Know your customer..... and the how of it, in recruitment?!

I am reading this great work of Ramcharan "What every CEO wants you know", and i think it is a must read for every proffessional. It speaks about the most rudimentary, and also the most ignored basics of business - how optimally is your cash in hand being used, what is your business velocity etc.. and the most vital, how well you know your customer and how close to the ground you are.....
As someone facilitating clients in recruitment, i am thinking loud on 'being close to the customer's ground.... and understanding the client needs from the corporate recriuitment teams's perspective.... In the maze of emails and client sent mandates, with a caveat that the position/mandate is critical.... most of us are not anywhere close to the ground..... what are the unstated needs of the client.... Where is his target talent pool for lateral placements, what in his/her experience has a good hire for the position meant, what is the role and responsibility of the incumbent, how relevant or redundant is the job description...... The only concern a recruiter has is can i send profiles by tommorrow, and how fast will it be closed........... This attitude is a enough reasoning for the abysmally low strike rate and successful fill by many of us.....
If we want to know the customer better and be of strategic support in recruitment, it will be pertinent to imbibe some of these qualiies, and also engage in a quality dialogue with the client. Here it would also be critical to get the client engaged at this level, given the high rates of people movement even in corporate recruitment/HR.......
Nevertheless, a good beginning would be for recruitment professionals to get to know the clients, their products/services, people values, short term and long term goals etc...... and then commence the 'hunt' for the candidates in the 'right terrain'........