Alexa Sadowski

YES or NO Many candidates are still chasing back for C2C roles like it’s 2020. Reality check: C2C is almost dead. They just don’t know it yet. What I’m seeing across clients: • End clients prefer W2 for control and compliance • MSPs are filtering out multi-layer vendors • C2C resumes rarely reach hiring managers • Rate pressure + delayed feedback = lost time This doesn’t mean you lack skills. It means the market structure has changed. Candidates who adapted early, shifted to direct W2, local presence became mandatory and better representation are the only one still getting interviews. The rest are still waiting on portals for feedback on the resumes for longer work.

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Tier 1 vs. Tier 2: The salary gap is real. Account Managers at Tier 1 suppliers: $120K-$170K OTE Account Managers at Tier 2 suppliers: $85K-$135K OTE That's a 10-20% premium for Tier 1 roles. Why? Larger deal sizes. More complex sales cycles. Deeper technical requirements. Higher stakes with OEM relationships. If you're recruiting, Tier 1 talent expects Tier 1 compensation. If you're job hunting, Tier 1 experience is your most valuable asset. Know the market. Know your worth.

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Now is the perfect time to invest in your sales team if you want to dominate in 2026. The reps you hire today will spend the next 4-6 months learning your product, understanding your market, and building the pipeline that fuels future revenue. By the time 2026 rolls around, they’ll be fully ramped, driving deals, and shaping the customer relationships that set you apart from competitors. Too many companies wait until they “need” sales talent and end up scrambling. The best organizations think ahead. They build bench strength, give new hires time to absorb best practices, and create space for them to experiment and grow before big revenue targets kick in. If you’re serious about scaling, don’t wait until Q4 or 2026 planning sessions to act. Start laying the foundation now. Your future self (and your bottom line) will thank you. What’s one step you’re taking this fall to prepare for a standout 2026? #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth #HiringStrategy #SalesExcellence #ScaleSmart #SalesHiring

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One of the biggest misses in recruiting…and sales in general…is focusing on doing more instead of doing it better. Increasing initial engagement from 5% to 10% doesn’t require twice the effort; it often just requires a shift in how you connect. Most outreach is ignored not just because of timing, but because it lacks purpose and relevance. Dialing or messaging just to hit a metric leads to box-checking and wasted time, not real conversations or meaningful results. When outcomes fall short, it’s rarely just a volume issue. It’s often an intention issue. KPIs ONLY WORK when used correctly by both leadership AND team members. Poorly managed metrics lead to activity without impact, and unfortunately…reps will often game the system to avoid tough conversations, both with leadership AND as crazy as it might sound…with potential clients/customers, sometimes even avoiding actual prospects while technically “doing their job.” It’s Maddening! If you truly want better engagement, start by Understanding your job/role, WANTING TO ENGAGE, dialing with purpose, messaging with intention, and learning to communicate in ways your audience actually welcomes. That simple shift can transform your outcomes whether measured in lives changed or profits earned.

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3 Things to Watch in Staffing Over the Next 12 Months + How Nextaff is staying ahead of the curve + 1. Shift from Speed to Fit More companies are prioritizing long-term alignment over quick fills. It’s no longer just about who can start Monday — it’s about who stays, grows, and thrives. At Nextaff, we’re doubling down on our proprietary recruiting process to ensure better-fit placements that lead to better retention. 2. Tech-Driven Candidate Experience Candidates expect fast, transparent, and mobile-first communication. From application to onboarding, the process matters. We’re investing in tools that streamline the experience while keeping it human — because people want to feel seen, not sorted. 3. Clients Want Strategic Partners Staffing is evolving into workforce consulting. Clients don’t just want resumes — they want market insights, compliance guidance, and scalable talent strategies. That’s where Nextaff’s local-market expertise and national support give us (and our clients) a competitive edge. These shifts aren’t just coming — they’re already happening. The question is: are you adapting, or waiting? Reach out to me today, lets discuss how we can help your team grow with quality talent!

