Questions to Ask Sales Recruiters
Questions to ask sales recruiters, written for the candidate on the other end of the call. The 53 questions are in six groups: what to ask first, the role, pay and the comp plan, the team and the manager, the interview process, and the recruiter's own part in it. Each has a note on what a straight answer or a dodge tells you and what to ask next, whether the recruiter is in-house or from an agency. If you came for the questions a sales recruiter will ask you, or you are an employer choosing a recruiting firm, the guide below the list has a short section on each.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Ask first
Are you in-house at the company, or recruiting for it through an agency?
Why ask it
It tells you how to weigh the rest of the call. An agency recruiter is normally paid by the employer once you start, often a fee tied to your first-year pay, so a yes from you is worth money to them. An in-house recruiter is on the company's payroll, sits nearer the sales leader, and can usually go and get an answer they do not have.
What would I be selling, and who signs off on buying it?
Why ask it
Product and buyer decide whether your experience carries over. A low-priced tool sold to the person who will use it is a different job from a platform sold to a finance director and a buying committee. If the recruiter cannot name the buyer's job title, their brief is thin, and the detail will have to come from the sales leader.
Is this a new role or a backfill?
Why ask it
New headcount usually means a growing team and a patch nobody has worked, so expectations may not be written down yet. A backfill means someone left, and the follow-up is how long they lasted and where they went. If the same seat has been refilled more than once in a couple of years, ask what keeps going wrong in it.
What is the on-target earnings figure, and how does it split between base and variable?
Why ask it
On-target earnings, or OTE, is the base plus the commission you would earn at exactly a hundred percent of quota, so only the base is certain. Get the split as two numbers. The larger the variable half, the more the answers about quota and attainment matter.
What is the annual quota, and what share of the team hit it last year?
Why ask it
The quota alone says little; attainment says whether it can be reached. If only a handful of reps got there, the OTE describes the plan and not what people take home. A recruiter who does not have the figure can get it from the sales leader, and 'most people do well' is not a figure.
Which company is this for, and can you tell me before we go further?
Why ask it
Agency recruiters sometimes keep the name back until they know you are interested, so that you cannot apply around them. That is fair in a cold message. Once you have agreed to a call you need it, because without the name you cannot look up the product, the reviews or the people who used to sell there.
What on my profile made you think of me for this role?
Why ask it
A specific answer, such as the size of deals you close or the industry you sell into, means the recruiter has a real brief and has read your history against it. 'Your sales background' means a keyword search. Whatever they name is also the part of your record to lead with when you meet the manager.
The role
Is this a new-business role, account management, or a mix of the two?
Why ask it
Titles hide this. An account executive at one company only closes new customers, and at another spends half the week on renewals. Find out what share of the quota is meant to come from customers who already pay, since the two halves need different habits and are often paid at different rates.
What does an average deal come to, and how many months does it take to close?
Why ask it
Do the arithmetic on the call. Quota divided by average deal size gives the number of deals you need, and the cycle length tells you whether that many can close in a year. If it does not add up, ask how the reps who made quota last year did it.
Where do leads come from: inbound, an SDR team, or my own prospecting?
Why ask it
The same title covers very different weeks depending on the answer. Two details pin it down: roughly what share of last year's closed business started as an inbound inquiry, and whether the sales development reps who book meetings are assigned to you or shared across several closers.
How does a rep on this team spend a normal week: prospecting, demos, account work?
Why ask it
Rough proportions are enough. Four days of cold outreach under an account executive title is a prospecting job with a closing quota attached, and a week of demos booked by someone else is a different job at the same OTE. If the recruiter does not know, a rep on the team will, and it is fair to ask to speak to one later.
What is the territory or patch, and how often does it get redrawn?
Why ask it
A territory can be a region, a list of named accounts or an industry, and the definition decides who you are allowed to call. A redraw can cut what you earn without a word of the comp plan changing, so find out when the last one happened, who decides, and whether accounts you have opened can be moved to another rep mid-year.
Would I inherit open deals and existing accounts, or start from an empty pipeline?
Why ask it
An inherited book can pay for your first two quarters, or it can be a list of accounts the last rep already wore out. The detail to get is how many open opportunities come with the seat and when each was last touched. Starting from nothing is fine if the ramp is long enough to build a pipeline.
Who else works a deal with me: a sales engineer, a deal desk, customer success?
Why ask it
A rep who also runs the demo, writes the proposal and handles onboarding closes fewer deals than one with a team behind them, and the quota should reflect that. Where the support is shared, the number to get is how many reps each sales engineer covers.
Which CRM does the team use, and what do reps prospect with?
Why ask it
Tools you already know shorten the ramp. No sequencing tool, no contact data and a CRM nobody keeps up to date mean prospecting will be manual, and forecast calls will turn into arguments about whose numbers are right.
