CLIENT: A leading e-learning and SaaS firm focused on developing talent

EXECUTIVES: Full Executive Leadership Team

BUSINESS UNIT: Sales and Business Development

Executive Search Recruiting Challenge: Chief Sales Officer With Global Experience Needed

The Situation

Our client was growing exponentially and recognized that in order to maintain that growth they needed to focus on two things: continuing to scale their business and finding a senior sales leader to manage and grow their global sales team. With no Chief Sales Officer the company’s President was managing the sales team in addition to running the business. They recognized the need to bring someone in devoted to the sales team who could also create a go to market strategy.

Solution Implemented

We began by partnering with our client to understand their needs and organizational structure. The Rice Cohen International team compiled a Search Assignment Profile; the research team put together a list of companies to target and then identified all sales leaders at those companies. The client had expressed that someone with global experience would be ideal but that is was not a requirement so we prioritized that background. Through proactive recruiting we identified the most qualified sales leaders in the space and presented a short list of 4 candidates to the client for the Chief Sales Officer role.

The Search Results

After the hiring manager did initial interviews, a number of phone interviews were conducted. Two finalists were then selected to meet with the Executive Leadership Team for a final round of interviews. Once the final interviews were completed one candidate truly stood out. This candidate had significant experience heading domestic and international sales combined with over 25 years of leadership experience and had spent the past 10 years running a competitive business as a General Manager. This candidate brought a wealth of industry expertise and was so qualified that our client decided to expand the functions of the Chief Sales Officer position to fully maximize this candidate’s potential. The other finalist was also very qualified and really impressed the client so they decided to create another position, Senior Vice President of Sales, for this individual. Within 35 days of initiating the search both candidates had accepted their respective roles and signed offer letters.