Cold email agency for recruiters and staffing firms
Sales.co runs done-for-you cold email for recruiters and staffing firms that need client companies with roles to fill. The usual target is an HR or talent title, and it is the hardest inbox in this data: of 1,964 people in HR who got a first cold email between March and August 2026, 4 replied positively. Owners and executives at companies of up to 200 staff replied positively 0.35% of the time.
How HR contacts and small-company owners answer cold email
The unit is the contact: one person who got a first cold email from one of 20 B2B campaigns on the Sales.co platform between March 6 and August 31, 2026, with replies counted up to October 9, 2026. The campaigns sold different products and services, so the tables show how these people answer B2B cold email in general. A positive reply is one where the person shows interest, asks a question, asks to be contacted later or refers a colleague.
| Recipients | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All contacts in the 20 campaigns | 336,257 | 2,830 | 975 | 0.29% |
| HR department | 1,964 | 7 | 4 | 0.20% |
| Executive department, companies of up to 200 employees | 158,213 | 1,596 | 561 | 0.35% |
HR is a small part of what these campaigns emailed, so read the HR row as a range. 4 positive replies from 1,964 contacts is 0.20%, and with a sample this small the true rate could sit anywhere from about 0.1% to 0.5%. One campaign supplied 987 of the 1,964 HR contacts (50%) and none of the 4 positive replies. The other 17 campaigns together got all 4 from 977 contacts, or 0.41%.
HR department, by company size
| Recipient's company | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 500 employees | 653 | 6 | 3 | 0.46% |
| More than 500 employees | 1,257 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% |
| No size on file | 54 | 1 | 1 | 1.85% |
No HR contact at a company with more than 500 employees replied positively (1,257 contacts). An HR director there can get dozens of near-identical recruiter emails in a week, which is why the list is built on hiring signals such as a funding round, a new location or posted roles.
Owners and executives, by company size
| Employees at the recipient's company | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 64,896 | 896 | 322 | 0.50% |
| 11 to 50 | 64,830 | 538 | 178 | 0.27% |
| 51 to 200 | 28,487 | 162 | 61 | 0.21% |
Under 200 staff there is often no talent acquisition function, and the manager with the open role is the buyer. In this group the smallest companies answered most: 0.50% at 1 to 10 employees, 0.21% at 51 to 200. One campaign supplied 91,441 of the 158,213 contacts (58%) and 204 of the 561 positive replies, a rate of 0.22%. The other 18 campaigns together got 357 from 66,772, or 0.53%.
The numbers as a file: cold-email-recruiters-and-staffing-firms-2026.csv. The all-contact figures and the method are in the cold email conversion rate benchmarks.
Who Sales.co emails for a recruiter
| Segment | Who gets the email |
|---|---|
| Retained search | CHRO |
| Contingent placement | VP and director of talent acquisition, HR business partner |
| Contract labour | Procurement director for contingent labour, MSP programme manager |
| Companies under 200 staff | The hiring manager with the open role |
Sales.co has no staffing case study and no published staffing result. More on this vertical: the Sales.co recruiters and staffing firms page.
Lists the campaigns are built from
| List | Contacts | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Newly Funded Startups | 19,344 | A raise is followed by a hiring plan within weeks. The broadest funding list. |
| Seed Startups | 8,820 | Teams hiring their first five people, with no recruiter and no process. |
| Series A Startups | 4,260 | The round where headcount plans get written and the first in-house recruiter arrives. |
| Series B Startups | 1,728 | Small enough to work by hand, and by now there is a TA team and an agency budget. |
| SaaS Companies | 52,000 | For technical recruiting, filtered by size and by posted roles. |
| Trucking Companies | 118,000 | For driver and logistics staffing. Our largest trade list, in a market with constant turnover. |
| General Contractors | 52,800 | For trades staffing. Project starts drive the hiring and the owner is the buyer. |
| Healthcare Lists | 374,800 | These reach the professionals themselves, so they serve candidate-side outreach. |
| Nurses | 49,800 | Nurses, not the facilities that hire them. Useful for a travel-nursing firm building a bench. |
Funding is the cleanest hiring trigger that can be bought, so the startup lists do most of the work for tech and professional staffing.
A comparison of vendors for this vertical: best lead generation companies for recruiters.
Sales.co plans
| Plan | Emails per month | Price | Setup fee | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Up to 10,000 | $2,000/mo | None | Month-to-month |
| 15,000 | Up to 15,000 | $2,500/mo | None | Month-to-month |
| 20,000 | Up to 20,000 | $3,000/mo | None | Month-to-month |
Add-ons on any plan: cold calls +$1,500/mo, ads +$1,000/mo, LinkedIn +$1,000/mo. Every plan includes both tracks, TAM Takeover and Intent Takeover. The fee covers strategy, list building, a unique email for every prospect, the sending domains and mailboxes, follow-up on every positive reply, a US account strategist and live dashboards. Sending starts within 7 days. Full pricing.
Questions
Does cold email work for recruiters looking for clients?
On HR titles alone, rarely: 4 positive replies from 1,964 HR contacts, and none from the 1,257 at companies with more than 500 employees. Owners and executives at companies of up to 200 staff replied positively 0.35% of the time (561 of 158,213).
Has Sales.co run campaigns for staffing firms?
Sales.co has no staffing case study and no published staffing result. The numbers on this page come from campaigns for other kinds of companies that emailed the same titles.
What does it cost?
Sales.co charges $2,000/mo for up to 10,000 emails, $2,500 for 15,000 and $3,000 for 20,000, month-to-month with no setup fee.
How fast does a campaign start?
Sending starts within 7 days at Sales.co.
Reply data from the Sales.co sending platform, read October 9, 2026: first emails sent March 6 to August 31, 2026 in 20 campaigns. Targeting and list counts from the Sales.co recruiters and staffing firms page. Pricing from sales.co/pricing, October 9, 2026. Report a change: contact.
Other industries: fintech companies · IT services firms and MSPs · manufacturers · marketing agencies · seed-stage SaaS startups · cybersecurity companies · healthcare companies · logistics companies · software companies · professional services firms · consulting firms
Related: Conversion rate benchmarks · Best cold email agency for B2B · List building · Reply management · Domains and warmup