Who does the company lose deals to, and why?
Why ask it
A recruiter with a proper brief can name one or two competitors and the usual reason a deal goes the other way: price, a missing feature, a bigger brand. If they cannot, save it for the hiring manager and look the competitors up before the interview, because you may be asked how you would sell against them.
Is the role remote, in an office or out in the field, and how much travel comes with it?
Why ask it
Field roles can mean several nights away a month, which is easy to gloss over on a call. Pin down how expenses are handled, whether there is a car allowance or mileage, and whether remote reps get the same territories and leads as the ones near head office.
What can you tell me about the job that is not in the posting?
Why ask it
Postings are written to attract applicants, and the recruiter has heard the version the manager says out loud: the account that needs rescuing, the region that has never had a rep, the launch this hire is for. Whatever comes back is usually the real reason the seat exists.
Pay and plan
How long is the ramp, and is there a guarantee during it?
Why ask it
Ramp is the stretch at the start when quota is reduced or waived while you build pipeline. Get its length in months, whether any commission is paid as a guarantee during it, and what the quota is in the first full quarter afterwards, since that is the first number you will be measured on with no protection.
If the plan pays a draw during ramp, do I have to earn it back?
Why ask it
The word draw covers two different deals. One kind is paid and forgotten. The other is an advance, netted off against your first commissions, so the early wins after ramp may put nothing extra in your account. How an unpaid balance is treated when someone leaves differs by employer and by place, so ask how it works here and get it in writing.
Is commission capped, and are there accelerators past a hundred percent?
Why ask it
A cap turns a strong year into an ordinary one, because past a set point extra deals stop paying. Accelerators do the reverse and raise the rate once quota is met. Ask for the rate at each tier, since 'we reward overperformance' is not a rate.
When is commission actually paid: on booking, on invoice, or on cash collected?
Why ask it
Payment on cash collected can land months after the close, and a slow-paying customer becomes your cash flow problem. Clawbacks belong in the same answer: if a customer cancels or never pays, find out whether the commission comes back out of later pay and for how long that risk runs.
Do I get paid on renewals and expansion, or only on the first contract?
Why ask it
On a subscription product the first contract is often the smallest one the customer ever signs. If the account passes to an account manager the day it closes, your pay rests entirely on new customers. How long an account stays yours is the follow-up.
How was this year's quota set, and has it been raised mid-year before?
Why ask it
A number built up from the territory's past results can be defended. One divided down from a company target and handed out evenly often cannot. A recruiter may have to take this one back to the sales leader, and the part worth waiting for is whether quotas went up after a strong first half.
How are split deals and house accounts handled?
Why ask it
When two reps touch a deal, or a large customer is kept by the company as a house account, somebody decides who gets the credit. You want to know who makes that call and whether the rule is written down. Where it is not, the decision gets made at quarter end, when everyone involved is short of their number.
What base salary range has been approved, and where have recent offers landed in it?
Why ask it
The approved range and the figure a recruiter opens with are not always the same. Where recent hires came in shows how much room is left. If an agency recruiter's fee rises with your starting pay, this is one point where their interest and yours run the same way, so ask what they think the top of the range really is.
Is there equity, and what else sits outside base and commission?
Why ask it
Run through equity, retirement contributions, health coverage, a car or phone allowance, and how expenses are reimbursed. For equity, get the number of units, the vesting schedule and what happens to unvested units if you leave. At a private company any cash value put on it is an estimate, so write down the units and not the headline figure.
What did the last person in this seat actually earn, all in?
Why ask it
Actual earnings and OTE are different numbers, and the gap between them describes the job better than the posting does. If nobody will say, ask what the top and the bottom earner on the team made last year, which is harder to refuse because it names no one.
Can I see the written comp plan before the final interview?
Why ask it
Everything said on the call about rates, tiers and clawbacks is a summary, and the document is what gets enforced. Some employers only release it with the offer. If that is the rule, ask the recruiter to confirm the main terms by email so there is a record to hold the plan against.
Team and manager
How many reps are on this team, and how many have been there more than two years?
Why ask it
It is a turnover question that sounds like a headcount question, so it tends to get a number where 'what is turnover like' gets an adjective. If nobody has passed two years, ask what happened to the reps who were hired before the current group.
Who would I report to, and how long have they been in that seat?
Why ask it
A manager hired a few months ago may still be changing the team, the territories and the plan, which can work for you or against you. Ask whether the manager carries a quota of their own, since a player-coach has less time for your deals and can end up competing with you for accounts.
What does the top rep on the team do differently from the rest?
