The headlines would have you believe remote work is dying. Amazon called 350,000 employees back to their desks. JP Morgan ended remote work entirely. The US federal government issued sweeping return to office mandates.
And yet, here we are in 2026, and the reality on the ground looks nothing like the doom and gloom would suggest.
The Numbers Tell a Different Story
Despite the high profile return to office announcements, remote work has held remarkably steady. Around a quarter of jobs that can be done remotely are still fully remote, with over half operating on hybrid arrangements. US remote work rates have stabilised at around 21-23%.
What's happening is a tale of two workplaces. Large corporations with expensive real estate commitments are pushing hard for office returns. Meanwhile, thousands of growing companies are quietly expanding their remote hiring, accessing talent pools that simply weren't available to them five years ago.
The statistics back this up. FlexJobs research shows 85% of workers now say remote work matters more than salary when evaluating a job offer. And 76% said they'd look for a new job if remote work were eliminated.
Sales Roles Are Leading the Charge
For certain roles, remote hiring is thriving. Sales development, business development, account management, and account executive positions consistently rank among the top categories for remote job postings, alongside IT, project management, and operations.
The logic is straightforward. These roles are inherently communication based. They live on calls, emails, and video meetings regardless of where someone sits. The tools are mature. The workflows are established. And the talent pool becomes dramatically deeper when you're not limited to who can commute to your office.
Remote job listings in sales continue to attract significantly more applications than their office based equivalents. Companies offering flexibility are simply getting access to stronger candidates.
The Pre-Vetting Problem
Here's where things get interesting. As remote hiring has grown, so has the challenge of finding good people quickly.
When you're hiring locally, you can rely on networks, referrals, and the occasional coffee chat to get a sense of someone. When you're hiring from a global talent pool, the traditional screening process breaks down. Remote job listings attract significantly more applications than office based roles, making it harder to separate the excellent from the average.
This is driving a shift toward specialist partners who do the hard work upfront. Rather than posting a job and hoping for the best, companies are increasingly working with pre-vetted talent pools where candidates have already been assessed for skills, communication, and remote work readiness.
The numbers support this approach. Companies that can access global talent pools gain a significant competitive advantage in both speed and quality of hiring. But that speed only matters if you're hiring the right people, not just filling seats.
Where the Talent Lives
The geography of remote sales talent has broadened. Time zone alignment has become a key consideration, with companies increasingly looking at regions that overlap with US, European, and Australian business hours.
Companies are finding strong SDR and BDR talent across the US, Europe, Australia, and South Africa, each offering different advantages in terms of language skills and working hours overlap.
What's changed is the sophistication of the hiring process. Companies now want proof of remote work experience, demonstrated communication skills, and evidence that someone can thrive without the structure of an office environment.
The RTO Pushback Creates Opportunity
There's an irony in the return to office wave that smart companies are exploiting. As major corporations push employees back to their desks, they're creating a pool of talented, experienced professionals actively looking for remote opportunities.
A FlexJobs survey found 69% of workers changed or seriously considered changing career fields in the past year, with wanting more remote work options cited as a leading motivator. When someone with five years of enterprise sales experience suddenly finds themselves forced into a daily commute, they start looking. And the companies offering remote flexibility are there to catch them.
This is reshaping the competitive landscape. Smaller, more agile companies can now recruit talent that would have been out of reach three years ago, simply by offering what the big players are taking away.
What Actually Works in 2026
After years of experimentation, some clear patterns have emerged around what makes remote sales hiring successful.
Skills based assessment matters more than CVs. The best remote hires are identified through practical evaluation of their communication, objection handling, and prospecting abilities, not by where they went to school or which logos appear on their LinkedIn.
Specialist roles outperform generalists. Companies are no longer hiring generic remote workers. They're hiring remote SDRs with defined outcomes, KPIs, and responsibilities that mirror what you'd expect from an in house hire.
Speed is a competitive advantage. With hiring costs rising and the best candidates receiving multiple offers, companies that can move from first contact to signed offer in days rather than weeks are winning the talent war.
Retention requires intentionality. The companies keeping their remote sales talent focus on clear progression paths, regular feedback, and genuine integration into team culture, not just a Slack login and a laptop.
Remote hiring isn't going anywhere. The headlines about office mandates capture real decisions at real companies, but they miss the broader picture. For every Amazon forcing employees back to desks, there are dozens of growing businesses quietly building world class sales teams without geographic constraints.
The winners in 2026 have figured out how to access global talent efficiently, vet candidates effectively, and build remote teams that actually perform.
For companies looking to grow their sales function, the real challenge now is doing remote hiring well.
