When a key leader in a company decides to step away from their position, or moves to a new firm, it leaves a hole in the organization. When that person is a sales executive, this hole can cause serious problems for the entire team if left unfilled for too long.
Sales executives play a crucial role in guiding the strategy and tactics of their entire department, and without strong leadership in this area, keeping performance up can be nearly impossible — which is why companies often rush to replace these individuals as quickly as possible.
But hiring a new Chief Sales Officer or Chief Marketing Officer can have a far-reaching effect on the company, and it is important to ensure that the person you bring on has the skills and experience to provide effective leadership. Doing this often requires more than a resume and a series of interviews.
The Challenges of Identifying Executive Talent
Part of the problem lies in the fact that executives fulfill a number of different roles, and unlike personnel further down the leadership chain, a good sales executive is defined as much by their ability to inspire others and manage a team as by their concrete knowledge of how sales works.
Oftentimes, individuals are hired for executive positions due to their charisma and their ability to sell themselves as being the perfect person for the job. But the ability to perform well in an interview does not determine how well a person will be able to lead a diverse and competitive team.
For this reason, it is important to approach interviews critically, asking pointed questions to determine things like:
- How well they will fit with the company culture
- How well they understand big data and data flow more generally
- Their capacity for handlingworkplace conflict
Most importantly, before you start looking for a new sales executive, it is essential to be clear about what experience, qualifications, and competencies are most important for a sales leader in your organization to have.
How Sales Headhunters Can Help
Unsurprisingly, given how much is at stake in these decisions, most major corporations don’t leave hiring for executive sales jobs up to chance: instead, they work with elite executive recruitment agencies to identify the best possible candidates based on a number of criteria.
Sales headhunters maintain massive databases of executive talent, and when a position opens up, they can quickly contact a number of candidates with the desired qualifications, making hiring significantly faster.
But, executive recruiting firms also have access to a range of sophisticated tools that help them determine the aptitude, drive, and acumen of executives that can help businesses narrow their search to focus on candidates who have the particular qualities they are looking for. This more targeted approach has revolutionized the way executive hiring happens in sales departments, ensuring a more seamless and effective process.
When a key member of a company’s leadership team leaves, it almost always has a disruptive effect on workflow, strategy, and the meeting of goals. For businesses that want to minimize this disruption and get back on track as quickly as possible, working with a sales recruitment agency that specializes in executive hiring can be the best way to do so.
