A sales staffing agency supplies salespeople quickly, often on a temporary or contract basis, and usually from people already looking for work. A sales recruiting agency finds permanent hires, often by approaching people who are employed and not looking, and is paid when you hire them. Choose staffing when you need extra hands fast for a short period. Choose a recruiting agency when you need someone who will carry a quota and stay.
What does a sales staffing agency do?
A staffing agency keeps a bench of available people and places them quickly. In sales, that usually means event staff, retail and in-store promotion, call-centre or inbound roles, and short contracts to cover a launch, a busy season or a leave. The agency often employs the worker and bills you by the hour, and some arrangements allow you to hire the person permanently later for a fee.
What does a sales recruiting agency do?
A sales recruiting agency (sometimes called a sales recruitment firm or sales headhunter) searches for permanent salespeople and sales leaders. The best candidates for B2B roles are usually already hitting quota somewhere else, so a recruiting agency’s main job is finding them, approaching them, checking their record and persuading them to move. You employ the hire directly, and the agency is paid a fee, typically a share of first-year pay, when the hire starts. We break down the fee models in how much a sales recruiting agency costs.
Which one should you use?
Use a sales staffing agency when:
- The work is short term, seasonal or tied to a project.
- You need several people within days.
- The role doesn’t carry a long sales cycle or a personal quota.
Use a sales recruiting agency when:
- The role carries a quota and owns accounts or a territory.
- A wrong hire would cost you months of pipeline.
- The people you want are employed and not replying to job ads.
- You’re hiring a manager, director or VP of Sales.
Can a recruiting agency fill several roles at once?
Yes. Many companies use a recruiting agency to build a team: a group of SDRs, several account executives for a new region, or a first sales manager with reps to follow. Ask about volume pricing and how the agency will keep quality up across every seat. See scaling sales teams for how we approach it.
What should you ask either kind of agency?
- Where do your candidates come from: a bench of active job seekers, or direct outreach to people in similar roles?
- How do you check a salesperson’s results?
- How quickly do you usually fill a role like this one?
- What happens if the person doesn’t work out, and for how long?
- What exactly will I pay, and when?
Our full checklist is in questions to ask a sales recruiting agency before you sign.
How Sales Talent Group works
We’re a sales recruiting agency, not a staffing agency: we recruit permanent salespeople and sales leaders for B2B companies across Canada and the United States, from SDRs to CROs. We approach the top 20 percent of sales talent directly, most of them passive candidates, and check every person’s quota record before you meet them. Every placement is guaranteed three ways: the hire reaches their first-year quota, the role is filled within 45 days, and we replace the hire once within 12 months if it doesn’t work out.
See how we recruit or talk to us about your roles.
Questions about sales staffing and recruiting
Is a sales staffing agency cheaper than a recruiting agency?
For short assignments, often yes, because you pay an hourly rate only while you need the person. For permanent roles that carry a quota, the bigger cost is usually a wrong hire, so the quality of the search and the length of the guarantee matter more than the headline fee.
Do sales recruiting agencies place contract or temporary salespeople?
Some do, but most specialist sales recruiters focus on permanent hires. Sales Talent Group focuses on permanent salespeople and sales leaders.
What is the difference between a sales recruiter and a sales headhunter?
In practice the terms overlap. “Headhunter” usually stresses direct approaches to people who aren’t looking, which is how most specialist sales recruiters, including us, find candidates. See the VP’s guide to leveraging a sales headhunter.
