🎙 Episode 23: Serving Through Selling: The Matchmaker Approach to Hiring Sales Talent

Chasing Impact, Not Sales Podcast — with guest Kelsey O'Neal

If you've ever hired a salesperson and thought… "Wait. Why is this harder than it should be?" You're going to love this episode.

This week, I'm sitting down with an old friend, Kelsey O'Neal. We worked together about six years ago (which feels like a minute and a lifetime), and since then she has built what I can only describe as a sales empire — not by chasing shiny tactics, but by obsessing over the thing that actually matters: placing the right people in the right rooms so everyone wins.

Kelsey is the founder of a recruiting agency that has placed 485+ sales reps (closers, setters, and high-level sales leadership like VPs and CROs). And what makes her approach different is that it's not "post and pray" hiring. It's not swiping on LinkedIn like Tinder. It's intentional. It's relational. It's what she calls the matchmaker approach.

And then we go even deeper… into the heart of sales, serving, faith, mindset, and why so many service-hearted people struggle to fully own their skill in selling.

This one is rich. Let's go.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Kelsey went from ministry → high-ticket sales → recruiting agency owner

• The real difference between hiring for skill vs hiring for culture and retention

• Why Kelsey's agency sweet spot is companies doing $1M–$5M with real infrastructure

• The "matchmaker vs Tinder" analogy for hiring sales talent (iconic, honestly)

• Why sales mastery is both science and art — framework + intuition

• What business owners must have in place before they hire their first rep (lead flow, systems, onboarding, expectations… the unsexy stuff that matters)

• What top sales reps should do to protect their career: keep call recordings (if allowed), track proof, know your numbers, don't burn bridges

Kelsey's best advice (don't skip this):

If it's time to hire, it's because you're solving a constraint. When you have more leads than you can handle and you have the systems to support a rep… then it's time.

And for sales pros: track your data like your future depends on it — because in this industry, it kind of does.

Connect with Kelsey O'Neal:

🌐 RemoteSalesCareer.com (Reach out if you're hiring: setters, closers, client success, or sales leadership)

If you're a founder trying to scale without chaos… or a sales pro trying to grow a real career with integrity… this episode is for you.

As always: we're not chasing sales. We're chasing impact.

Let's go.

Connect with Mandy: 🔗 Follow Mandy on LinkedIn 🌐 [email protected] 📥 Want a sales system that feels good and works? Let's talk.