One of our best client relationships got flagged by the CFO. After hundreds of thousands of dollars in placement fees, he pushed for deep discounts. We couldn’t hold our quality at those rates, so we parted ways.

The company moved to a generalist sales recruiting firm and got flooded with candidates. At first, they were happy. The volume looked like value. Then they compared the quality. Four months later, they were back, and we picked up right where we left off.

If you’ve tried a recruiting firm and things didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be surprised. There are exceptional recruiters out there, but a few bad experiences can sour anyone. Most of those bad experiences trace back to one mistake: treating the recruiting firm like a commodity.

Recruiting Is Not a Volume Game

People assume more resumes means more chances of a great hire. The math says otherwise.

Out of every 100 sales reps, only about 20 have ever been at the top of the scorecard. Not all 20 are open to a move. Fewer still fit your environment or have experience with your sales cycle. A real search is a hunt for a handful of people, and a flood of candidates just buries them.

That’s what our returning client learned in four months. The generalist firm delivered volume. The quality was vastly different, and quality was the whole point.

Commodity Treatment Gets You the Bottom of the Barrel

When companies send a search to multiple firms and push for discounted fees, the experienced recruiters pass. Saving a few thousand dollars today outranks hiring the best rep, so the search lands with the rookies.

Rookies aren’t bad people. I was one myself years ago. They just haven’t run enough searches to recognize patterns or build the deal sense that only comes from years of reps, offers, and blowups. They’ll need training, and the trainer will be you. Our business also has high turnover, especially among recruiters with less than ten years in, so the rookie running your search today may be gone before it closes.

Sometimes an experienced recruiter takes a commoditized search anyway. But their time goes to the clients who value their work. Your search gets the leftovers, and you’ll wonder why recruiting firms never deliver for you.

What to Do Instead

Pick a specialist, not a crowd. One firm that lives in your market beats five that dabble in it. Be careful with multiple recruiters on one search; it creates overlap and confusion, and it signals commodity to every firm involved.

Pay the market fee. The fee difference is a rounding error next to the cost of an open territory or a mishire. Our client spent four months learning that math.

Judge the shortlist, not the stack. Three candidates who rank in that top 20 beat thirty who don’t. If your recruiter sends volume instead of fit, you have the wrong recruiter.

Act like a partner. Give fast feedback, real access, and honest answers about the role. Experienced recruiters invest where they’re valued.

Break the Cycle

Commodity treatment gets commodity results, and the cycle repeats until you change how you engage. If you’re ready to run a search with a firm that specializes in software sales recruiting, that’s the conversation to have before the next role opens.