We have big fees and first split placements in this issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog!

First, the big fee. Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing and Mack Moore of Redline Recruits recently placed a Director of Sales – Walmart and Sams Club to earn a $55K split fee at 25%.

Second, the first placements. Two recruiters recently made their first split placement as a member of TE Network:

1. James Bates of InnovaMatch, LLC
2. Jim Cole of Execufit

And since there is much to celebrate, let us celebrate accordingly!

As a friendly neighborhood reminder, here is the information that we publish with our split placements:

• Names of the trading partners involved (with their profile photos, when available)
• Job title
• Overall placement fee (before TE Network’s 6% brokerage fee, of course)
• Fee percentage

Please note that the placements listed below reflect deals finalized in TE Network for the period from September 14 through September 27, 2026.

Remember, if you don’t want information related to your split placements published in The Pinnacle, please send an email to marketing@topechelon.com to that effect.

Once again, congratulations to everybody below for the split placements they made in TE Network!

This Week’s Split Placements

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Job recruiter: Claire Monte of Data Search Network

Candidate recruiter: James Bates of InnovaMatch, LLC

Job title: DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR

Overall placement fee: $39,000

Fee percentage: 20%

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Job recruiter: Maria Hemminger of MJ Recruiters, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of Cameron Craig Group (inactive)

Job title: ENGINEERING & MAINTENANCE MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $41,250

Fee percentage: 25%

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Job recruiter: Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing

Candidate recruiter: Jim Cole of Execufit

Job title: DIRECTOR OF WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS

Overall placement fee: $33,000

Fee percentage: 20%

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Job recruiter: Brendan Smith of Southern Staffing Group

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting

Job title: FIELD SERVICE TECHNICIAN

Overall placement fee: $27,872

Fee percentage: 20%

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Job recruiter: Aldin Beslagic of BestLogic Staffing

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting

Job title: DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Overall placement fee: $22,500

Fee percentage: 15%

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Job recruiter: Larry Basilone of Basilone Executive Search

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum Recruiting

Job title: MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEER

Overall placement fee: $20,000

Fee percentage: 25%

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Job recruiter: Jeff Katz of JSK Recruiting

Candidate recruiter: Steve Kohn of Affinity Executive Search, Inc.

Job title: MAINTENANCE MILLWRIGHT

Overall placement fee: $22,422

Fee percentage: Flat

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Job recruiter: Amy Chapman of Key People Staffing

Candidate recruiter: Mack Moore of Redline Recruits

Job title: DIRECTOR OF SALES – WALMART AND SAMS CLUB

Overall placement fee: $55,000

Fee percentage: 25%

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Job recruiter: Frank Sommer of SearchStars, Inc.

Candidate recruiter: Jim Strickland of BioSource Recruiters

Job title: ATHLETIC TRAINER

Overall placement fee: $17,123

Fee percentage: 25%

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If you’re a newer TE Network member and you’d like to enjoy more success in our recruiter network, then I encourage you to contact Top Echelon Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can do so by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

The key to being a successful Top Echelon Network member is knowing your niche-relevant partners.

One way that Network partners have been discovering one another is through the Network Candidates sourcing tool. This allows members to see who has “what” sitting on their shelves and discover partners who work their niches or who have candidates that are a fit for their roles.

Opting into the Network Candidates sourcing tool is critical to being discovered as a vital Network partner, and it’s simple to do and can change your activity in Top Echelon.

To do so, navigate to the Network Candidates Database Settings in the software and check the box next to “Yes, I want my firm’s resumes in the TEN Candidates Database.” If you do not see this option, check with your agency owner or the main contact on your account.

If you do not have candidates in the system, here is a quick way to do a Bulk Resume Upload.

Our commitment is your success in Top Echelon Network, and this is just one more way to gain traction in your ongoing quest to make more split placements.

If you have any questions, you can contact me by calling 330.595.17423 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Let me tell you the story of a phone call that I received from a TE Network member once upon a time. I’m relaying this story because it’s instructive and insightful regarding your membership in the Network.

This recruiter called me, and she was NOT happy. Allow me to explain why.

This recruiter had shared jobs with the rest of the Network, as she had done for many years. (In fact, she had been part of the Network for over 10 years.)

One of her job orders caught the attention of another TE Network member. Unfortunately, that Network member did not read the comments that the job order recruiter submitted with the job.

The reason it was unfortunate is because the job order recruiter left specific instructions in the comments section. Those instructions included a request to call the job order recruiter before working the job.

