Not only are there 15 split placements in this week’s issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, but there are also multiple placements that bring with them BIG fees. How big?

For starters, Rich Grunenwald of Advisory and Consulting Services, LLC and Ben Banik of Integritas Search placed a Senior Global IT Director to earn a fee of $58,750 at 25%. In addition, it was Ben’s first split placement as a member of Top Echelon Network!

However, that’s not the only fee of $50K or more in this week’s issue.

That’s because Ron Sunshine of Ron Sunshine Associates, LLC and Chuck Sissom of Sissom & Associates placed a Senior Plant Manager to generate a fee of $50K, also at 25%. Excluding those two splits, there were three other placements accompanied by a fee of $30K or more.

Congratulations are also in order for Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search. That’s because Nick was part of four finalized split placements last week, the most of any recruiter listed below.

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

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

Please note that the placements listed below reflect deals finalized in Top Echelon Network for the period from September 24 through October 1, 2023.

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

Congratulations to everybody below for the split placements they made in Top Echelon Network!

This Week’s Top Echelon Split Placements

— — —

Job recruiter: Todd Porter of H.T. PROF Executive Search

Candidate recruiter: Michael Stuck of Gables Search Group

Job title: VP OF SALES

Overall placement fee: $8,000

Fee percentage: 20%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search

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

Job title: MANUFACTURING SUPERVISOR

Overall placement fee: $17,600

Fee percentage: 22%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search

Candidate recruiter: Sara Alexandroff of Sterling St. James, LLC

Job title: ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Overall placement fee: $21,375

Fee percentage: 22.5%

— — —

Job recruiter: Rich Grunenwald of Advisory and Consulting Services, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Ben Banik of Integritas Search

Job title: SENIOR GLOBAL IT DIRECTOR

Overall placement fee: $58,750

Fee percentage: 25%

— — —

Job recruiter: Ron Sunshine of Ron Sunshine Associates, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Chuck Sissom of Sissom & Associates

Job title: SENIOR PLANT MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $50,000

Fee percentage: 25%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nancy Hastings of The Hastings Group

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum

Job title: ASSISTANT REFRIGERATION MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $25,600

Fee percentage: 20%

— — —

Job recruiter: Chris Ramsay, CPC of Corporate Resources, LLC

Candidate recruiter: Jim Strickland of BioSource Recruiters

Job title: HUMAN RESOURCES GENERALIST

Overall placement fee: $18,750

Fee percentage: 25%

— — —

Job recruiter: Jeff Manga of 6 Degrees Search

Candidate recruiter: Cindy Chen of Focus Employment

Job title: FINANCE MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $37,500

Fee percentage: 25%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search

Candidate recruiter: Sara Alexandroff of Sterling St. James, LLC

Job title: MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $31,500

Fee percentage: 22.5%

— — —

Job recruiter: Amylyn Kyler of Kyler Professional Search

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum

Job title: ACCOUNTANT

Overall placement fee: $8,100

Fee percentage: Flat

— — —

Job recruiter: Laura Petraitis-Doll of LS Doll & Associates

Candidate recruiter: Scott Krepps of First Search, Inc.

Job title: SAFETY SPECIALIST – PLANT LEVEL

Overall placement fee: $22,500

Fee percentage: 25%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nasty Hastings of The Hastings Group

Candidate recruiter: Brad Dodge of iLocatum

Job title: COMPLEX HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Overall placement fee: $30,000

Fee percentage: 20%

— — —

Job recruiter: Nick Stoia, CPC of ASAP Search

Candidate recruiter: Kym Springer of Team Builders Recruiting and Consulting

Job title: QUALITY TEAM LEADER

Overall placement fee: $17,000

Fee percentage: 20%

— — —

Job recruiter: Shree Kumar of Max Populi, LLC

Candidate recruiter: David Duva of NSynergy Coaching & Staffing Solutions

Job title: RN TN VISA SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE

Overall placement fee: $15,000

Fee percentage: 15%

— — —

Job recruiter: Jason Sullivan of Ethical Search Professionals, Ltd.

Candidate recruiter: Trey Cameron of Cameron Craig Group

Job title: PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

Overall placement fee: $16,000

Fee percentage: 20%

— — —

If you’re a newer 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.

There are many interesting facets and intriguing intricacies involved with the largest split placement fee in the history of Top Echelon Network.

The first interesting and intriguing aspect is the size of the fee: more than $100K.

In addition, the split placement in question involved both the last Charter Member in Top Echelon Network and a new member.

And not only that, but the split placement also just happened to be the new member’s first-ever placement in the Network.

And perhaps what might be considered unsurprising, in addition to interesting and intriguing, is the fact that the placement—and the fee—are the direct result of following Top Echelon’s best practices and executing the Network fundamentals.

