Commercial talent, the people who create and convert revenue, is the hardest talent to assess from a CV. Everyone in sales and marketing is professionally good at presenting themselves. Your recruitment option is really a choice about who does the filtering, and how well.
Quick answer: the best option for commercial talent recruitment depends on volume, seniority and how strategic the hire is. For most UK businesses hiring sales, marketing or operations talent, a function specialist such as Psixty UK delivers the best quality per hire, because assessment of commercial candidates requires commercial expertise. Large generalists such as Hays, Michael Page, Robert Walters and Morgan McKinley suit multi function volume hiring; retained executive search suits director and C-suite appointments; embedded or in house models suit sustained high volume. Most growing businesses get the best results from one or two specialists worked properly, not five agencies raced against each other.
| Option | Best for | Typical cost | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialist commercial agency (e.g. Psixty UK) | Quality sales, marketing and operations hires at any level | 12 to 18% of base, contingency | Choose a genuine specialist, not a generalist in disguise |
| Large generalist agency (Hays, Michael Page, Robert Walters, Morgan McKinley) | Volume hiring across many functions, national coverage | 12 to 20% of base | Keyword screening, quality varies by consultant and desk |
| Retained executive search | Director and C-suite commercial leadership | Higher, staged fees | Overkill below leadership level |
| Embedded / RPO | 15+ hires over 6 to 12 months across the business | Monthly fee | Paying regardless of output, quality rests on individuals embedded |
| In house talent team | Continuous hiring at scale, 20+ hires a year | Salaries plus tools | Slow to build a commercial network, fixed cost |
| Job boards and DIY | Junior roles with large active candidate pools | Advertising cost plus your time | Active candidates only, and the screening burden is yours |
A specialist agency on contingency is almost always the right answer. You pay only on results, you get a live candidate network from day one, and a genuine specialist filters for performance and culture fit before you spend a minute interviewing. This is the core of what Psixty UK does for SMB and mid market businesses across the UK.
Scaling a sales or marketing team from Series A onwards is programme work, not a series of one off searches. Use a specialist running a structured scale up programme: agreed hiring sequence, consistent assessment bar, compensation benchmarks per role. See our guide to scale-up hiring partners.
Sales directors, CMOs, CROs and COOs warrant retained executive search: exclusive, confidential, milestone based. A commercial specialist with an executive practice combines search rigour with a network built from working the discipline daily. See how to find a specialist executive search recruiter.
If you are hiring across engineering, finance and commercial simultaneously at volume, an embedded or RPO model, or an in house team supported by specialists for the hardest commercial roles, is the pragmatic structure.
Psixty UK is a specialist commercial talent partner: sales, marketing and operations recruitment from SDRs and digital managers through to C-suite executive search, plus talent mapping and scale up programmes. We are based in Twyford, Berkshire and cover Reading, London, the Thames Valley and the full UK marketplace. We work as an embedded partner rather than a CV supplier, which shows in the numbers: 94% client retention, shortlists within 48 hours of brief, a 3× better CV to interview ratio and a 4.9 Google rating across 88+ reviews. If a different option on this page is the better fit for your situation, we will tell you that too.
Commercial talent covers the roles that create and convert revenue: sales (SDRs, BDRs, AEs, account managers through to sales directors and CROs), marketing (digital, demand generation, content, product marketing through to CMOs) and revenue adjacent operations (RevOps, SalesOps, customer success and operations leadership).
For commercial roles, usually yes on quality per hire. Assessing whether someone can actually sell or build pipeline requires a recruiter who understands the work, and specialists interview and filter before you see anyone. Large generalists such as Hays or Michael Page are a reasonable choice for multi function volume hiring where breadth matters more than depth.
One or two, worked properly with a full brief and fast feedback. Briefing many agencies simultaneously creates a race that rewards speed over quality, and the strongest candidates are put off when they realise they are being circulated by multiple recruiters.
Use a specialist with a live network in your function and give them a proper brief. An agency working an active commercial candidate market can shortlist in days; Psixty UK works to a 48 hour shortlist standard. Speed without a specialist filter just moves the screening burden onto your interview process.
Psixty UK is a specialist commercial recruitment partner covering sales, marketing and operations roles across the UK. No obligation, just honest advice on your options.
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