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📢 #Recruiters + #Sales Pros: 👉 How many follow-ups does it really take (avg) to connect with top prospects and win over a new client? Chances are, it’s more than you think. For new clients, I'm typically making 6-7 attempts over a 2-4 month window (on avg). But when re-engaging with former clients, this isn't always automatic and varies. I recently had one repeat client who took some significant effort and patience to get back in... a national firm, well-respected, I partnered with for 8 years, placing 16 candidates with over half (48%) still thriving. For over 10 months, I received consistent objections: "No, not at this time" or nada, the good ol'👻. The Challenge: Timing & internal recruiting/staff changes. Trimming their vendor list of 70+ recruiters! Before receiving the"YES. Let's talk", there were many objections - but I remained consistent, relevant, and patient with 13 attempts as I tiptoed my way back in. - Was it worth it? Absolutely. We now have 3 hot reqs in process. - Was it frustrating at times? Certainly. - Why persist after so many NO’s? When recognizing the potential for mutual long-term value in a well-respected company, it’s essential to continue pushing beyond the initial rejections. 💡Curious about YOUR follow-up experiences and winning strategies: - What’s your follow-up process and avg. with top prospects? - How long are you willing to persist before moving on? - What are you doing to keep ‘your name’ on their radar without being just another noisy recruiter? #FollowUp #persistence #RecruiterStrategy #Staffing #Recruitment

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🧠 When choosing tech for your staffing firm, don’t just ask the usual questions. ❓ “What problem does this solve?” 🔌 "Does it integrate with XYZ system?" 🚀 "What does onboarding look like?" 🗂️ "Where is data stored?" 🤝 "What does support look like post go-live?" ...etc etc. All great questions ✅ But the one I love getting asked the most is: 🧠 "How do you guys decide what features to build next – can clients influence that?" Why do I love it? Because it tells me the prospect is thinking: “Will this partner evolve with us?” 💭 Too many staffing businesses get stuck with vendors who solve yesterday’s problems but can’t keep up with tomorrow’s pace. ⚡⛔ Here’s the reality: ✅ The market is shifting ✅ Candidate behavior is changing ✅ Client expectations are rising ✅ AI is rewriting the rulebook You need more than a one-and-done tool. You need a product partner who: 🔁 Ships updates fast 📣 Listens to feedback 🚀 Innovates 🤝 Aligns with your long-term goals At Tenzo AI, we’re building WITH our clients - not just for them. Staffing tech shouldn’t be static, and our roadmap is as dynamic as our Agents calls. If you haven't seen the Tenzo platform yet, let's chat! #AIinStaffing #FutureOfWork #VendorSelection #RecruitmentAutomation

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Sales Recruiting Market Update Struggling to level up to Enterprise Sales? Start focusing on your specific vertical. It’ll pay off in the long run. #salesrecruiting 🦘

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If you’ve ever managed leaves of absence, you know it can feel like extreme juggling… and often times, dropping a ball isn’t an option. That’s where smart integrations come in. Our newly launched Paylocity integration takes the manual work off HR’s plate so teams can focus on supporting people, not chasing data. Samantha Gardiner, our Product Manager, sums it up perfectly: “HR teams have enough to manage, data syncing shouldn’t be one of them. This integration brings real-time accuracy and automation to the leave management process, so teams can stop second-guessing payroll and eligibility and start leading with confidence.” ⚡ It’s not just tech. It’s a small shift that makes HR work feel less like firefighting and more like leadership.

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🎯 Why Most Staffing Firms Struggle With ABM (And How to Fix It) Account-Based Marketing sounds perfect on paper. Target the right accounts. Personalize everything. Close bigger deals. But here's what actually happens ↓ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔴 The data is scattered across 5 different systems 🔴 Decision makers ignore generic outreach 🔴 Sales and marketing point fingers at each other 🔴 Personalization feels impossible at scale Sound familiar? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The staffing industry faces unique ABM challenges that other sectors simply don't deal with: • Client decision makers change roles every 18 months • Hiring needs fluctuate wildly with market conditions • One company might need 5 different service lines • The buying committee keeps expanding So how do winning staffing firms crack the code? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 It's about building content that actually resonates with the people who matter. Here's what changes the game: ✦ Create industry-specific insights (not staffing insights) ✦ Address their business problems (not staffing problems) ✦ Speak to CFOs differently than HR Directors ✦ Show ROI in their language, not ours ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩 → When reaching out to a healthcare CFO, which message lands better? ❌ "We provide quality healthcare staffing solutions" ✅ "How three health systems reduced agency spend by 34% while improving patient satisfaction scores" The second one wins because it speaks their language. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 ↓ 🎯 Level 1: Industry personalization 🎯 Level 2: Company-specific insights 🎯 Level 3: Role-based messaging 🎯 Level 4: Challenge-focused solutions Most firms stop at Level 1. Top performers master all four. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The truth? ABM in staffing isn't failing because the strategy is wrong. It's struggling because the content doesn't connect with what decision makers actually care about. They don't wake up thinking about staffing. They wake up thinking about: → Hitting quarterly targets → Reducing operational costs → Keeping their teams productive → Proving ROI to the board 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 where personalized content needs to meet them. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 What's the biggest challenge your team faces when personalizing content for different decision makers? ♻️ Repost to help other staffing leaders overcome their ABM roadblocks. #accountbasedmarketing #b2b #b2c #seo #sem #smm #leads #account #marketingstrategy #advertising #accountbasedmarketingtactics #accountbasedmarketinglinkedin #accountbasedmarketingb2b

