Which sales roles does a sales recruiter cover?
The usual ladder is sales development representative (SDR or BDR) who books meetings, account executive (AE) who closes, account manager or customer success who grows existing accounts, sales engineer who supports technical deals, and sales manager, director or VP who runs the team. Field sales, inside sales, channel sales and enterprise sales each need different people, and a sales recruiter should ask which one you mean before quoting.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of 138,060 dollars for sales managers in May 2024, about 619,500 sales manager jobs, and roughly 49,000 openings a year on average over the decade to 2034. Individual contributor pay varies much more because of commission.
How do you screen sales people properly?
Ask for numbers and then check them. For each of the last three years: quota, attainment, average deal size, sales cycle length, and where the leads came from. Then ask the person to walk through one deal they won and one they lost, in detail, including who the buyer was and what the objection was. People who really sold can do this without hesitation. Then verify: a reference from a former sales manager who can confirm the attainment, or a W-2 or payslip conversation that confirms commission earned.
Scowter's recruiters run exactly this interview before a sales candidate reaches your shortlist, and the shortlist notes record the stated attainment and whether it was confirmed by a reference.
- Three years of quota and attainment, with numbers
- A won deal and a lost deal, told in detail
- Deal size, cycle length and lead source
- Reference from a former sales manager
- Evidence of commission earned, where the candidate is willing to share
What does a sales recruitment agency cost?
Most sales agencies work on contingency at 15 to 25 percent of first-year salary, per AIHR and Top Echelon. Watch the fee base: some agencies calculate the percentage on on-target earnings (base plus commission at quota) rather than base salary, which can raise the fee by half or more. Ask the question before you sign. Scowter charges one flat fee per role, so the fee is the same whether you set a high or low commission plan.
| Fee approach | What the fee is calculated on | Effect on a role with 80,000 base and 160,000 OTE |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage of base salary (20 percent) | Base only | 16,000 dollars |
| Percentage of OTE (20 percent) | Base plus commission at quota | 32,000 dollars |
| Retained, in stages | Agreed first-year compensation | Paid before the hire, often 25 to 35 percent |
| Scowter flat fee | Nothing to do with pay | Fixed, known before the search |
How should you brief a sales recruiter?
Give the product, the price point, the buyer persona, the average deal size and cycle, the lead mix between inbound and outbound, the quota, the base and OTE, the territory, and whether the role is remote or in the office. Say what tools the team uses. Say whether you want someone from your industry or someone who has sold a similar deal size in another industry, because those are different searches. And say what the last person in the role did well and badly.
One more point: be honest about ramp. If the first quota is unreachable in the first quarter because the pipeline is empty, say so and set a ramp plan. Sales people talk to each other, and a role with a fair ramp attracts better candidates than one with a bigger OTE that nobody has hit.
What is in Scowter's sales talent pool?
Scowter keeps a live database of pre-vetted candidates who are actively looking for a new role, and sales is one of its largest segments. It includes SDRs and BDRs, account executives from SMB to enterprise, account managers and customer success managers, sales engineers and sales leaders, in the United States, India, the United Kingdom and the Gulf. Each person has been screened on their numbers, so the first interviews for a sales role usually come from the pool within days.
How does the Scowter process work for a sales role?
Step one, you brief the role with product, deal size, quota, base and OTE. Step two, AI agents search the sales talent pool and more than 150 job boards and screen CVs for the right deal size, industry and tenure pattern. Step three, a human recruiter runs the numbers interview, confirms availability and pay expectations and verifies the CV and a sales manager reference. Step four, you receive a shortlist of ready-to-hire sales people with their attainment history noted. Step five, Scowter schedules interviews, keeps candidates warm and coordinates the offer, which matters because good sales people negotiate.
What are the warning signs on a sales CV?
Percentages with no base, such as 150 percent of quota with no quota stated. Short tenures of under a year at several companies in a row. Titles that rise while responsibilities do not. Presidents Club mentions with no year. Team attainment presented as individual attainment. None of these is fatal on its own, but each needs a question in the interview. A good sales recruitment agency asks those questions for you and tells you the answers.
