Building an effective sales team to position an industrial/manufacturing company for continued growth.

Our client started their business almost 50 years ago with under 30 employees and in recent years has grown organically and through acquisition and now has over 200 employees. We started our relationship with the VP of Sales that was doing long-range planning due to new businesses they were acquiring.

The situation:

The VP of Sales’ plan included developing their current sales team in multiple regions throughout the Midwest. Adding inside sales staff that support ongoing client sales, but also to support appointment setting for the existing and new members of the business development team were key parts of his plan. Our initial search was for a business development manager and our second search was for a Sales Director to lead two of their offices. Key elements that were key to this client were hiring talent that had strong consultative sales experience, focus on client service and the ability to continue to expand their client base across the county.

Our process:

We created a recruiting plan to reach sales talent across the area for two of their offices. The screening process for their business development opening was extensive based on their requirements of new business development experience, personality profile testing as well as preferring candidates with closely related industry experience. The process took multiple interviews to narrow down the right fit for their team.

Our second search was for a Sales Director. For this search we narrowed our candidate base to candidates that had extensive manufacturing sales experience and had contacts within the region of one of the offices they would be managing. This interview  had the same process as the business development opening, but moved more quickly after we had a true understanding of what would be the best culture fit for their business.

Our results:

Prior to working with this client we had extensive experience hiring sales candidates and working with industrial/manufacturing clients. For these searches our success came with having close communication with the management team to ensure we were on target with the accurate personality profile that fit their expectations. They then moved quickly through the offer stage which allowed our candidates to continue to have a high interest in the positions.

The Sales Director search included focusing on talent with experience in the manufacturing/distribution industries and had the ability to motivate their current team as well as continue to build out their sales organization. The VP of Sales was thrilled to move forward with our candidate for the Sales Director position due to their extensive experience in manufacturing and overall drive. This candidate has made a significant impact on their business growth and team culture very early on after being hired.