No silver bullet. No black magic. No crystal ball. Just best practices, basics, and fundamentals. Boring? Maybe. Profitable? Ridiculously so.

As reported in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog last month, Steve Brody of Executive Resource Systems and Trish Kuykendall of Source Financial Staffing were recently responsible for the largest split placement fee in the history of Top Echelon Network. (Which is more than 35 years, if you’re curious.)

Steve and Trish placed a Tax Partner to earn a placement fee of $100,917. After Top Echelon’s 6% brokerage fee, each recruiter took home the tidy sum of $47,431. Both Executive Resource Systems and Source Financial Staffing will pay $1,620 in membership dues this year. That’s quite a return on their investment in Network membership, based upon this split placement alone.

So where do best practices and the fundamentals enter the picture? Right about the time that Steve and Trish first met during an Accounting & Finance Virtual Core Group (VCG) meeting. VCG meetings are monthly teleconference call meetings that involve Network members who work in the same industry and/or niche.

One of the things that members do during these meetings is share hot job orders and candidates. Although you may have already guessed, Steve shared his Tax Partner job order. “I think the first time that Trish and I ever met was during one of those [Virtual Core Group] meetings,” said Steve. “I recommend to recruiters in the Network to join those monthly meetings. I’ve made several placements with many recruiters who I never met or communicated with, prior to attending the meetings.”

However, the VCG meetings are just Exhibit A in terms of the basics and fundamentals integral to this historic split placement. Exhibit B is Top Echelon Connect 2023, the Network’s training and networking event held in New Orleans earlier this year. Steve attended the event, as did Ron Thomason of Source Financial Staffing.

“What else that was helpful was that the president of our firm went to New Orleans and decided that our agencies were similar,” said Trish. “So he pointed me to Steve’s jobs, and we met during the Accounting & Finance meeting that same month. That meeting was helpful in determining the top priorities for Steve’s search. So we started doing some dedicated recruiting in California and got connected with the gentleman who was eventually placed. He was not actively looking for a new job; he didn’t even have his resume together when I presented him to Steve.”

So for this placement that resulted in a $100K fee, Steve presented the candidate’s LinkedIn profile to his client. Chalk up another interesting and intriguing aspect to this placement.

And that brings us to Exhibit C in terms of the best practices and fundamentals of Network membership. Steve and Trish worked together over the course of multiple months to help the candidate navigate the recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process. The result: resounding success.

“With searches at this level, you have to be patient,” said Trish, “but it was certainly worth it. And Steve was great to work with. Each partner determines how they like to work, and Steve was great at keeping me in the loop and telling me what was going on. We were able to work efficiently with one another.”

“Trish and I certainly worked well together during this process,” agreed Steve. “The [Virtual] Core Group meetings are important for Network success and so is finding great partners with whom you can make splits.”

Something else that may not be surprising is that a recruiter who has made 143 placements in Top Echelon Network and a recruiter who has made one placement in the Network have similar advice for how to be successful as a Top Echelon member.

“Just get involved,” said Trish. “Set up your alerts and keep an eye out for what other people have going on. So many people are looking for remote work, other recruiters might have clients that are a fit for your candidates and vice-versa. We all have so much going on that the Network is sometimes not the first stop, so to speak, in our recruiting process, but it should be. If it isn’t, then you could be leaving money on the table.”

“Not only are the Core Groups important, but so are the training and the conferences,” echoed Steve, “especially the well-known speakers like [Greg] Doersching and [Barb] Bruno. I’ve learned quite a bit from these trainers that have resulted in additional placements. I’d also say to be proactive and put all of your job orders in the Network or send them directly to other recruiters who specialize in your area.

“Finally, pick up the phone and ask for help.”

And thus, this perhaps best illustrates that the best practices and fundamentals for making placements—split or otherwise—have never changed and quite possibly never will.

Top Echelon Network Charter Member Steve Brody of Executive Resource Systems knows all about old-school recruiting. And he’s the perfect example of why, despite the never-ending barrage of technology that has assailed the profession during the past several decades, the old-school method remains the most effective.

The numbers, of course, speak for themselves. As the last Charter Member in TE, Steve has made 143 Top Echelon placements during his tenure in the Network. That’s an average of a little more than four placements per year. Keep in mind this time period includes at least three recessions, including the Great Recession, as well as the COVID-19 lockdowns.

In addition, Steve recently became a member of Top Echelon’s exclusive Million Dollar Club, meaning that he’s billed a million dollars through the Network. (That million dollars is what he took away from those 143 placements, excluding Top Echelon’s 6% brokerage fee and what the other recruiters earned.)

