Last updated: July 2026
You are hiring a BDM, a Specification Manager, or a State Manager, and you are deciding who to brief. Choose on two things: how much building products market knowledge the role genuinely needs, and the evidence the individual recruiter can show you. Not the label on the agency email signature.
A disclosure before anything else. I sell specialist building products sales recruitment, so I have a side in this. The framework below is built to be used with any recruiter, including me. If the role does not need a specialist, I will tell you.
What do the different recruiter types actually mean?
A few plain definitions, because the labels get used loosely.
A specialist building products recruiter only works sales briefs in this industry. A generalist agency works briefs across many industries, with building products as one area among many. A functional specialist focuses on a job function, such as sales or finance, across industries rather than on one industry. A sector specialist is a consultant who works one industry deeply, and that can sit inside a larger agency.
The label on the door does not decide the individual consultant's depth. A sector specialist inside a big generalist agency can have more building products depth than a small firm that calls itself niche. Judge the person in front of you, not the letterhead.
When is each type the right choice?
| Specialist building products recruiter | Generalist agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Roles that need product, buyer, channel or standards knowledge a hire cannot pick up quickly. Most BDM, Spec Manager, State Manager and Account Manager roles across construction chemicals, building envelope, civil and infrastructure, commercial interiors and lighting. | Roles outside sales such as finance, operations or engineering, sales roles in adjacent industries, or entry-level sales where you plan to train from scratch. |
| Search method | Usually a direct approach to known candidates, many of them already employed. Ask them to confirm. | Often advertising and database search, sometimes a direct approach. Ask which. |
| Evidence to request | Recent placements in the same role, and how they map the candidate pool. | Relevant sales placements, and their search method for your role. |
| Likely limitations | A smaller market, so more chance of conflicts or off-limits candidates. | Less sector depth, so more of the screening falls back to you. |
| Conflicts and off-limits | Ask who they cannot approach because of existing client relationships. | Fewer sector off-limits, but confirm it anyway. |
| Fee terms | Compare on the same base and the same engagement model. | Compare on the same base and the same engagement model. |
| Guarantee terms | Ask for the written replacement terms and exclusions. | Ask for the written replacement terms and exclusions. |
A four-step decision rule follows.
1. Define what the hire must have on day one and cannot be taught quickly.
2. Test whether the individual consultant, not the agency, has that depth.
3. Compare how each recruiter would search and what constraints they carry.
4. Compare fees and guarantees on the same base.
What four questions test whether a recruiter is right for your role?
Four questions sort the credible operators from the rest, whoever you are calling.
Who have you placed in this exact role in the last twelve months? A strong answer names a few recent placements, with companies, products and rough outcomes, within the limits of client confidentiality. Recent volume varies, so allow for that.
Walk me through how you would map the candidate pool. You are listening for immediate fluency: sectors, companies, seniority, who is likely to move and why. Fresh research is part of any proper search, so this is about whether they already know the ground, not whether they will do the legwork.
What is your bar for a shortlist, and when would you tell me a candidate is not right? A recruiter who can describe what they reject, and why, has real standards. Ask for a recent example.
What are the written terms if it does not work out at six months? Ask for the replacement period, the exclusions and any candidate-ownership terms in writing, then compare them like for like.
You can ask me all four.
Does the role actually need a specialist?
Building products complexity changes the answer, though not every time. A merchant or trade-counter role that sells on availability and price is a different job from a specification role selling into architects and Tier 1 contractors. Some roles here are primarily volume or entry-level sales, where a specialist can be overkill.
In my experience almost all of the product knowledge gets learned on the job. Mine was. What you cannot shortcut is the market: who buys what, at what level, and who actually holds the relationships. A new hire can pick up a product range inside a normal ramp. Knowing the channel, the buyer and the names that matter is the part that takes years, and it is the part worth screening for on day one.
