Where To Find Top Sales Talent
The Bounty System That Beats Recruiters Every Time
Where is the best place to find top sales talent?
The best place to find top sales talent is through referrals from your network—your team, your connections, and your client list are gold mines. Top talent knows top talent, making referrals the highest quality source by far. Use bounties (paying $1K-$5K+ for successful hires) instead of recruiters to incentivize your network. The bounty amount depends on the role—sales reps might be $1K-$5K, while director-level positions could be $10K-$20K. This approach is cheaper than recruiters, faster than job boards, and produces better candidates because people don’t want to refer duds.
What is hiring bounty and how does it work?
A hiring bounty is when you pay someone in your network a cash reward (typically $1K-$20K depending on the role) if you hire their referral. Post the bounty publicly via text, email, and social media with clear details: the role, what you’re looking for, and the reward amount. Example: “I’m looking for a rockstar Account Manager. If you know someone who would be a great fit, I’ll pay you $5,000 if I hire them.” This incentivizes quality referrals because people’s reputations are on the line—they won’t refer someone who will make them look bad.
How much should you pay for a hiring bounty?
Pay for a hiring bounty based on the role level and your budget: Entry-level sales reps (SDRs, BDRs) typically warrant $1K-$3K bounties. Mid-level positions (Account Executives, Account Managers) warrant $3K-$5K. Senior positions (Sales Managers, Directors) warrant $5K-$10K. Executive positions (VPs, CROs) warrant $10K-$20K+. Compare this to recruiter fees (typically 15-25% of first-year salary) and bounties are significantly cheaper while producing better candidates. The key is making it meaningful enough that people actively think about who they know.
Why are referrals better than job boards for hiring?
Referrals are better than job boards because they come pre-vetted with context and trust. When someone refers a candidate, they’re putting their reputation on the line, so they only refer people they genuinely believe will succeed. Referrals understand your company culture before applying because the referrer has explained it. They’re more likely to accept offers and stay longer because they have a built-in connection. Job board candidates are often spray-and-pray applicants with no context about your company. As Larry Page demonstrated at Google, he personally signed off on all 6,000 hires in 2015 because hiring is that leveraged—it’s worth your time to do it right.
Mitchell Miles
Jan 21, 2026 • 5 min read
The most costly mistake in any business is a mis hire.
Simultaneously, one of the greatest levers to pull for growth in your business is hiring.
It’s like investing…
The greater the upside, the greater the downside.
The good news is, just like investing, you can learn it and minimize the risk.
I recommend for any leader, to learn how to hire top talent and make sure it’s one of the last things you delegate.
Larry Page understood this.
In 2015, when Google had 53,600 employees and hired 6,000 more that year, he personally signed off on every single hire.
Why?
Because it’s leveraged.
It’s worth your time.
Quickly, I want to speed this up for you and show you where you can find these rockstar hires and how to get them on your team.
I’ll make it quick.
This will be specific to sales people (revenue) although this will apply to almost any hire you’re making.
Before you hire anyone, you need two things dialed in…
Your Optimal Selling System (OSS)
This means absolute clarity on who you’re selling to and exactly how you sell to them.
Your Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV)
In other words, where you’re going as a company (vision), why you’re going there (mission), and what’s acceptable behavior along the way (values or principles).
Without these, it’ll be difficult to get top 1% talent to say yes.
Prior to starting my company, I was poached by buddy of mine.
The only reason I was willing to leave a company that was growing and more established to join a scrappy startup only doing about $1M in annual revenue…(Literally I was his first full time hire. It was just me, him, a VA, and a part time sales coach)
…only reason I said yes was because I could see the road ahead and I liked it.
If I wouldn’t have been able to see exactly what I was saying yes to (more than the money) and actually like it, I wouldn’t have left my current role at the time.
This is key.
Think of hiring like making a sale.
In a way, that’s exactly what it is.
You’re selling the opportunity, the vision, the culture.
And like any sale, you need…
A way to generate qualified leads
A solid nurturing process (funnel)
And a good pitch
Let’s start with how and where to generate qualified candidates…
Just like in sales, what are the best and highest qualified leads?
Almost always, it’s referrals.
Whether we’re talking about hiring or sales, it’s very hard to beat referrals.
And it makes sense.
People who know you, your company, they have context, they’re going to know who to send your way AND those specific people will have more trust.
So if you’re looking for top talent, remember this…
Top talent KNOWS top talent.
That’s always the best source.
My favorite way to do this is called a bounty.
Here’s an example:
The amount of the bounty will vary depending on the role.
In the example I gave, this was an account manager. Regardless this is usually lower cost than a recruiter and I almost always get better candidates than any other method.
I send this to my network directly via text and email and I’ll post on on my socials.
Eventually everyone starts sharing and connecting you to people.
Pro tip: Have a solid hiring page they can send their referrals to. Otherwise, it can get out of hand.
This is by far my favorite source of leads.
If you do this and you still don’t find your hire, then my second favorite source is poaching.
I’ll outbound the right candidates on Linkedin, from competitors, etc.
Try this out.
If you have questions on hiring top talent, reply to this email.
I read every single one.
Till next time,
– The Miles Memo
-Mitchell Miles – CEO
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