Sales Hiring

The right sales hire.
First time, every time.

The wrong sales hire costs you 6 months, a lot of money, and your team's momentum. MarginSales screens for performance readiness and cultural fit - not just a resume. We place SDRs, Account Executives, and VP Sales who can execute from day one, not after a lengthy ramp.

SDR to VP level Performance-readiness screened No rushed placements India, US, EMEA, APAC
50%
Faster time to productivity
Our placed hires produce pipeline faster than industry averages because of how we screen and the enablement we offer post-placement
3
Roles we place
SDRs, Account Executives, and VP Sales - exclusively sales roles, which means we understand them deeply
0
Rushed placements
We will not place a candidate we are not confident in. We would rather tell you honestly than fill a seat with the wrong person
The Real Cost

A bad sales hire is not
just expensive. It is disruptive.

Every founder who has made a bad sales hire knows what it costs. Six months of salary. Three months of management time trying to make it work. Team morale dipping because the wrong person is in the seat. Deals lost because a buyer lost confidence. And then starting the search over again from scratch.

We screen harder than anyone so you do not have to go through that twice. Not because we are slow - because we know exactly what a high-performing sales hire looks like and we do not settle for almost.

True cost of a bad sales hire
6 mo
Average tenure before exit
3x
Salary in total replacement cost
Q2
Lost pipeline per quarter
Low
Team morale impact
How MarginSales eliminates the risk
  • Multi-stage performance screening before you see any candidate
  • Sales-specific assessments not generic interview techniques
  • Cultural fit evaluation against your specific team dynamic
  • Reference checks that go beyond the names the candidate provides
  • Post-placement check-ins in months 1, 2, and 3
Roles We Place

From first SDR to
VP of Sales.

We place exclusively in sales. That means we understand these roles at a depth that generalist recruiters simply do not - what good looks like, what the red flags are, and what separates a 70th percentile hire from a 95th percentile one.

Sales Development Rep (SDR)
The engine of your top-of-funnel. We screen for coachability, resilience, curiosity, and raw outbound instinct - not just quota history. Great SDRs are made, and we know how to spot the ones who will be.
Account Executive (AE)
Closing is a skill, not a personality type. We assess discovery quality, objection handling, deal qualification, and negotiation approach through structured role-play scenarios before any candidate reaches you.
VP Sales / Sales Leader
Hiring a VP Sales is the most consequential sales decision you will make. We assess GTM thinking, team-building philosophy, forecasting discipline, and cultural alignment - and we take the time to get it right.
Our Screening Process

We do the hard work
before you see anyone.

By the time a candidate reaches you, they have passed through five stages of screening. You spend your time evaluating fit, not filtering out mediocre applications.

01
Role Brief and Benchmark Setting

Before we source a single candidate, we spend time understanding your product, your team, your culture, your current sales motion, and exactly what success looks like in the role at 30, 60, and 90 days.

Day 1 - 2
02
Sourcing and Outreach

We go to market through our network, direct outreach, and targeted search - not just job boards. Most high-performing sales people are not actively looking. We find them where they are.

Week 1 - 2
03
Sales-Specific Assessment

Every candidate goes through a structured assessment designed for the specific role. SDRs are assessed on cold prospecting and objection handling. AEs go through a discovery role-play and deal review. VPs present a 90-day GTM plan.

Week 2 - 3
04
Reference and Background Check

We go beyond the references a candidate provides. We speak to managers, peers, and where possible, former buyers. We look for consistency between how a candidate describes themselves and how others describe them.

Week 3
05
Shortlist and Presentation

You receive a shortlist of 3 to 5 candidates who have cleared every stage - with a detailed profile for each covering assessment performance, cultural observations, and our recommendation. No noise, just signal.

Week 3 - 4
Why Not a Generalist Recruiter

Sales hiring is a specialist skill.

What matters in a sales hire Generalist Recruiter MarginSales
Performance-readiness screeningCV and interview onlyRole-play, assessment, deal review
Sales methodology understandingLimitedDeep - Sandler, Challenger, SPIN, MEDDIC
Cultural and team fit evaluationSurface levelStructured assessment against your team dynamic
Candidate sourcing approachJob boards and databasesNetwork and direct outreach to passive candidates
Reference check qualityStandard 2 referencesExtended references including peer and manager checks
Post-placement supportNoneMonth 1, 2, 3 check-ins and onboarding support
Sales onboarding after placementNot includedEnablement and training available as add-on

We hired two AEs through MarginSales and they were both producing pipeline within their first three weeks. That has never happened with any other recruiter we have used. The assessment process they ran was more rigorous than anything we would have done ourselves - and it showed in the quality of people we got.

Sana K.
VP Sales - Enterprise SaaS - EMEA
Who This Is For

You need this when any of these apply.

You are making your first sales hire

The first SDR or AE you hire sets the culture of your sales team. Getting it right matters more here than at any other stage. We make sure you start with a foundation you can build on.

You are scaling and need to hire fast - but not carelessly

Growth stage companies that need three AEs in a quarter cannot afford to get one wrong. Speed and quality are not mutually exclusive - if the process is already built.

You are hiring a VP Sales for the first time

This is one of the hardest hires any founder makes. The wrong VP Sales can set you back 18 months. We run a structured search that surfaces leaders with the right operational style for your stage.

You have been burned by a bad hire before

You know what it costs. You want a process that gives you genuine confidence in the hire before they start - not just a shortlist of people who interviewed well.

FAQ

Before you start the search.

For SDR and AE roles, we typically present a shortlist within 3 to 4 weeks of starting the search. VP Sales searches take 4 to 6 weeks due to the seniority and specificity required. We will give you a realistic timeline based on your role and market before we begin.

Yes. If a placed candidate leaves or is let go within the agreed guarantee period, we conduct a replacement search at no additional fee. The guarantee period varies by role level and is confirmed in your agreement before we start.

Yes - and this is genuinely differentiating. Because we also run Sales Enablement and Training, we can build the onboarding programme for your new hire after placement. Reps placed and trained by MarginSales hit productivity significantly faster than industry averages.

Yes. We place candidates across India, the US, UK, Singapore, UAE, and Australia. For international roles, we leverage our network and run the same screening process remotely - the quality of assessment does not change based on geography.

Our fee is a percentage of the placed candidate's first-year compensation, confirmed upfront before the search begins. There are no hidden fees, no retainer for standard searches, and no charge if we do not place anyone. We only earn when you hire successfully.

The right person changes everything.

Tell us who you need to hire and we will tell you how we would find them. 30 minutes. No commitment. Just clarity on the best path to the right person.

No placement, no fee Replacement guarantee included Sales specialists only