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Timing in sales outreach is key. Focusing efforts during peak "call times" can significantly improve connection rates. Now, what you do with that connection is up to you! #sales #salesrecruiting #salesnumbers

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🕒 Understanding US Time Zones (Simple Guide for Recruiters) If you work in US Staffing or IT Recruiting, knowing US time zones is very important. The United States has 4 major time zones 👇 🌅 1️⃣ Eastern Time (ET) States like: New York, New Jersey, Florida 👉 This is the most common client time zone 👉 India is usually +9.5 to +10.5 hours ahead 🌄 2️⃣ Central Time (CT) States like: Texas, Illinois 👉 1 hour behind Eastern 🌇 3️⃣ Mountain Time (MT) States like: Colorado, Arizona 👉 2 hours behind Eastern 🌉 4️⃣ Pacific Time (PT) States like: California, Washington 👉 3 hours behind Eastern 👉 Most IT clients are in this zone 📌 Quick Example: If it’s 9:00 AM in New York (ET) • 8:00 AM in Texas (CT) • 7:00 AM in Colorado (MT) • 6:00 AM in California (PT) 🎯 Why Recruiters Must Know This? ✅ Scheduling interviews correctly ✅ Calling vendors at the right time ✅ Avoiding early/late follow-ups ✅ Building better communication Understanding time zones = Better coordination + More placements 🤝 #USStaffing #TechnicalRecruiting #TimeZones #RecruiterLife #BenchSales

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Cutting edge strategy to get top talent to continue to move your IT initiatives and organization forward without adding headcount! Market intel and knowledge from our VP Chris Carlson://tinyurl.com/bdd85teu. #ITStaffing #ContractVsFullTime #TechHiring #WorkforceStrategy #ITstaffingsolutions #TechTalent #ContractWork #HiringTrends #FutureOfWork #WorkforcePlanning #CIO #CTO #VPofIT #DirofIT

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If your comp plan takes 30 minutes to explain, it’s not a comp plan. It’s a math class. Top reps don't trust what they can't predict. If your rep can't explain their comp plan to a friend in under 30 seconds, it's too complex. And when people can't predict their income, they can't trust leadership. Clarity builds confidence. Confidence drives performance. Simple math = scalable results. #hiring #recruiterlife #recruiting #saassales #gsd #agsd #sales #startup #founder #ceo

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🎙️ Podcast Alert: Leveraging AI within Your Team with Erich Hugunin How is AI transforming productivity in the staffing industry? In the latest episode of The Staffing Show, David Folwell sits down with Erich Hugunin, VP of Sales at Ringover, to discuss how AI is creating real impact within teams. With nearly two decades of experience in the staffing industry, Erich shares practical insights on using AI to boost efficiency and what the future holds for this game-changing technology. Don’t miss out—listen to the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/e5p_d5rS #AI #StaffingIndustry #Leadership #Productivity

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💀 VMS used to be a Dirty Word (A timeline of VMS reluctancy through the years) 😠 Staffing agencies would avoid it like the plague “You want me to pay for you to manage your jobs? Hard pass.” But fast forward to today… and it’s a different story. Agencies that want to differentiate with prospects, enhance client relationships, and compete at scale are now embracing VMS instead of running from it. Because like it or not. It is only becoming more prevalent and its a matter of time before your client start looking or asking about it. Hit me up if you need a partner like Simple that will help you differentiate in your sales messaging , land more business, and create a new stream of revenue for your agency! Here is a timeline of the reluctant rise of VMS in the staffing industry: 📅 2000–2005: The Early Days Birth of VMS: Tech enters the staffing world. Clients love the control, visibility, and compliance it brings. Agency reaction: “Wait… we have to log into another system and pay for it too?” Many agencies resist. VMS is seen as an expensive, margin-killing middleman. 🫸 2006–2010: The Push Begins Big clients (Fortune 500) mandate VMS adoption for contingent labor programs. MSPs emerge to manage VMS tools. Agencies grumble but comply to keep the business. Agency sentiment: “This is a pain, but if we want the volume, we’ll deal with it.” 💹 2011–2015: Growth & Growing Pains VMS becomes mainstream in enterprise staffing. Mid-sized clients start exploring VMS tools. Some forward-thinking agencies start using VMS relationships to differentiate: “We know the system, we work faster in it, we know how to win in it.” 🧑‍💻 2016–2020: Resistance Fades, Realities Set In VMS adoption explodes across sectors (logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, etc.). Agencies realize: “It’s not going away… and no, clients aren’t paying for it — we are.” The smart agencies embrace it: Build internal VMS teams, Learn how to be first to submit, Use data to improve fill rates, Partner with VMS providers to grow 🤝 2021–2023: Embrace or Be Replaced North America remains unique: Agencies continue to fund the VMS, unlike in Europe where clients foot the bill. Agencies start using VMS as a sales tool: “We thrive in VMS programs. Here’s how we outpace the competition.” 2024–Present: VMS as the Standard VMS no longer optional. Even small and mid-sized clients are implementing tech to manage multiple vendors. Agencies that once ran from it now use it to win business. Sales teams pitch: “We know how to work within your VMS… or help you launch one. We’re not scared of tech. We embrace it.” 💡 Bottom Line: VMS is no longer a threat. It’s a tool. The agencies who adapt and leverage it, are the ones that thrive.

