How HQ Magazine Nearly Tripled Its Sales Team in a Hard-to-Hire Industry

The Challenge

HQ Magazine operates in the counterculture media space — a unique industry where finding any team member, sales or otherwise, is genuinely difficult. The company needed to push its marketing efforts and grow a sales team built on commission-only hunters: reps who know money is made in commission and who chase accounts rather than manage them. Sorting for that profile, in that industry, is not something a typical resume search handles well.

The Approach

HyperHired did the heavy lifting — sourcing, deep screening, and qualifying — and sent over candidates the client said she would not have followed up on from a resume alone, but who turned out to be exactly right once vetted and interviewed. The team handled the full administrative load: confirming interviews, sending resume information, and prequalifying, so the client's only job was to interview the cream of the crop. At points she was overwhelmed by the sheer number of qualified candidates and asked to pause, did another week of interviews, and kept finding strong people.

The Results

HQ Magazine grew its sales team from three to eight — onboarding five new reps and finalizing their training, already hitting the phones — with up to five more potentially in the pipeline. The quality surprised her: rather than the "hire ten to get one star" outcome she'd braced for, all five standouts looked capable of staying and growing, spanning everything from a rep with 25 years of experience to a one-year rep with obvious potential. The company planned another round heading into the fourth quarter.

"It wasn't one star — I'm looking at all of them going, wow, they have what it takes." — Sandy, HQ Magazine

Hire in a Hard-to-Staff Industry

HQ Magazine found commission-only hunters in an industry where talent is scarce. Talk to HyperHired about recruiting for your niche.