How do I respond when a prospect says my recruitment fee is too expensive?

Any fee is too expensive without context. So do not defend the number. Build the value frame first: need, pain, cost of inaction, and only then price. With that frame in place, the price defends itself.

The method

The sequence matters more than the arguments. In IPMERC terms: Probe and Match come before Rules of Engagement.

• Ask the cost question early: "What does it cost you per month that this role stays open?" Let the prospect do the maths, not you.
• Name the value of your approach: "I deliver a shortlist within two weeks. That is two months faster than what you are doing now."
• Link every element of your fee to an obligation on your side: timeline, guarantee, reporting.
• Name the fee only after the need is sharp. Price without value is always too expensive.

If the objection still comes, treat it as an objection, not an attack. Acknowledge it, ask what the prospect compares the fee with, and isolate it before you solve it.

Worked example

A software company in Eindhoven has had a medior developer role open for 12 weeks. The salary is €65,000 and your contingency fee is 25%, so €16,250. The hiring manager says: "That is far too expensive." You do not discount. You ask: "What does 12 weeks without this developer cost the team?" He counts: a delayed release, two seniors covering the gap, evenings lost. He lands on roughly €15,000 per month. Now the frame is set: the vacancy costs more per month than your fee costs once. Then you attach obligations: a shortlist in ten working days and a replacement guarantee. The fee did not change. Its context did.

What not to do

• Naming the price before the need is sharp. Any number without context is too high.
• Defending the fee with arithmetic instead of results. "25% of €65,000 is €16,250" is not an argument. "A bad hire costs you six to nine months of salary" is.
• Giving a discount as the first response to price pressure. That confirms you were too expensive.
• Leaving the cost of the open vacancy unquantified. Without that number the prospect has no comparison point.