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Interview pro tip: build out sales stories before your interview & lead the conversation by ending all of your responses with another question Interviews are NOT a two way street (non demo/discovery phases) sure they can be if YOU lead the conversation however, the moment you sit in front of a gate keeper/ champion/decision maker THEY have the power to run the conversation however they want to run it and chances are they aren't going to lead you to victory with the questions THEY ask my rule - the person who is asking the questions is the person who is running the interview start by ending the "tell me about yourself" pitch with a question to start leading the conversation in the way you want it to go it may even make sense to create dialogue around where you think the biggest gaps are "I know what you are thinking why would someone who has/hasn't done x feel confident in y - well, xxx, curious y" extra important to pay attention to body language and social cues but in my experience the social *norm* is that the person being interviewed for a sales or #gtm sales executive position should run the first call until given instructions otherwise 👀 back to the sales stories best to be sent: 1️⃣ as a pre interview note with context 2️⃣ or after your interview to give more context into who you are, how you think & how you will apply example: "John, looking forward to our call (date, time, time zone) this is not just another interview for me so i wanted to give you specific examples of how I have x and how it relates to (this job, with this buyer/market at this stage of org) STARLT & deal/scenario break down stories: Situation Task Action Result Lesson Take away - how does this experience relate to THIS environment? build out these stories based on themes make a list of all the "behavioral" questions you have been asked or have asked in a #sales #postsales or #salesexecutive or #cofounder interview (or any) build out lessons, losses, strategy and win examples around "themes" or parts of the sales/startup life cycle - ideally, proactively before they ask by sending a "pre interview" note when you can include screenshots, linked personas/companies and proof (dashboards, screenshots, a visual) examples: got to quota increased deal size/shortened sales/ramp cycle who you were selling to/competing against, urgency you created and how you won deals/ran cadences, relied on champions, built a business case overcame an objection/legal/roadblock? how did you increase x? decrease x? pivot? time you turned a loss into a win? made your co $ saved $ improved something when did you lose? when did you win? improve conversions? goal you set for yourself and the steps you took to achieve it? time you used data in your sales process or to find a solution? had two deadlines? what lessons did you learn and what #podcasts #salesbooks #content did you consume to REALLY apply? link it #salesinterview #salesrecruiter #bestfootforward

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Most mid-market IT staffing firms are running the same broken playbook. No repeatable sales process. No pipeline visibility. Just hustle, hope, and a handful of top billers holding everything together. Here’s what that costs: → Inconsistent performance → Slower growth → Missed revenue hiding in plain sight And now AI is making that gap wider. The firms pulling ahead are not just using AI. They are using AI on top of a real revenue infrastructure. That combination helps them: → shorten sales cycles → identify better opportunities faster → create a compounding advantage over competitors still relying on instinct alone Firms still running on gut feel and reactive outbound are falling behind. The pattern is consistent. The ceiling usually is not talent. It is the revenue system underneath the team. When you build that system correctly, with repeatable process embedded into daily sales behavior, growth becomes more predictable, scalable, and durable. That is what ELEVATE was built to deliver. Fractional CRO support that installs the infrastructure first, then helps your team execute, without the $300K+ full-time cost. If you lead an IT or technical staffing firm between $10M–$75M and growth feels harder than it should, the bottleneck is likely your system, not your people. DM me PROCESS and I’ll send you a no-cost 15-minute revenue audit framework you can run on your business this week. #GrowthCulture #Leadership #ITStaffing #FractionalCRO #RevenueInfrastructure #SalesProcess #StaffingIndustry #AI

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