Recruitment: in house or external

So we've been struggling to find the right talent..


We have an in house recruiter but she's not used to spotting sales talent and I've been trying to help her out but I don't have enough time to fully focus on finding enough people that fir our criteria.


Now, kudos to our recruiter - she's been killing it filling other positions in the company but.. damn man I need some extra hands on my team.


I've never worked with an external sales recruiter, so reaching out to the War Room folks to see what your experiences are.. Do these guys mean business or do they just flood you with cv's of mediocre talent? Especially looking at SDRs.


Note; obviously there are good and bad recruiters - looking for some insights on whether it makes sense to even think about it ;)

👥 Hiring
5
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
5
Agency Recruiter
External recruiters are generally fantastic or useless with little middle ground. A solid vetting process is necessary.
Ryscott0317
Politicker
1
Cloud Specialist
All of the best recruiters I’ve seen have been in house. They have a better idea of company culture and expectations and aren’t just looking to flood your inbox with unviable prospects.
SaaS1994
Fire Starter
1
Director of Sales
We use an external recruiter just to weed through the resumes, then I will vet those individuals after he "vets" them. Mainly the benefit of using him is to just receive and screen resumes and have a first "intro" call with them to explain the role/pay/etc. 
DaveGreen
Arsonist
0
Head of Sales
Exactly how we’ll do it too! What’s the fee for a placed candidate if you don’t mind me asking? 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
I know I'm not the one being asked, but our company charges a flat one-time fee of 20% of 1st-year salary of placement. Fairly certain most recruiting firms fall between 15-25% varying on positions/salaries of said placement.
DaveGreen
Arsonist
0
Head of Sales
Awesome, thanks!
slaydie
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
Yeah, I think you can expect between 15-25% for most recruiters with a 90 day guarantee.
Bank2Business
1
Business Development Manager
So I work in the sales team at a recruiting firm so my answer may be somewhat biased but I can share some perspective how it looks from our end.

For any recruiter to be succesful, internal or external, you are going to need to give them the time of day to understand what you and what you need. If you do then typically they will work a lot harder for you. If you can't make the time and they aren't able to upgrade the commitment then they may still work on getting some people over to you but they will not do anything but simply forward whatever comes through their inbox in the off chance something sticks. It's too much risk for them to invest the time if you won't.

The other issue you may come across is how much you're actually paying these externals. Because the recruiter charges on % of often just the base salary, any role where commission is part of comp means the recruiter earns less per hire so sales roles are often less attractive than non sales from a revenue perspective. Consider other ways of incentivizing your externals outside of just a base salary % if you want better results.  As is very often the case you get what you pay for.
DaveGreen
Arsonist
0
Head of Sales
Thanks! Those are some great pointers
Blackwargreymon
Politicker
1
MDR
All of the best recruiters I’ve seen have been in house. 
Clashingsoulsspell
Politicker
1
ISR
We use an external recruiter just to weed through the resumes
SalesPharaoh
Big Shot
0
Senior Account Executive
we do everything inhouse I'd recommend that be the case unless you are going into a new market.
MR.StretchISR
Politicker
0
ISR
We use an external recruiter just to weed through the resumes, then I will vet those individuals after he "vets" them. Mainly the benefit of using him is to just receive and screen resumes and have a first "intro" call with them to explain the role/pay/etc.
Mr.Floaty
Politicker
0
BDR
I could compete because I'm good at cold calling, but my manager much more experience and is definitely not afraid of the phone so he might beat me.
Cyberjarre
Politicker
0
BDR
I could compete because I'm good at cold calling, but my manager much more experience and is definitely not afraid of the phone so he might beat me. It wouldn't be a straight up ass whooping tho.
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