Case study of the recruitment process

Every recruitment process that we conduct is slightly different from the last, but there are still common features to all of them.

Here’s an example of a role that we filled recently and some of the nuances to the search;

1. The brief

• The company was a scale-up and had developed a SaaS platform using AI to enhance its customers’ experience.
• They needed to replace one of the founders with a Head of Sales to manage a team of 3 BDMs, 5 Account Managers and 4 Sales Support. 
• The problem – the team lacked structure and processes and was underperforming.
• The sales cycle was relatively short (a few weeks on average), with transactional deal sizes of circa $10K.
• After hearing the client’s thoughts, we advised on a suitable salary range and added a commission structure based on team performance.
• We advised that this person needed to be a part of the leadership team and direct the founders as opposed to the other way around.
• We signed off on a new and more efficient recruitment process that was more of a two-way process with a strong focus on educating the candidates on the full opportunity now and in the future.
• We agreed on who would conduct the all-important 1st interview, what would be discussed, and the transparency needed.

2. Build out a profile

• Someone that comes with strong processes that can be implemented without micro-managing the team.
• Someone with a start-up/scale-up mentality that comes with the processes learnt from larger businesses.
• A servant leader and a coach.
• Someone who has actively recruited for their own teams in the past and could bring this skill set as well as potential new team members.
• An SME focus with experience managing quota-carrying AMs as well BDMs/AEs.
• Someone that can build out an SDR function.

3. Market mapping

• Firstly we identified a list of companies that are known for their strong processes with sales teams that are largely transactional.
• We focused on candidates with a mix of working for some of these names as well as previous exposure to less structured environments.
• We focused on “hands-on” leaders that had demonstrated tenure as an individual contributor.
• We looked for candidates that were the right mix of strategy and hands-on management and eliminated those that we felt would be taking a backwards step.

4. Execution 

• We created a compelling story built off the back of the founders’ openness for change and the level of freedom and autonomy they were willing to afford
• We dug into their key competitive advantages as a company and made sure we could articulate these in a clear and concise way.
• The search included LinkedIn headhunting, job boards, referrals, outreach to talent that Pulse Recruitment has a relationship with and social media.
• All Pulse team members were fully briefed, so no stone was left unturned.
• Five candidates were shortlisted within a two week period.
• We successfully placed a candidate who had a big task but hit the ground running and who hasn’t looked back.

There were a lot of conversations, negotiations and planning that went into the above search but essentially, we were set up for success because we met the market and created an open and transparent process where everything was put on the table early.

We were able to identify candidates with the core skill sets and traits to do well in the role while also being highly motivated to take this challenge long term.

In the end, we were able to execute with confidence, and we had clear agreements with the client on communication and the process, which ended up being a massive help.

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Pulse Recruitment is a specialist IT, sales and marketing recruitment agency, designed specifically to help find the best staff within the highly competitive Asia-Pacific and United States markets. Find out more by getting in contact with us!