athletics career, Black outlined his thinking on achieving success, and in what separates the "outstanding" from the merely "exceptional".

He said talent on its own is not enough to achieve greatness. Passion and desire are key and fear of failure is an important motivator.

"All success starts with the individual. But greater success can be achieved by people with the same goals working together," he said.