Sales Recruiters don't look for the best candidate. 

They look for the first candidate the hiring team will accept.

For this reason, sales leadership needs to be heavily involved in hiring.

For executive hires, the CEO needs to drive the process.

It's easy to kick back and hand the hard work off to a recruiter, but the end result is they'll miss the best applicants and look for the path of least resistance. 

If you're a highly qualified salesperson, leader, or executive; you cannot land a job by submitting applications (short of luck). 

You must network your way into conversations through introductions.

Otherwise you're gambling.

Submitting applications and hoping you happen to get reviewed is gambling.

Convince me otherwise...

You should still apply so you're in their system (do so before reaching out), but you should be using LinkedIn to network your way into a warm introduction and referral.

Recruiters don't get paid a special bonus for identifying the absolute best candidate... they get paid for closing a hire so they look for the first candidate that looks acceptable and they pitch them and see if it sticks, if not, they move onto the next.

You need to understand how this works to land a job in 2025.

Happy Selling,