Every recruiter sells the same line: "we'll find you the right person." And then the moment the offer is signed, they vanish. The placement, in their telling, is done.
That framing has the math wrong by about 90 days.
The bar isn't the offer
Senior hires don't fail because the wrong CV got picked. They fail because the right person got dropped into a new environment with no structured ramp, no real accountability, and no one watching whether they were actually finding their feet.
The numbers are ugly. Industry research keeps putting senior sales-hire failure rates at somewhere between a third and a half within the first 18 months. Most of that damage is done in the first 90 days — before quotas, before customer relationships, before anyone has the political cover to flag a problem.
"Senior hires don't fail because the wrong CV got picked. They fail because no one was paying attention in week three."
What good coaching actually does
Three things, mainly:
1. A weekly outside view
Someone who isn't your manager, isn't your peer, and isn't trying to sell you anything — asking the questions the people inside the company can't ask without political cost. "Are you actually clear on the comp plan?" "Is the team set up to support you, or are you carrying water for someone else's decisions?" A new hire's first 90 days are full of questions they don't yet feel safe asking out loud.
2. Structured ramp milestones
Not "figure it out and let me know how you're getting on." Specific, small, weekly outcomes — the kind that would normally be invisible until they show up at the wrong end of a quarterly review. Coaching front-loads that visibility.
3. A real handoff between the company and the hire
Coaching gives both sides a structured forum to renegotiate the role as it actually plays out, rather than the version that was sold during interviews. Good companies welcome this. Mediocre ones can't tolerate it. That's also useful information.
Why most recruiters won't do this
Three reasons. None flattering:
- It costs money. Coaching is real work; you can't fake it cheaply.
- It exposes bad placements. A recruiter who stays involved in the first 90 days quickly finds out which of their candidates were the wrong call. Most prefer not to find out.
- The contract is silent on it. Standard recruitment contracts end at the start date. Why volunteer accountability you weren't asked for?
The TriForge model
Three months of coaching is built into every placement we run. It's not an upsell, it's not optional, and it's not a pamphlet of "tips." It's structured weekly sessions with the new hire — kept simple, focused on what the role actually demands, and accountable to outcomes the hiring manager and the candidate agreed on at the start.
We do it because the math is straightforward. A failed senior hire costs a company 6–12 months of lost revenue, plus the cost of running the search again. Three months of structured coaching costs a fraction of that and dramatically improves the odds it doesn't happen.
The offer being signed isn't the finish line. It's the moment the work starts mattering.
Our model, in practice.
Every TriForge placement comes with three months of structured coaching. Invoiced on the candidate's start date.
How Our Sales Recruitment Works