our research firm needs people capable of a very consultative sale for new business and account management role. Our CEO was a partner at McK and would like to see more consultants joining the sales team.The problem is the pay - the base is pretty rubbish (35-40). Commission can be huge (100 - 200 not uncommon) but everyone I've spoken to so far wont take the risk because of the cut in base. There are share options too, which could be worth six figures in about 2 years. Any ideas how to recruit? (apart from increasing the base! 'Managements' reply is that if people perform well, they'll be rewarded well in commissions)

Mate, with that attitude your company will struggle... big time. And I find your approach to recruiting professionals... naive at best.I'll explain. Your company is after biz developers/account managers. The market is full of people (and I am talking about good people) with specific skills in this area that would be more than happy to accept a job for 35-40k basic. That is, I guess, the going rate afterall. I'll take another guess: The average biz dev/account manager that you find with a medium to large company (I mean a sucessful one) is someone with and undergraduate degree (possibly a 2.1) with 5-7 years of industry experience (3 on average in biz dev). Just a guess...But your company is very smart and in fact... it wants a lot more... it wants people capable of doing "consultative" sales and account management. Your CEO knows really well were to go and get the skills he needs... and he is also very aware of the value that consultants could bring to the business ... afterall he was a consultant himself and with MCK.Now, the problem is that your company wants quite a range of sofisticated skills ... people with consulting experience and an impressive CV...but doesn't want to pay for it.The argument that people that perform well will be rewarder well is a floored one... because it doesn't factor in the risk element, and in your case 100% OF THE RISK IS ON THE EMPLOYEE. Now, consider this...On average, someone that is a sucessful consultant and has 3-5 years experience (and I am not talking about MBBB), earns multiples of what your company offers. He or She, went to a red brick Uni were he/she had to work really hard for his/hers degree (2.1 would be a minimum) and has invested a lot (time, effort and money) in a postgraduate degree (possibly an MBA).You do the math...

outsource to india or eastern europe.It's simple economics. The labour you request will be supplied at a certain price (the wage).At the wage you are paying it will be near impossible to obtain the labour you request.As the poster above noted, the majority of the risk lies with the employee.Why not raise the base, but reduce the bonus?

Well you can certainly outsource to Eastern europe, it can be cheaper but keep in mind the quality of work. Even though there are some great people you got to find them first, and when you do...the $range can differ a lot from place to place. e.g. in Moscow a consultant with good knowledge n background of 3-4 years would ask for 4-5.000 USD. in St Petersburg it is about 2.5-3000. Going to India - ask the local guys

gents (/ ladies) - I completely agree that all of the risk is with the person joining and that it's near impossible to attract people - hence my question!!the company is working - we're 2000 people, growing at 80% / year (we will hire another 1200 this year). We've tried using offshore people to do the selling and it doesnt work. before you give me a hard time about how you dont know of any consultancy firms growing at that rate, dont forget we're not a consultancy, we're a research firm. We just want to hire consultants because people who can sell research are great at standard products but not many can cope with the complexity what we do and how clients use us.Any other ideas?

Take on bright graduates and use insight from your CEO to train them like McK consultants. Offer a competitive grad salary and in 2 years time you could have someone to do the job for you.

patheticcoff it up... chopper

Take on bright graduates and use insight from your CEO to train them like McK consultants. Offer a competitive grad salary and in 2 years time you could have someone to do the job for you.

It doesn't matter how many times you post it, trainee to acct manager in 2 years isn't a good idea...