And of course, Steve vaulted over the $1 million mark recently by sharing in the largest split placement fee in Top Echelon Network history ($100,917). Steve achieved the feat by placing a Tax Partner with fellow Network member Trish Kuykendall of Source Financial Staffing.

In fact, that placement alone demonstrates how Steve’s old-school approach can pay off in ways that you can’t quantify—outside of a placement fee, that is.

That’s because the search assignment that led to a placement fee of more than $100K was his first search assignment with a new client. Not only was it an exclusive retained search, but it was also the result of Steve being directly referred to the managing partner of the organization by the managing partner of one of his current clients.

“I’ve known the person who made the recommendation for 20 years,” said Steve. “I’ve met him in person and I’ve had regular conversations with him, both personal and business. I know the names of his wife and kids and his personal hobbies. As it turned out, that led him to be very loyal to me both in terms of executive searches and also referrals to his friends, who are also high-level partners at CPA firms.”

Based upon that recommendation alone, the company granted Steve an exclusive retainer to fill the $500K Tax Partner position. “But for” the relationship that Steve built with the initial managing partner, he never would have received the search assignment.

But Steve’s old-school approach—and the success that he experienced with it on this placement—does not stop there.

That’s because Steve is as big an advocate of continuous training and education as he is of networking. In fact, he makes it a point to attend Top Echelon conferences and conventions regularly. It’s during these events that he compares notes with other Network members, as well as enjoys the training provided by the keynote speakers.

Steve attended Top Echelon Connect 2023 in New Orleans earlier this year. The keynote speaker for that event was Greg Doersching.

“Greg made a tremendous presentation that included his recommendations on fee agreement guarantees, many of which I had never heard before,” said Steve. “Greg also volunteered that if any TE member wanted advice, to call him anytime.”

This happened to be fortuitous. That’s because Steve’s new client contacted him prior to the candidate’s start date with the organization. The reason: to renegotiate some of the terms of the fee agreement. Specifically, the client wanted to extend the guarantee period from 90 days to six months. So, as you might imagine, Steve called Greg.

“I left him a message and he called me right back,” said Steve. “He told me that he would give me 30 minutes on the phone at no charge. He reinforced what he said in New Orleans and then gave me even more advice. I used a lot of that advice when I got back to my client, ended up keeping the 90-day guarantee, and the client paid the fee within days of that conversation.”

Steve Brody is an old-school recruiter in a new-school world who is taking advantage of the best of both worlds to continue experiencing extraordinary success. He isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, either. In fact, quite the opposite appears to be the case. Since the beginning of 2021, Steve has made 28 split placements in Top Echelon, a profitable pace regardless of Network tenure.

“I’ve had a great run and I’m not going to stop anytime soon,” said Steve. “And I want to welcome other recruiters who would like to work with me to give me a call. I would be happy to chat with anybody who could help me.”

Steve currently has several open client assignments, including another exclusive search for a Tax Partner. If any TE members are interested in attempting some cold call recruiting to assist Steve in filling these jobs, he would welcome the assistance. Feel free to contact him by email at brody@erscareers.com or call him at (714) 744-4000.

We’re continuously updating both the Top Echelon recruiting software and our split placement network software. So we’re pleased to announce the following software updates!

1. SourceWhale Integration

An integration with SourceWhale‘s sourcing platform allows you to easily import candidate data into Top Echelon Software.

This integration must be connected and configured via SourceWhale’s interface. Book a demo with the SourceWhale team to learn more!

2. Swordfish Integration

Check existing People records in your database against Swordfish’s 3.5 billion accurate contact profiles to find verified cell phone numbers and email addresses that you could be missing.

Book a session with the Swordfish team to learn more!

3. Interseller Integration

Interseller‘s new integration with Top Echelon allows you to automatically sync contacts into Top Echelon Software whenever they’re added to an Interseller sequence.

Remember, you can always stay informed about software updates by visiting the official Top Echelon Product Updates page. You can see current and past updates, as well as which updates and upgrades are next.

If you have questions about these updates or about any other aspect of your Top Echelon Network and/or recruiting software account, you can:

→ Send an email to support@topechelon.com.

→ Visit our Help Center for answers to your questions or start a live chat by clicking the “Contact” link in the navigation bar.

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, Top Echelon 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 Top Echelon Network.

So that is why I’m inviting—or in other words, strongly encouraging—you to attend one of this month’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.)

Tuesday, October 10:

• 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. — Healthcare
• 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. — Sales & Marketing

Wednesday, October 11:

• 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. — Manufacturing/Engineering
• 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. — Information Technology
• 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. — Biotechnology/Pharmacology

Thursday, October 12:

• 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. — Architectural/Engineering/Construction
• 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. — Accounting & Finance

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 newest software updates for both Top Echelon Network and the Top Echelon recruiting software.
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.