Yesterday I had a conversation that summed up everything I've spent six years building.

I reached out to a former track and field athlete who for the past decade has been a head of sales at scale-up tech firms. He's helped multiple companies exit. Some to IPO. The kind of track record that makes hiring managers sit up straight.

He was already at offer stage elsewhere so the timing wasn't right for the role I was working on. But before we wrapped up the call, he said something I've heard a version of more times than I can count.

"Alex, I love your mission. I really do. I usually work with one or two recruiters throughout my career but I'd love to work with you in the future and be in your network. We need to grab a coffee — I want to hear more about what you're doing."

That conversation didn't result in a placement. But in two or three years when I'm working on a senior sales role in tech, I know exactly who I'm calling. And I know he'll take the call, trust my read on the company and seriously consider whatever I put in front of him.

That's the superpower.

It's not a database. It's a network built on a mission.

Most recruiters build their network transactionally. They reach out when they have a role, place someone, and move on. The relationship lives and dies by the timing of a single opportunity.

I've done it differently.

From day one, A2B has been built around a specific mission — creating career pathways for athletes transitioning into the business world, specifically into sales. That mission attracts a very particular type of person. High performers. People who led from the front in sport, competed at the highest level they could reach, and brought that same competitive wiring into a corporate career.

When I reach out to someone and they hear what A2B is about, something clicks. They don't see a recruiter trying to fill a role. They see someone who understands where they came from and genuinely cares about where they're going.

That alters the entire dynamic of the relationship between candidate and recruiter.

Why athletes end up being the best salespeople

I've written about this before but it's worth saying again here because it's the foundation of everything.

Seventy percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were former athletes. I've placed athletes across Australia, the US and SE Asia and the feedback from hiring managers is almost always the same. Coachable. Competitive. Process driven. Resilient. They take feedback and implement it the next day. They don't have bad weeks twice in a row.

The best salespeople I've placed weren't the ones with the most industry experience or the longest list of logos on their resume. They were the ones who were wired to compete, trained to handle rejection and conditioned to show up and do the work whether they felt like it or not.

That's an athlete.

And here's what makes this interesting from a headhunting perspective. The highest performing salespeople in any market — the ones you actually want on your team — are rarely actively looking. They're billing. They're performing. They're not scrolling job boards.

To find them, you have to already know them. You have to have a relationship built before the opportunity exists. And when you do have the right role, they have to trust you enough to listen.

That's what six years of building a mission-driven network looks like in practice.

What this means if you're trying to hire today.

If you're a sales leader, CEO or business owner trying to hire the best salesperson in your market right now, here's my honest take.

The best candidate is probably not applying for your role. They're not on Seek. They're not checking LinkedIn job ads. They're busy being good at what they do somewhere else.

And there's a reasonable chance they were an athlete in a previous life.

To get to them, you need someone who already has the relationship. Someone they'll take a call from. Someone whose judgment they trust when it comes to which company is worth considering and which ones aren't.

That's what I've spent six years building. A network of high performing sales professionals who were athletes before they were salespeople. Who are drawn to the A2B mission. Who trust my recommendations. And who are always open to a conversation when I come calling with the right opportunity.

I'm not going to pretend that's easy to replicate quickly. It took six years of putting the candidate first, showing up consistently and building something people actually want to be a part of.

But the result is a headhunting capability that I'm genuinely confident will outperform what most companies can do internally when it comes to finding elite sales talent.

The Bottom Line

Outsource your headhunting to someone with a mission that attracts the people you want.

Because the best salespeople in the market aren't looking for a job. They're waiting to hear from someone they already trust.

If you're building a sales team and want to tap into that network, DM me directly or reach out through athlete2business.com. Tell me what you're building and I'll tell you who I'd go after.