Why ask it
The description shows what the company actually rewards: relentless outbound, deep product knowledge, or working one large named account. Follow up with how long that rep has been there and which patch they hold. A top performer who has sat on the best territory for six years is a fact about territory, not about method.
What do training and onboarding look like in the first ninety days?
Why ask it
Three things show how seriously it is taken: who runs it, whether your pitch is signed off before you meet customers, and whether the company teaches a named sales method. Two days of product slides followed by a phone list means you will be teaching yourself while the ramp runs down.
What would the manager count as a good first six months?
Why ask it
A manager who has thought about it answers in specifics: a first deal closed, a pipeline of a certain size, a product certification passed. Set that against the ramp. If quota relief lasts three months and a full pipeline is expected by month two, the plan and the manager disagree, and the recruiter is the easier person to raise it with.
How is activity measured: calls, meetings booked, pipeline created?
Why ask it
Some teams manage by outcome and leave the week to you. Others set daily dial counts and review them every morning. Neither is wrong, but one of them will suit you badly, and the recruiter can tell which this is from how the manager described the job.
How competitive is the team: do reps share leads and tactics, or keep them to themselves?
Why ask it
A public leaderboard and a bell for every deal suit some people and wear others down. Ask for one example of a rep passing on a lead or sitting in on a colleague's call. If the recruiter cannot think of one, the team is a set of individuals who happen to share a manager.
How does the company handle a rep who misses two quarters in a row?
Why ask it
What matters is whether there is a written improvement plan, how long it runs, and whether reps generally come back from one or leave. Put this to the recruiter and not to the hiring manager in a first interview, where it can sound as if you are planning to miss.
Where does this role lead, and how long did the last promotion out of it take?
Why ask it
SDR to account executive, mid-market to enterprise, rep to team lead: ask for the most recent real example and the months it took. A path that exists only on a slide tends to come with the words 'based on performance' and no dates.
Where do reps who leave this team tend to go next?
Why ask it
Agency recruiters often know, because the reps who leave become their candidates. Moves into bigger roles elsewhere suggest the team trains people well. A run of exits to direct competitors inside a year points at the product, the plan or the manager.
Has there been a layoff, a restructure or a funding change in the last eighteen months?
Why ask it
Public news is easy to check before the call. What the recruiter can add is the quieter kind: a quota reset, a comp plan rewrite, a cut to the SDR team. Ask as well whether the sales team as a whole made its number last year, since a missed year is often followed by changes to plans and territories.
The process
What are the interview stages from here to an offer, and how long do they usually take?
Why ask it
Listen for who sits in each stage and whether one of them is a mock pitch, a business case or a panel presentation. A take-home exercise that needs several unpaid hours is worth knowing about before stage one, not after stage four. The usual time from first call to offer tells you whether you can run this alongside other processes.
Who will I be meeting, and what does each of them care about?
Why ask it
Names and titles let you look each person up. A recruiter who has placed with this team before can add that the director wants numbers stated exactly, or that the founder interrupts to test composure. That briefing is the main thing you gain over someone who applied through the careers page.
What background is the hiring manager set on: an industry, a deal size, a record of hitting quota?
Why ask it
Hiring managers often have one requirement they will not bend on, and the posting rarely says which. If it is experience in the industry and you have none, you can decide now whether to go on. If it is quota history, have your attainment for each of the last few years ready as figures, because that will be asked first.
What has knocked other candidates out so far?
Why ask it
The recruiter has heard the debriefs. Get the last two rejections and the stated reason for each: not knowing their own attainment figures, a vague account of why they left, a flat mock pitch. Then prepare for exactly that.
What should I prepare for the mock pitch or role play, and what are they marking?
Why ask it
Check whether you pitch their product or your current one, who plays the buyer, and whether the marks go to discovery questions or to the close. Some managers stop the pitch, give feedback and have you go again to see how you take coaching, so find out if a second run is part of it.
How long has the role been open, and when do they need someone to start?
Why ask it
A seat open for months can mean a manager who is hard to please or an offer people keep declining, and the recruiter usually knows which. A hard start date, ahead of a sales kickoff or a new fiscal year, gives you a little leverage and a deadline to set against your notice period.
The recruiter
Based on this call, would you put me forward, and what would you flag?
Why ask it
It is the closing question you would ask a buyer, pointed at the recruiter. A short tenure, a missed year or a jump between industries will go into their write-up anyway, so hear it now and hand them the sentence you would like used about it.
Have you placed sales reps with this company before, and are they still there?
Why ask it
Reps who are still there a year later are the recruiter's best evidence about the company, and it is fair to ask whether one of them would talk to you. With an in-house recruiter, the version is how many people they have hired for this manager and how many remain on the team.
Why have other candidates turned this role down?
