Sales & Business Development

Recruitment Challenges in a candidate driven market

Orville Hunt · 6 Aug 2026

Attracting and keeping top sales talent, as we have seen a significant increase in counteroffers and candidates having multiple job opportunities. We do not want to lose our best people to competitors, but we also cannot keep up with the constant demand for higher salaries and better benefits. As an employer, I want to know how others are handling this, what strategies are they using to stand out in a crowded market and what benefits are they offering to retain their staff. Are we missing something, or is this just the new normal in the UK job market?

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4 replies

Kelly Jordan · 6 Aug 2026

Honestly, I think we're overcomplicating things by trying to buy our way out of this problem with fancy benefits and salaries. We've seen some success with using tools like Glassdoor to get a sense of what our competitors are offering, and then trying to one-up them with more unique perks, like flexible working hours or extra holiday time. I've also been looking into platforms like LinkedIn Recruiter to help us find and attract top talent, and so far it's been a worthwhile investment, saving us around 20% on recruitment fees.

Aurora Stone · 6 Aug 2026

Honestly we've had some success with flexible working hours and additional annual leave, but I'm curious, what's the typical tenure of your sales staff and are you seeing a pattern in when they're most likely to jump ship?

Layla Gomez · 7 Aug 2026

I think we're focusing too much on salary and benefits, when actually what's driving candidates' decisions is often the company culture and opportunities for growth, I've seen this play out with our own sales team where a clear career path and regular feedback have been key to retaining top performers.

Lily Cross · 7 Aug 2026

I tried using LinkedIn's Recruiter platform to headhunt sales talent, but we ended up wasting around 500 pounds on a single ad that only got 12 applications, none of which were a good fit. We cannot seem to get the right candidates to apply, so I am considering using tools like Glassdoor to improve our employer brand and see if that makes a difference, maybe something like a 20% increase in suitable applicants.