Instead, the candidate recruiter proceeded to call the job recruiter’s client by mistake, in an attempt to source candidates for the job. And yes, by the job recruiter’s client, I mean the client with that particular job opening.

The hiring manager became apprised of the situation and called the job order recruiter. So now you probably have a better idea of why the job order recruiter was upset. That was, at best, an awkward conversation.

And now, the rest of the story

But wait! Our story doesn’t end there.

That’s because another candidate recruiter in TE Network saw another one of this member’s jobs. It just so happened that it was a different job with the same client. So what happened?

Yes, you guessed it. The candidate recruiter did NOT read the comments associated with the job. And then that recruiter called into the client.

And as if that was not bad enough, the candidate recruiter also contacted a candidate within the organization who was at least three rungs higher on the ladder than what the job called for.

Once again, the hiring manager became apprised of the situation. And once again, they called the job order recruiter.

So now you really know why the job order recruiter was upset, especially since this was exactly what they did NOT want to happen after sharing these jobs with the Network.

Now, I will say that the candidate recruiters in question were not rookie recruiters. They weren’t even new Network members. In fact, they had been successful recruiters in TE Network for quite some time.

And yes, there was no malice involved. The candidate recruiters were not trying to get away with anything, nor did they do anything unethical.

No malice . . . but costly oversights

However, their collective oversights were costly for the job order recruiter.

I can not emphasis enough how much you must strive to avoid situations like these in Top Echelon’s recruiting network. And everything that I just detailed could have been avoided if the candidate recruiters had done two simple things:

1. Read the comments that the job order recruiter submitted with the job.
2. Called the job order recruiter prior to working the job.

And that is why you MUST call the job order recruiter before working their job. Even if there are no comments associated with the job, you should call them for information that could be vital to the search. At the very least, you need to make sure that you’re “on the same page.”

Communication is one of The Four Pillars of TE Network. So is Quality, for that matter. Both are necessary to make every Network interaction the best that it can possibly be.

Do you think the job order recruiter will want to work with these candidate recruiters again? What would be your reaction, if you were the job order recruiter?

When in doubt, communicate with your TE Network trading partners! Even if you aren’t in doubt, communicate anyway.

And absolutely, positively call the job order recruiter before working their job!

If you have any questions about this blog post or about your TE Network membership, please contact me. You can do so at 330.455.1433, x156 or at drea@topechelon.com.

I’m pleased to announce the Virtual Core Group (VCG) meeting schedule for the month of October!

For those of you who don’t know, TE Network recruiters share the following information during Virtual Core Group teleconference call meetings:

• Hot job orders and candidates
• Information about the activity they’re seeing in the marketplace and/or in their niche
• Ideas for increased production on their desks and within their agencies

These are the activities that lead most directly to making more split placements in TE Network.

So that is why I’m inviting—or in other words, strongly encouraging—you to attend one of October’s Virtual Core Group meetings. Below is the complete VCG schedule for October, including the industries involved and the time that each meeting will be held. (Note: all times are Eastern.)

Thursday, October 8:

• 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. — Manufacturing & Engineering
• 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. — Accounting & Finance

Wednesday, October 14:

• 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. — Construction/MEP/Civil Engineering
• 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. — IT/AI: Virtual Core Group

You can join the meeting to which you belong by accessing the information listed below.

Google Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/qba-qdic-kou

Below is the agenda for each Virtual Core Group meeting:

1. Welcome
2. Roll call of the members
3. I will share the latest software updates for both TE Network and the Top Echelon recruiting software (also known as TE Recruit).
4. Members will share their hot jobs with corresponding group discussion.
5. I will direct a software and Network protocol Q&A session to close the call.

It is my goal that this agenda will help you take away more from the meeting than just hot jobs and/or candidates. Hopefully, it will help make you more knowledgeable in terms of the Top Echelon community.

If you’d like to join one of the groups listed above or if you’d like to start a new group, please contact me.

You can do so by calling 330.595.1742 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.

Top Echelon offers a free monthly webinar as part of its Expert Recruiter Coaching Series.

These webinars touch upon a variety of recruiter-related topics. These topics deal with both job candidates and clients. As always, our goal with these webinars is to help agency recruiters and search consultants just like YOU make more placements.

We record these webinars for recruiters who can’t attend the live presentation, and we’re now pleased to offer the video from our most recent webinar by mental performance coach Donnie Gupton.

The title of that webinar (and corresponding training video) is “The Voice in Your Head is Capping Your Revenue.”

Below is the official description for this training video:

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Keep an eye out for the next free webinar in our Expert Recruiter Coaching Series!