Hiring your first US salespeople from France: how to pick the right recruiter

The short answer. Pick a recruiter you get along with. You will be working with that person for the next six to twelve weeks, so make sure there is a cultural fit, that you share the same vision, or at least that you agree on how to run the search. Then pick a recruiter who has an opinion on how to run it. That opinion shows their expertise, and it saves you from the usual mistakes. Then see if you feel comfortable with their process, and how badly they want to win. It's an intensity game out there. Not a numbers game, not a network game. It's about positioning your offer, showing your edge, and putting it in front of people who will get excited about it.

The two kinds of firms you will meet

French founders tell us the same story. They worked with a recruiter, got big promises, and the profiles that arrived had nothing to do with the brief. It usually comes from the kind of firm they picked. There are two main kinds.

French-specialist firms. They know you. They speak your language, they understand your board and your culture. The problem is depth on sales. These firms usually place every kind of role: a CFO one week, a CRO the next. We say it this way: they are an inch deep and a mile wide. We are an inch wide and a mile deep.

A recruiter who places a CFO and then a CRO is a jack of all trades, master of none. And sales hires are the ones that decide whether your US launch works. Knowing how to recruit a BDR, an account executive or a sales leader takes years of doing those roles. We have been BDRs, account executives, VP Sales and founders, and we have made 400+ placements. We have an opinion on how you should hire each one. A generalist rarely has that opinion. They also often miss how much effort it takes to get a US seller's attention, they do not target the top profiles, and they might not recognize one sitting in front of them.

US sales-only firms. They know the market. They usually do not know you. Here is what French clients run into:

• A big cultural gap. About 75% of our clients are French companies, so we see it often. They do not know how French teams give feedback, or how the French entrepreneurial mind differs from the American one.
• Sticker shock. They do not see how shocking US salaries and packages look from Paris.
• Fee structure. Some firms charge a retainer, which is paid before anyone is placed. Some calculate the fee on the whole package, benefits and equity included, rather than on base salary. Ask.
• Language. Many founders are happier talking in French while the search runs in English.

Betts is a very respected and respectable firm. We have never worked with them directly, but we know people who work there, and you may very well be in good hands.

That said, I don't think Betts is particularly specialized in the France to US motion, and they don't seem to have anyone who really knows both cultures.

Red flags

• The order taker. They take your job description and run with it. A good recruiter pushes back on it.
• The recruiter who cannot pitch your offer. Candidates hang up still not knowing what you do. Ask the recruiter to pitch your company to you on the call. We spend time immersing ourselves in what clients sell, and after five years at Sell Me This Pen across many categories we can be specific about a client's industry and name companies we have worked with in it.
• “No urgency.” You reach out and it takes them more than 24 hours to book you a call with someone. If they're not in a hurry now, they won't be later.
• A senior person sells you, then a junior runs the search. The junior has no opinion on your market. Ask who will do the work.
• Face value. They believe everything you say about the role, the salary and the market.
• No market rates. They cannot tell you what a seller in your category earns.
• A retainer they work hard to justify. They defend it at length before you have heard how they would find your candidate.

Questions for the first call

1. Have you recruited for a similar role?
2. For a company at our stage?
3. In our environment?
4. What is your opinion on how we should run things?
5. What are the biggest mistakes you have seen clients make in a similar environment?
6. We are just starting in the US and nobody knows us. How can we be smart about it?
7. What happens if you do not find anyone?
8. Who will we talk to within 30 days?
9. What is your process with clients like us?
10. How do you measure success?
11. How long will it take to fill this role?
12. Who else have you worked with in our industry?
13. What do you know about this role that we do not?

What to expect in numbers

These are our numbers, for sales roles.

• Fee: 20% of base salary. Contingency only, so you pay when you hire.
• Guarantee: 6 months.
• First introductions: within 7 to 10 days.
• Batches: 3 to 6 candidates at a time, usually two batches. We recalibrate on your feedback after each one. Be blunt with us. If a candidate is bad we need to know why, and if a candidate is good we need to know why.
• Introductions per hire: 6 to 9.
• Time to hire an account executive: about 45 to 50 days.

Of the candidates we introduce, about a third drop out, a third are rejected by you, and a third go to the end of the process. We also help you close the candidate you choose.

When we are the wrong choice

We say so on the first call. We are the wrong firm if:

• The role is not sales, customer facing or marketing. For a technical role or anything else outside that scope, we hand you to a partner.
• You want to work with several agencies at the same time, three for example. Sales recruiting is an intensity game. Asking three agencies to put in that intensity on contingency means asking each of them to prioritize your search over clients who are exclusive with them. They end up working against each other. We work on performance and only charge when you hire. The flip side is that when we take a mandate, the understanding is that we see it through to the end.
• You want a retainer search. All our searches are contingency.

One last line

Pick the recruiter who knows your category, tells you what to change, and gets paid when you hire. Talk soon!✌️