Recruitment Is Sales: A Commercial Approach to Talent

I’ve led sales teams with over 40 reps across five countries. Before that, I was a recruiter and headhunter. Today, I work with companies across Latin America and South Europe helping them rethink how they attract, evaluate, and hire talent — with a commercial mindset. 

When I moved from recruitment into sales, I didn’t expect to find so many familiar problems. But sales had already figured out how to solve them. That’s when it hit me: Recruitment is sales now. 

Not long ago, a talent acquisition leader told me: “The day we started showcasing our employer brand like a top-performing team, with messaging, targeting, and campaigns, everything changed. Top candidates began coming to us instead of ignoring us.” 

Just to name one example: Scotta’s success story shows how they've reduced their average time-to-hire to just 14 days, thanks to the automation and agility provided by Teamtailor. They've also cut external consultancy costs by nearly 25% by closing more processes in-house, and improved candidate engagement by testing different job ad formats to optimize conversion rates. 

Stories like this aren’t rare. When talent teams adopt a commercial mindset and treat recruiting like customer acquisition, they see better results: faster pipelines, stronger engagement, and higher quality of hire. The best companies today don’t wait for talent to come to them, they attract it with strategy, clarity, and precision. 

Because here’s the truth: recruiting and sales now operate on the same principles. The difference is that sales teams figured out how to solve these challenges years ago. 

Here’s what talent teams can learn from their commercial counterparts: 

1. Top talent isn't applying, just like your best clients don't reach out first 

In modern sales, we don’t wait for leads. We build outbound engines and we define ICPs, run outreach campaigns, and nurture long sales cycles. 

Personally, I think recruitment should operate the same way. If you're waiting for A-players to apply, you're already too late. Just like top buyers don’t respond to mass e-mails, top talent won’t respond to generic job ads. Building talent pipelines and outbound recruitment strategies should be the norm, not the exception.

Think like SDRs: segment, personalize, follow up, and repeat. 

2. You need a pipeline, not a drawer full of resumes 

Sales teams live by their pipeline: they track deal stages, conversion rates, and time-to-close. Why should talent acquisition be any different? 

TA teams should monitor the same kind of pipeline metrics: 

● Sourcing-to-contact rate 

● Interview-to-offer ratio 

● Time-in-stage per candidate 

● Drop-off points and response times 

Your ATS is your CRM. Don’t just store profiles, use it to build, track, and optimize your hiring funnel. 

3. KPIs: Output and outcome 

In sales, we separate input KPIs (calls, emails, meetings booked) from output KPIs (closed deals, win rates, revenue). 

Talent acquisition should follow the same structure: 

• Output KPIs: Time-to-hire, quality of hire, six-month retention 

Input KPIs: Sourcing volume, outreach per role, response rate, screening volume 

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. And many TA teams are still operating in the dark when it comes to data. 

4. Build a Go-to-Market strategy for hiring 

Think of how your favorite artist drops a new album. 

It’s never just “out now.” There’s a narrative, a teaser, a tracklist reveal, cryptic social posts, surprise collabs, and suddenly, the whole world is paying attention. 

That’s what a strong Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy looks like. In sales, we never launch a product without a plan:

● Who 's the audience? 

● What message will resonate? 

● What channels will we use? 

● What’s the timing and cadence? 

Hiring should follow the same playbook: 

● What kind of talent are we targeting? 

● What motivates them to engage? 

● Where do they hang out — LinkedIn? Niche communities? Events? ● What’s our EVP (Employee Evaluation Proposition), and how do we make it memorable? 

● What’s the structure and rhythm of our outreach? 

Posting a job without a strategy is like releasing an album with no promo, no story, no buzz. If you want to attract high-performing candidates, you need to create anticipation, deliver a clear message, and show them why they should care. 

5. Analytics: Recruiters must become data-driven, not data-blind 

Sales leaders obsess over metrics: win rates, pipeline health, deal velocity, forecast accuracy. 

Recruiters can take the same approach. Some examples: 

● How long does each hiring manager take to move candidates forward? ● Which channels bring the highest quality candidates? 

● Which recruiter has the best screening-to-offer ratio? 

● How many touchpoints does it take to book a call with a passive candidate? If you're not looking at data weekly, you're missing the levers that drive success. 

6. Your brand is your pitch deck

Sales teams don’t just cold-call. They build brand, share thought leadership, and craft messaging frameworks that resonate with their audience. 

Talent teams must do the same. Your employer brand is your pitch, and it has to be relevant, compelling, and human. 

Forget the empty clichés like “fast-paced environment.” Today’s top talent wants clarity, purpose, and authenticity. That’s what closes the deal. 

Final Thought 

The future of Talent Acquisition belongs to the teams that think commercially, act with urgency, and measure what matters. 

This doesn’t mean turning recruiters into salespeople. But it does mean adopting the mindset, tools, and strategies that drive high-performing commercial teams. 

Because in today’s talent market, recruitment is sales. And if you want to win, you have to play like a pro.