Recruiting Veteran Leon Rutkowski: AI ‘Falls Short’ In Tech Sales, Lacks ‘Human Touch’ And ‘Authenticity’

'’The problem with these AI apps that are coming out is they are just tools, they don’t have a personality’ said LR Squared co-founder Leon Rutkowski. ‘They don’t pick up what exactly the customer is looking for. Where it falls short is there is no human touch. There is a lack of authenticity and failure to follow through.’

Leon Rutkowski, co-founder and partner of LR Squared, a recruiting firm that places customer-facing sales reps and solution architects at solution providers and technology vendors, says AI is coming up short when it comes to replacing sales reps.

“The problem with these AI apps that are coming out is they are just tools, they don’t have a personality” said Rutkowski, who started LR Squared with his wife, Lynne, six years ago after a 30-year-plus career driving sales growth for solution providers and vendors. “They don’t pick up what exactly the customer is looking for. Where it falls short is there is no human touch. There is a lack of authenticity and failure to follow through.”

Rutkowski, who has recruited for solution providers including Comport Consulting, ServicePoint and Daymark Solutions and technology vendors including Verge.io, Panzura and Gluware, said AI may be able to provide information but it cannot walk into a customer meeting and “build trust” and win business. “That is why authenticity, human judgement and industry currency still matter,” he said.

In fact, Rutkowski said he sees the pendulum swinging to a back-to-basics approach in sales with a focus on “picking up the phone, making an appointment and getting in front of” customers.

“If you want to win, you have to hire the best and you have to build a culture that is focused on building trust with the customers and then executing from a sales and marketing perspective,” said Rutkowski.

One sign of the intense competition for top talent among solution providers is the rise in salaries for sales reps and solution architects in the channel, said Rutkowski.

“Today we are seeing the salaries partners are paying moving from $70,000 to $80,000 [that] they used to pay to $110,000 to $150,000-plus,” he said. “Partners definitely see that they need to invest more to get a better grade of talent. … The channel is definitely under more pressure to get this talent because of the constant need to find qualified pipeline that they can convert into revenue.”

Below is more of CRN’s conversation with Rutkowski.

What are you seeing with regard to AI in the sales process?

The first place it is having an impact is on business development reps [BDRs] and inside sales reps [ISRs]. The smaller vendors and VARs and MSPs are trying to use different tools out there to replace inside-sales people and the costs associated with those salespeople.

The problem with these AI apps that are coming out is they are just tools. They don’t have a personality. They don’t pick up exactly what the customer is looking for. Where it falls short is there is no human touch. There is a lack of authenticity and failure to follow through.

AI can find you a name, but it can’t tell you if that person can walk into a customer meeting and build trust and close business. That is why authenticity, human judgement and industry currency still matter. The pendulum is swinging back to basics: picking up the phone, making an appointment and getting in front of a customer.

If you want to win, you have to hire the best and you have to build a culture that is focused on building trust with the customers and then executing from a sales and marketing perspective.

The other problem with AI trying to replace BDRs and ISRs is those positions historically in our industry is where the farm team has been developed for the next generation of sales leaders and account executives.

What is the prevailing mood of solution providers and vendors with regard to the use of AI in the sales process?

They are unsure what direction to go in with AI. There is a lot of hype around what AI can do. Most of these people are just getting familiar over the last six months using generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude themselves on their phones.

It’s still an experiment, and we don’t know where it is going to go. There is the same kind of hype, disappointment and uncertainty that we experienced during the dot.com era. There was recently an article in The New York Times about a company called Builder.ai that raised $450 million and went bankrupt. This is the same kind of articles we read in 1999 during the dot.com bust. This has happened before. It is the same kind of swirl that we have seen in the past.

If you are selling technology at a $100 million vendor, one of the top solution providers in the world or even a $5 million MSP, what does it really take to be successful? It requires hiring salespeople that have relationships. It takes salespeople that can drive the deal from start to finish. It takes an articulate customer-facing engineer. They have to be technical, but they have to be able to communicate with customers on a personal and professional level. They have to understand the rhythm of American business and why people make decisions. They need to be able to influence a customer.

If you are a sales rep and an account engineer and you are going in to replace an established vendor in the account, you better know who you are talking to and which IT executives are in love with and will always be in love with the incumbent vendor. You as the account executive have to be able to build a personal relationship with the customer. That may mean talking about sports or modern art or music or family—whatever that customer is into. Most system engineers don’t understand the rhythm of American business. They have all the certifications, but they don’t get it. I find those people that get it.

