Due to the acute shortage of experienced, good sales people, more and more companies are looking to hiring such sales people (and sales managers too) through headhunters. Unfortunately, most of the results are quite disappointing.

The purpose of companies engaging headhunters is usually to seek direct and alternative ways to source for good candidates. Alternative in the sense that the candidate will not be reading about the position in recruitment ads. Instead, companies hope that headhunters will have a large pool of ready candidates, and in lieu of that, can actually make the cold-calls and poach the right candidates from other companies.

Unfortunately, many headhunters, including some international ones, tend to be rather passive in the hiring process. If they have a good pool of suitable people, that's great. If not, they simply take out an advertisement and publicise the vacancy, something which the hiring company could have done by themselves anyway.

In many cases, the consultants working for the headhunters tend to be also very junior, and may not have the right exposure to decide what will make a good fit for the hiring company. They may be susceptible to manipulation by some candidates, and in some cases, even willfully recommend the hiring company to meet up with less-than-qualified candidates, just to prove hey are doing their jobs.

As a result, most headhunters don't really add value to the hiring companies. That's no to say that all headhunters are bad. There will be times that headhunters can save time and resources while providing candidates that fit at the same time. It's a question about how you evaluate and choose whom to work with.

Here's a list of questions that you may want to ask yourself, or the prospective headhunter, before you decide hiring them:

* How is the track record of the headhunter? How many sales or sales management positions have they filled in the past year? Can they give you references from their other clients for similar positions?

* Do they understand your business, and the qualities and behaviours needed to succeed for the candidates? Will they know if the candidate will fit into your unique sales culture?

* Do the consultants have real work experience, or are they fresh out of school? Do they have a structured interview process that allows them to identify the good-fits from the rest?

* Do they pro-actively solicit good candidates in your industry? If yes, how well do they perform for such pro-active recruitment?

* Do they guarantee you a time frame for the search?

* Will you be updated regularly on the progress?

* Do they make reference checks? How do they make them? (note: your competitor will be most delighted if you were to hire their worst performing sales person, and hence may give glowing references!)

While engaging headhunters may save some time and resources, there is still a lot of groundwork to be done in the initial process. Headhunters should not be perceived as the "all cure" that solves all your hiring problems in an instant. Instead, the good headhunters will be your partners in identifying and planning for your long-term hiring needs.