Specification leakage is one example of the kind of knowledge that shapes a brief. A rep gets a product specified with the architect, then loses the order at the contractor stage when a cheaper alternative is substituted. Screening for the capabilities that defend a specification is not a standard sales test, and a recruiter who does not know specs leak will not ask about it. I set this out in full in specification leakage in building products.
One example, with the details changed. A client briefed what read as a straightforward BDM role selling a facade product through contractors. One question on the first call changed it: who actually holds the specification here, the architect or the contractor? The product was being specified upstream and then lost at the contractor stage on price. That made it a specification-defence role, not a volume BDM role, and the shortlist changed completely, from relationship sellers to people who could hold a spec through tender.
There are also roles I turn down or refer on, because a generalist, a functional specialist or an internal hire is the better call.
The honest ones for me are internal sales, customer service and the occasional trade-counter role. They are real roles and they matter, but they are not my lane, so I would rather point a client to a generalist or tell them to advertise directly than take one on. I pride myself on knowing who is in the market, and I like my conversations to compound, so I stay in my lane on purpose.
How should you compare search method and engagement model?
The way a recruiter searches often matters more than the label. Ask whether they will advertise and search a database, or run a direct approach to people who are not looking. A disciplined direct search can beat an old database, and an old database can undo a firm that calls itself specialist. The best candidates for a technical sales role are often not applying to ads at all. That is the case for a direct approach, which I cover in the best candidate who never applied.
The engagement model is a separate decision from the recruiter type. In plain terms, retained means you pay in stages for a committed, exclusive search. Contingent exclusive means one agency works the role and is paid on placement. Multi-agency means several firms compete and only the successful one is paid. The commitment level can change the result more than the specialist-or-generalist label does. I cover this in retained vs contingent recruitment.
One honest limitation of a specialist: a smaller market can create conflicts and off-limits candidates. Ask who they cannot approach for you before you sign.
How do fees and guarantees compare?
Compare fees on the same basis or the number tells you nothing. Line up the calculation base, whether GST is on top, the payment trigger, exclusivity, the replacement period and the services included. A lower headline percentage on a different base is not a saving.
For reference, my own fees are 13 percent retained, 15 percent contingent exclusive and 17 percent multi-agency, all plus GST, with a six-month replacement guarantee on all tiers. Calculated on base plus 12 percent super plus $20k car or allowance. The full terms are on my fees and terms page at /fees. Fees and terms checked July 2026.
A replacement guarantee reduces part of the fee risk. It does not recover lost pipeline, management time or a vacancy, and it may carry exclusions. Ask for the written conditions: what counts as a qualifying failure, the replacement window, any candidate-ownership clause, and what happens if the role changes after you start.
The other cost sits in a hire that does not stick. A placement that fails a few months in costs the fee, the lost pipeline, the ramp already spent and a second hiring cycle. The Cost of a Bad Hire calculator walks that maths through.
What does specialism look like in practice?
Two things, both first-hand.
The first call. A specialist asks sector-specific questions early: spec-led or distribution-led, the contractor mix, the buyer at the major Tier 1s, the territory geography and the realistic drive times. Those are the questions that predict whether a candidate will actually perform, and they come from working one market.
The candidate conversation. I will tell a candidate not to take a role if I think it is wrong for them, even when it costs me the placement. That is a big part of why candidates keep taking my calls. You can read the reviews on my Sourcr profile. They are independent and I do not curate them.
On outcomes, I would rather show you evidence than assert it. Here is what I will stand behind. I have never failed to fill a retained search. Replacements do happen, because people do not always work out, and I treat the replacement as more important than the original placement. Keeping a client is easier and cheaper than winning a new one, so when it is the right thing to do I have extended a guarantee period rather than force a client's hand. That is the standard I hold myself to.
Where to go next
If you have decided the role needs specialist help, the quickest next step is to talk the brief through. Get in touch and tell me the role, the products and the territory. No obligation.
If you are still shaping the role, my guide to briefing a recruiter covers what to settle before you start a search.