What specific traits do you look for in a strong customer-facing sales rep or cloud architect candidate?

No. 1 is do they understand the product they are selling? No. 2, do they know and have relationships with the people they are selling to? No. 3, do they understand the process to acquire a purchase order?

I also look at what AI tools they are currently using in their daily work life. Are they using AI tools to research information before they meet with clients? Are they doing PowerPoint presentations using AI? Clients today—whether it is a solution provider or vendor—want to know what AI tools customer-facing sales reps or engineers are using.

What are some of the most important skills you look for from sales reps in terms of how they drive deals?

Relationship development, cultivation and execution is really, really important. If a reseller or an MSP is going to hire an account exec, the most important question is: ‘Who do you know and what relationships do you have with vendors and end users that you can get a fast start with?’ So if you are a rep calling on financial services companies here in Boston do you have relationships with State Street or Fidelity? If you are calling on health-care companies in Boston do you have relationships at Mass General Hospital and Dana Farber? What are your relationships? That is your currency.

When someone is hiring, they are hiring either to fill a vacancy or replace an under-performing person. When people are looking to hire, they are trying to get a leg up on the competition. As long as that territory is vacant or being managed by an underperforming individual, that vendor or reseller is losing out to their competitor.

The reason I come into play as a recruiter is because I can find and source those people quickly. Too many companies today try to curtail the costs associated with a recruiter and instead rely on their sales teams to do the recruiting for them. That is not what they were hired to do. They are hired to hit the number and build qualified pipeline that converts into new logo business.

What is the biggest mistake being made by vendors and resellers filling top sales and customer-facing tech jobs?

Too many vendors and partners are reluctant to use recruiters because of the cost and are leaving territories vacant for too long or allowing territories to be managed by people who aren’t delivering.

What is your advice to solution providers or partners who are concerned about hiring in the midst of the changes being wrought by AI in the workplace?

Your business is not going to change dramatically in the next year or two. You still need to build qualified pipeline, maintain existing accounts and close new business. The only way you are going to be able to do that is by having the best talent and highly incentivizing them to deliver. Having the best talent in the form of customer-facing salespeople and engineers is your strongest asset. Then you need to compensate them well to build those relationships in the field. That is the key to winning and growing your business. It’s all about the talent you bring into your company. You need to hire the best people.

What do you see in terms of the salaries being paid by MSPs and solution providers with the fight for top talent?

The resellers and MSPs are realizing they need to move up the base salaries to attract talent with guarantees and draws in place to get the right talent. It’s a big change. They used to pay $70,000 to $80,000 base salaries versus $130,000 to $170,000 base salaries on the vendor side of the business. In the past, the reps were paid on gross profit with a base salary of $80,000 and benefits.

Today we are seeing the salaries partners are paying moving from $70,000 to $80,000 that they used to pay to $110,000 to $150,000-plus. Partners definitely see that they need to invest more to get a better grade of talent. They are also putting guarantees and draws in place to get that talent. With the guarantees, reps are seeing another $5,000 per month.

The channel is definitely under more pressure to get this talent because of the constant need to find qualified pipeline that they can convert into revenue.

Some of these bigger partners that have been growing fast and are moving toward $1 billion are paying their sales reps big money.

How do you see AI changing the sales recruiting business?

These AI tools are going to be used but they are not going to replace external recruiters. In order to win, you need great talent. The reason companies win is because they hire great talent. They hire the right sales rep and solution architect and then they give them the tools, team and culture to execute.

What is your biggest competitive advantage?

We are a fast-moving, agile and successful recruiter because I come from the tech industry. I didn’t start as a young recruiter. I carried a sales bag and sold several hundred million in technology solutions, mostly through the channel. I understand the rhythm of the business. I understand the profiles and personalities of the top companies. I know my vendor and solution provider partners. I know who they are competing against. I know the business. It is in my DNA. When I am talking to candidates I can quickly know if they have the currency my customer needs. Most recruiters are putting [people] in the seat. They don’t understand the business they are recruiting for. They are very opportunistic. We build relationships with our customers. I understand what the client—whether it is a solution provider or a vendor—needs to win. It is all about relationships and then building and executing on those relationships from a sales and marketing perspective.