Sales
Salespeople who have carried a number.
Inside sales, account management, field sales, sales engineering and sales operations. Build a team, cover a territory, or hire the person who owns a region.
- 6 functions
- from prospecting and account management through sales engineering and operations
- Quota verified
- target, attainment and deal size checked at reference rather than taken on trust
- Motion matched
- transactional, mid market and enterprise are different jobs with the same titles
Sales
The motion matters more than the industry.
We recruit inside sales and prospecting, account management, field sales, sales engineering, sales operations and enablement, across technology, industrial, professional services and consumer businesses.
The most common hiring mistake in sales is matching on sector rather than motion. Somebody who closes forty transactional deals a quarter is not a natural fit for an eighteen month enterprise cycle, whatever industry either sits in.
So we screen on cycle length, deal size, whether they hunt or farm, and what they personally closed rather than what the team did.
Functions
What we actually recruit for.
Pick one and you get what they actually produce, the seniority we fill, and the tools and standards a screen has to cover.
Outbound sequences, qualification, meetings booked and the discipline to do it again tomorrow.
- Seniority we fill
- SDR and BDR through to inside sales lead
- Tools
- SalesforceOutreachSalesloftZoomInfoLinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Standards
- Activity and meeting targetsQualification frameworkCRM hygiene
Outbound sequences, qualification, meetings booked and the discipline to do it again tomorrow.
- Seniority we fill
- SDR and BDR through to inside sales lead
- Tools
- SalesforceOutreachSalesloftZoomInfoLinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Standards
- Activity and meeting targetsQualification frameworkCRM hygiene
The vocabulary
What we recruit against.
The tooling matters, but the motion matters more. We screen both, and we will tell you when a strong candidate is a poor motion match.
CRM
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Dynamics 365
- Pipedrive
Engagement
- Outreach
- Salesloft
- Gong
- Chorus
- ZoomInfo
- Sales Navigator
Forecasting and enablement
- Clari
- Highspot
- Seismic
- Excel and SQL
What we verify at reference
- Quota
- Attainment
- Average deal size
- Cycle length
- Ramp time
Ask for the quota, the attainment and the ranking. Everything else in a sales interview is a presentation.
Screening
How we screen a salesperson.
Salespeople are, by definition, good at interviews. The only reliable screen is specific numbers and a reference who owned the forecast.
- 01
The motion, established first
Cycle length, average deal size, hunting or farming, inbound or outbound, and how many stakeholders sit in a typical deal.
- 02
Numbers, not adjectives
What was the quota, what did they attain, over how many quarters, and where did they rank. Vague answers here are the answer.
- 03
A deal walked through end to end
Their best deal, from first contact to signature. It exposes process, discipline and whether they actually ran it.
- 04
Territory and pipeline reality
Inherited pipeline or built from nothing, house accounts or cold patch. It changes what their attainment actually means.
- 05
A reference from the sales leader
The person who owned the forecast and can confirm the quota and the attainment, rather than a colleague who liked them.
Straight answer
Where the market is actually tight.
What our recruiters see running these searches. Experience rather than a promise.
| Role | What the market looks like | Realistic shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| SDRs and BDRs | Deep pool. Retention and ramp are the challenge, not sourcing. | Days to a week |
| Inside sales | Available. Verified attainment is what separates the shortlist. | About a week |
| Account managers | Steady, though genuine expansion track records are fewer than renewals experience. | One to two weeks |
| Field sales with an existing patch | Competitive, and territory knowledge carries a premium. | Two to four weeks |
| Sales operations | Tight. Salesforce administration plus commercial judgement is a rare pairing. | Three to four weeks |
| Sales engineers | The hardest sales hire we run. Technical depth and client presence rarely sit in the same person. | Four to six weeks |
Comp plan clarity speeds a sales search more than anything else. If the plan is still being written, expect the search to take as long as the plan does.
Shapes
Three shapes this usually takes.
Sales demand is a build, a gap or a bet on a territory.
Building a team
Several reps hired against a plan.
- When it fits
- A new region, a new product, a funded growth plan.
- The arrangement
- Direct hire in cohorts, so onboarding and ramp happen together.
Covering a patch
Keeping a territory alive while you recruit.
- When it fits
- A resignation mid quarter, a leave of absence, a sudden gap in a region.
- The arrangement
- Contract, with the option to convert.
The senior hire
The person who owns a region or a function.
- When it fits
- Sales leadership, strategic accounts, sales operations, sales engineering.
- The arrangement
- Direct hire, often confidential.
Before you call
What to have ready before you call.
A sales brief without a comp plan and a motion is a wish list.
- Cycle length, average deal size and typical number of stakeholders
- Hunting or farming, inbound or outbound
- The comp plan: base, variable, accelerators and when it pays
- Territory: inherited pipeline, house accounts, or built from nothing
- Ramp expectation, and what quota looks like in month six
- Travel percentage, said honestly
Open roles
A sample of sales roles we fill.
Questions
Before you call.
At reference, with the sales leader who owned the forecast. We ask for quota, attainment, ranking and average deal size. Candidates who are uncomfortable with that reference are telling you something.
Building a sales team?
Tell us the motion, the comp plan and the territory. We will verify quota and attainment before you meet anyone.