With AI-driven shifts causing disruption now and in the future, securing sales representatives who can build lasting relationships and effectively communicate your product’s value is crucial for long-term revenue growth. An experienced recruiting agency can help you evaluate candidates beyond the resume, matching you with sales professionals whose soft skills, career goals, and values align with your organization, laying the foundation for a high-performing team.
The most common entry-level roles are Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Business Development Representatives (BDRs). These pre-sales professionals prospect potential customers and qualify leads by identifying companies that match your ideal buyer persona and contacting them through cold calls, emails, and LinkedIn to gauge their interest.
While exceptional communication skills, persistence, and comfort with rejection are essential, strong relationship-building abilities and technical fluency have become increasingly important as customers demand more personalized solutions. By understanding each buyer’s unique goals and challenges, SDRs and BDRs can apply a solutions-oriented approach that speaks to their needs.
Meanwhile, Account Executives (AEs) further nurture the opportunities generated by SDRs and BDRs by guiding qualified prospects through the deal cycle. These professionals typically bring at least five years of selling experience and the technical expertise needed to explain the product’s features, mechanics, and value proposition in depth. The consultative nature of the role builds trust with customers, a key predictor of success in an increasingly automated and AI-dominated market.
Below are the top ten recruiting agencies for sales representatives in tech. These firms leverage role expertise, market fluency, and extensive talent networks to match you with candidates whose hard and soft skills build momentum and accelerate your revenue growth.
1. Betts Recruiting
Founded in 2009, Betts Recruiting is the leading partner for high-growth tech organizations seeking competitive go-to-market (GTM) talent. The firm has paired modern, tech-enabled solutions with a consultative approach to place top sales representatives at scaling organizations of all sizes, including Splashtop, Staffbase, Zendesk, Grammarly, and many more.
Both Splashtop, a remote support software provider, and Staffbase, an HR tech company, partnered with Betts through its Recruitment-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. This subscription-based solution gives hiring teams access to Betts Connect, the firm’s proprietary sourcing platform, as well as personalized support from a verticalized recruiter.
During its partnership with Splashtop, Betts conducted rigorous vetting processes to assess candidates for grit, coachability, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, ultimately helping to place four culturally aligned SDRs in less than a month. Meanwhile, Staffbase worked with Betts over the course of four years to scale its new Minnesota-based team, securing several enterprise SDRs and AEs with the desired technical skills and culture alignment.
Whether your company opts for the contingency, RaaS, or self-sourcing hiring model, you can achieve rapid results by leveraging Betts Connect, an AI-powered platform featuring the profiles of over tens of thousands of GTM candidates. This tool allows hiring managers and recruiters to filter through various KPIs to quickly identify candidates who meet their exact criteria and draws on proprietary data to predict which candidates align best with your roles, saving you valuable time and enabling confident decisions.
2. TheLIONS
TheLIONS has specialized in tech sales recruiting for startups since 2010, emphasizing the effectiveness of its fast solutions, high-quality talent networks, and strong VC relationships. The firm takes a highly values-driven approach, with a particularly strong belief in honor, trust, and objectivity.
The founding CEO established TheLIONS after facing his own recruiting challenges as a former sales leader. The firm is guided by its commitment to integrity and prioritizes intangible qualities such as self-sufficiency, accountability, and humility in its candidates, which it believes predict success and long-term retention.
3. Sloane Staffing
Founded in 2017, Sloane Staffing recruits sales, marketing, and technical talent across diverse software domains, with a particular focus on sales representatives. The firm provides white-glove services for organizations of all sizes, creating tailored strategies based on your role requirements and company values.
Recruiters aim to master your business in order to source candidates who match your exact requirements. The firm emphasizes its ability to screen for both hard and soft skills, ensuring candidates are thoroughly vetted for persistence, communication, and prospecting abilities.
4. Sales Talent Agency
Sales Talent Agency has placed sales candidates across all industries since 2007. The firm combines a highly structured vetting process, its proprietary pipeline program, and an extensive reach spanning North America, Europe, and Australia to secure top candidates in the market.
The firm applies its DNA/PRO assessment methodology to evaluate each candidate’s drive, emotional intelligence, sales acumen, career background, and long-term potential. It also offers the STA NEXT Program, which delivers a new batch of five to fifteen well-aligned SDR and BDR candidates each week, with the only cost being a flat fee per hire.
5. HireDNA
HireDNA has recruited sales, customer success, and RevOps talent through highly structured, data-driven processes since 2018, aiming to accurately predict which candidates align best with your organizational needs.
The firm implements tailored, sales-specific assessments developed by the Objective Management Group. Collecting 275 data points across 21 core selling competencies including motivation, rejection sensitivity, emotional intelligence, and various tactical skills, these tests can be customized based on your role and hiring requirements.
Recruiters also evaluate candidates through the firm’s proprietary FitScore ranking system, which measures their role, culture, and experience alignment. The data collected from this tool is used to generate a “match score,” providing clear, actionable insights that reduce risk and bias.
