So why should you hire a headhunter to work with your H.R Staff? My guess is that if you are looking to recruit, then you have an immediate problem to solve. A headhunter will meet directly with you, to find out exactly what you are looking for and will generally specialize in your industry, so will bring with him a lot of background knowledge.

By working this way, the headhunter reinvents the whole traditional recruitment process. His first step will have been to get in touch with a company and to find out who the top performer is. By doing this, the headhunter will have qualified the skills and caliber of the candidate before the interview. He will then test the candidate's knowledge and will use his skills to probe even further to ensure that the candidate is not simply saying what they believe the company will want to hear - which is so often the case in many standard interviews. This enables the headhunter to fully brief the hiring manager on a candidate's skill set and to discuss, the value that the prospective employee would bring to the organization.

The process of evaluating CV's that have been passed on by HR, in an attempt to match skills to the job description, is totally removed. Not only does this save an incredible amount of time, but it also eliminates a host of candidates who will probably be unsuitable for the job. You have to consider why anyone would submit a CV if they were happy working for their current employer or were performing extremely well. It is extremely rare for a top salesperson to want to work for another company - they are nearly always headhunted.

This whole process means that there is no guesswork necessary on behalf of the hiring manager - the interview is not a 'blind date,' but is an exciting engagement between two people who are about to seize a mutually beneficial opportunity.

The advantages of the headhunter's technique also extend to the candidate. Prior to meeting his prospective employer, the candidate is fully aware of the company's challenges, goals and culture. He knows what the hiring manager wants to see, has been motivated by the headhunter and is keen to apply his work skills to the position. As most hiring managers will understand, there is nothing worse than interviewing someone who you are not convinced will want the job.

At the end of the day, an experienced headhunter will not put any candidate forward until he knows that both the hiring manager and the candidate are fully prepared for the interview. After all, a headhunter is only paid upon results.

In light of this, would you still leave your recruiting entirely to your HR department? Now, I'm sure that there are some HR experts out there who do spend time researching the industry and getting in touch with top performers. It is also important to note that HR play a very important role within a company as far as managing existing resources goes. However, the management of initial recruitment for other departments is an area where HR should maybe take a step back and make way for the hiring manager.

Why? Well, lets take a look at how the majority of HR departments handle recruitment. They spend thousands on advertising and hundreds of man-hours on screening and testing. Their evaluations are based only on CV's, so they tend to waste time evaluating people who are looking to move for some reason. They also tend to rely on references, which in this day and age and particularly within the sales industry are redundant - a reference will not give you the candidate's previous performance levels and will certainly not tell you why the candidate is suited to your job!

The question is - does the HR department really know what skills are necessary to be successful in a sales position? Well, probably not - as I'm sure they would be working in the sales department themselves if they did! In which case, how can they be capable of judging someone's worth and identifying a solution? This surely means that they are processing hundreds of unknown candidates, rather than people they know can do the job.

Furthermore, by allowing all recruitment to be reliant upon the HR department, you are restricting your market to only 'those that come in'. What about all the other people out there who may be available but aren't actively searching? There are hundreds of opportunities out there - you just need a talented headhunter to exploit them for you.

A headhunter's strategy is powerful. His sole aim is to create a synergistic match between a company and a prospective employee. He is fully aware of the market and spends a lot of time researching the top producers within a particular industry. Not only is he continuously enlarging his circle of contacts through proactive networking techniques, but he also knows how to sell your company to the people who you would ideally like to recruit.

If these techniques didn't work, those companies who have already recognised the advantages would not have turned to headhunters for assistance. If you are still unsure, maybe you should consider this: Who would you send into the market to recruit new customers - your top performing, most impressive salesman or a customer service representative?