Why ask it
A recruiter who has been on the search for a while has lost candidates along the way, and a straight one will say why. If the same reason keeps coming up, a low base, a picked-over territory, too many interview rounds, raise it yourself now instead of finding it at the offer.
How many candidates have you submitted, and where are they in the process?
Why ask it
First in and ninth in are different positions, and the answer tells you how much of your time the role deserves. If two people are already at the final stage, ask whether the manager is still seeing new candidates in earnest or only keeping a reserve.
Will you check with me before you send my resume to any company?
Why ask it
Sales within one industry is a small world, and a resume sent to a competitor or a customer of your current employer can find its way back to your manager. Agree that nothing goes out without a yes from you for each company. Keep your own list as well, since being submitted for the same job by two recruiters can get you dropped from it.
When will I hear from you after each stage, and what should I do if I don't?
Why ask it
Agree a day and a channel now. Silence after a sales interview is hard to read, since it can mean a no, a manager who is traveling or a requisition put on hold, and a recruiter who has committed to a date will usually tell you which.
If this one is not right, what else are you working on that fits me better?
Why ask it
It separates a recruiter building a relationship from one filling a slot. Someone who can describe two other roles and say why each suits you is worth staying in touch with even when you are not looking.
Working the recruiter call
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
In-house and agency recruiters answer differently
In-house
They work for the employer and are filling its open role, so they can usually get real answers about quota attainment, the manager and the comp plan. They are also the first filter, and their notes from the call normally go to the hiring manager.
- Ask the detailed comp and attainment questions here. They can go and find out.
- Treat the call as the first interview stage, because it is.
- Ask what would make the hiring manager say no. They often know the exact objection.
Agency
On a contingency search the agency is paid by the employer only if its candidate is hired, and the fee is often tied to first-year pay. A retained firm is paid for running the search itself. Either way the recruiter knows the market and has a reason to want you to say yes, so check anything that matters with the employer.
- Get the company name before you send a resume anywhere.
- Ask them not to submit you to any company without checking first. Being sent to the same job by two recruiters can get you dropped.
- Their view of the comp plan is often secondhand. Check the numbers with the hiring manager later.
Which questions belong on which call
Nobody gets through the whole list in one screening call, and some answers only exist later in the process. Spread the questions out.
- First call: the seven under Ask first, then the territory and the base range. A short screen will not hold much more.
- Before you meet the hiring manager: who is in the room, what has knocked other candidates out, and what the mock pitch is marked on.
- After the first interview: the comp plan details the recruiter could not answer, taken to the manager directly.
- Before you accept: the written plan, the draw terms, the territory definition and anything promised out loud, confirmed by email.
Numbers to write down during the call
- Base and variable as two separate figures, not a single OTE.
- Annual quota, and the share of the team that hit it last year.
- Average deal size and average cycle length in months.
- Ramp length, and whether there is a commission guarantee or a draw during it.
- Payment trigger: booking, invoice or cash collected, plus the clawback window.
- Team size and how many reps have passed the two-year mark.
What a sales recruiter will ask you
The call runs both ways, and a sales recruiter's questions lean on numbers more than most. Have these ready before you pick up.
- Your quota and what you closed against it for each of the last two or three years, as figures.
- Average deal size, sales cycle and the job titles you sold to.
- How much of your pipeline you sourced yourself and how much was handed to you.
- Why you are leaving, in a sentence that does not blame a manager.
- What you want in base and on-target earnings. Rules on whether a recruiter may ask about your current pay differ by country and state, so check how it works where you are.
- Your notice period, and whether your contract restricts where you can work next.
Warning signs on a first call
None of these proves the job is a bad one. Each is a reason to slow down and get the answer from someone else before you go further.
- Cannot or will not give an attainment figure, and steers the talk to culture instead.
- Quotes a large OTE without naming the base, or describes the base as a formality.
- Pressure to interview this week, or to skip your questions and meet the manager first.
- Will not name the company, or names it only after you send a resume.
- The role has been open for many months and the explanation keeps changing.
- Describes the last person leaving as a mutual decision and cannot say where they went.
If you are the one hiring a sales recruiter
Some readers arrive from the other side: a founder or sales leader choosing a recruiting firm to fill sales roles. Those questions are different, and these are the ones to start with. Fee and replacement terms differ from firm to firm, so read the agreement and do not rely on the call.
- Which sales roles have you filled in the past year, at what level and in which industries?
- How do you check what a candidate says about quota attainment and earnings before you present them?
- Is the search contingency or retained, how is the fee worked out, and when is it due?
- If the hire leaves or is let go in the first months, do you replace them or refund the fee, and for how long does that hold?
- How many candidates should we expect to see, and how soon?
- Who does the search day to day: you, or someone more junior?
- Can we speak to two clients you have placed sales reps with?