6. Treeline, Inc.
Founded in 2001, Treeline, Inc. exclusively recruits sales candidates through contingency and self-sourcing models, combining functional expertise with proprietary technology to conduct fast, streamlined hiring processes.
Within its contingency services, recruiters learn about your requirements and leverage an AI-powered sourcing platform to deliver the first round of candidates within three days. This performance-based model fills your role in a month or less, reducing risk without compromising quality or speed.
Your company can also opt for the self-sourcing solution, which provides access to the candidate platform for a thirty-day period. Featuring 200,000 candidates and insights into career history, quota attainment, compensation expectations, recruiter summaries, and more, the platform reduces costs and time-to-hire during hiring spikes.
7. Captivate Talent
Captivate Talent has exclusively recruited GTM and RevOps candidates for early- to growth-stage SaaS startups since 2017. The firm’s boutique, human-centered approach makes it a strong partner for organizations that prioritize culture fit.
Recruiters take a consultative approach to understand your role requirements and revenue goals, leveraging their startup expertise to provide personalized solutions based on your current stage of growth. The firm’s startup fluency makes it a trusted advisor when determining the right time to hire certain roles, identifying which traits to prioritize in candidates, and evaluating cultural alignment.
8. Optimal Sales Search
Founded in 2004, Optimal Sales Search specializes in recruiting GTM talent, especially hunters, for tech and SaaS companies. The firm emphasizes its effective headhunting approach, leveraging a nationwide reach and valuable market intelligence to deliver fast solutions.
Recruiters learn about your role requirements, sales structure, and future goals to identify professionals who align with your long-term trajectory, delivering the first round of candidates within five to ten days. The firm also shares market insights into your competitors, such as their recent hires, team quotas, and target markets, helping you attract competitive talent.
9. QC Growth
QC Growth is an up-and-coming firm that serves Seed to Series A startups through its sales development and GTM recruiting solutions. Founded in 2023, the firm exclusively places SDRs, BDRs, and AEs with experience selling in early-stage environments.
Recruiters take a hands-on, founder-friendly approach to sourcing and screening candidates, evaluating their adaptability, coachability, and ability to succeed in fast-paced environments. The firm also provides guidance on designing effective job descriptions, interview processes, and offer strategy. Its payment model is both affordable and risk-free, with a flat $500 fee per hire, making it an attractive partner for emerging organizations.
10. salestalent.com
Founded in 2021 by a six-time sales executive, salestalent.com is a team of veteran sales leaders who leverage years of firsthand experience to conduct precise, highly targeted searches. Recruiters are limited to three searches at a time to improve precision and efficiency.
The firm learns about your ideal hire and targets 100 to 300 passive candidates per role. Its structured sourcing methodology includes seven-point, multichannel outreach campaigns to uncover three to five professionals who meet your exact criteria.
Compensation Trends for Sales Representatives in Tech
There is fierce competition across the country for entry-level SDR and BDR positions as tech companies increasingly prioritize candidates with more specialized skill sets. As a result, base salaries for these roles in regions like New York, San Francisco, and areas along the East Coast are becoming comparable to those in other parts of the country.
NY/SF-based SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $50K–$70K | $80K–$90K
Pacific-based SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $55K–$70K | $80K–$90K
Mountain-based SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $55K–$70K | $70K–$85K
Central-based SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $55K–$70K | $70K–$85K
Eastern-based SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $55K–$65K | $75K–$90K
Remote SDR/BDR (Entry-level)
Base + OTE: $50K–$70K | $70K–$95K
SDRs and BDRs with six months of experience or more can expect to earn at least $60K in base salary and comparable OTE, generally ranging from $80K to $100K regardless of location.
NY/SF-based SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $60K–$80K | $80K–$100K
Pacific-based SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $60K–$75K | $85K–$100K
Mountain-based SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $60K–$70K | $85K–$100K
Central-based SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $60K–$75K | $80K–$100K
Eastern-based SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $65K–$80K | $85K–$100K
Remote SDR/BDR (6+ Months Experience)
Base + OTE: $60K–$80K | $85K–$100K
Account Executives with zero to three years of experience typically earn a minimum base salary of $70K and OTE ranging from $140K and $200K, though earning potential is slightly higher in New York and San Francisco.
NY/SF-based AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$220K
Pacific-based AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$200K
Mountain-based AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $70K—$100K | $140K—$200K
Central-based AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $70K—$100K | $140K—$200K
Eastern-based AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$200K
Remote AE (0-3 years)
Base + OTE: $60K—$100K | $140K—$200K
The average base salary for AEs with three to five years of experience tends to be higher in the Eastern and Pacific time zones.
NY/SF-based AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $95K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Pacific-based AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $95K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Mountain-based AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $85K—$125K | $180K—$250K
Central-based AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $90K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Eastern-based AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $95K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Remote AE (3-5 years)
Base + OTE: $95K—$125K | $180K—$250K
Our Comp Engine shares live salary updates across all GTM roles based on our placements over the last six months. You can also see our Compensation, Executive Compensation, and Enterprise Compensation guides for deeper insights into market trends and salary benchmarks by role, location, and experience level.
Ready to build a high-performing sales team? Contact Betts here to get started today.