The commercial purpose
One hire, assessed properly, in a motion that already works. This service exists to protect a working revenue engine — either by adding capacity to it or by replacing someone without losing momentum.
Service
Permanent recruitment
Single specialist hires across Sales, RevOps, Customer Success, Account Management, Partnerships and growth — assessed against the way your team actually sells, not against a job description.
Best suited to
- A proven motion that needs another closer or another pipeline builder.
- Replacing a departure where the seat has a track record and a clear bar.
- A first commercial hire where getting the profile right matters more than speed.
- Specialist roles where the obvious local candidate pool looks thin.
What you get
- A briefing that pins down the profile, the number and the environment before any search begins.
- A shortlist of people who have sold at your deal size, cycle and buyer seniority.
- A written view on all five screening stages, rather than a reformatted CV.
- Interview process advice, scorecards where useful, and management through to offer and start date.
How it is structured
Usually contingency, sometimes exclusive where the role is hard or sensitive. Payment terms, rebate period and replacement arrangements are agreed in writing before we start. We do not publish fees, because the right structure depends on the difficulty of the hire.
Assessment
Every candidate, five stages
The same process whether you are hiring your first SDR or an Enterprise AE. Only the emphasis changes.
Stage 1: Experience and evidence
What has this person actually done?
We get specific about the numbers and the environment behind them, in the same format for every candidate, so you can compare people rather than compare CVs.
Past performance is evidence, not a forecast. A strong number in a business with exceptional inbound tells you very little about a cold market, and we say so.
Includes
Quota, attainment and how it moved across the last three periods · Average deal value and sales cycle length · Market, customer type and the ICP they actually sold into · New business versus account growth, outbound versus inbound
Stage 2: How they sell
What happens when this person has to actually sell?
We take them through real situations rather than competency questions, because selling is a behaviour and you can hear it.
Includes
Discovery: the questions they ask and the order they ask them in · Listening ratio, and whether they follow the thread or return to a script · Prospecting method and how they choose who to approach · Building rapport without performing
Stage 3: Modern GTM capability
Can this person operate inside a modern revenue team?
Technology should give a seller more time in front of buyers. We check they understand that, and that they use it with judgement rather than for volume.
Nobody needs experience of every platform, and we do not screen on a tool list. The principle is simpler: a strong modern seller can explain how technology makes them more effective, and where it makes them worse.
Includes
CRM discipline in Salesforce or HubSpot: clean pipeline, honest stages, useful notes · Conversation intelligence such as Gong, and what they changed after listening back · Sequencing and engagement platforms such as Outreach or Salesloft · Data and intelligence tools: Apollo, Lusha, Cognism, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Stage 4: Mindset and motivation
Why does this person sell, and what happens when it gets hard?
This is the stage most processes skip and the one that most often explains a failed hire. It is a proper conversation, not a personality questionnaire.
The goal is meaningful human understanding, not a psychometric score. We report what we heard and where we are unsure.
Includes
Why they chose sales, and whether they actually enjoy selling · What motivates them beyond the commission plan · Ambition: what they want to be doing in three years, and how realistic it is · Resilience and how they describe a bad quarter
Stage 5: Human and cultural fit
Where is this person most likely to thrive?
We are not looking for people who all sound the same. We are working out which environment brings the best out of this particular person, and whether that is yours.
Cultural fit is not a code word for people who resemble the existing team. Used properly it is the difference between a good hire and a good hire in the wrong place.
Includes
Communication style, and how it lands with your buyer · Personality and values, described honestly rather than flatteringly · The working environment they perform best in · The management style that gets the most out of them
Common questions
Permanent hiring, answered
- How should we interview an Account Executive?
- Three stages is usually enough: a commercial conversation about their evidence, a live discovery exercise scored against fixed criteria, and a session on motivation and fit with the person who will manage them. Add a short written follow-up after the exercise; it tells you more about commercial thinking than a fourth interview.
- Do you insist on industry experience?
- No, and we will tell you when insisting on it is slowing the search more than it improves the hire. What usually transfers is deal size, cycle length and buyer type. What rarely transfers is the assumption that a familiar logo means a strong individual.
- What if the hire does not work out?
- We agree a rebate or replacement arrangement in writing at the start, appropriate to the role. We would rather talk about why a hire failed than hide from it, because it usually changes how we run the next search for you.
Other ways we work
If this is not the shape of your hire
The three services overlap on assessment and differ on scope. If you started in the wrong place, move sideways.
Several connected hires
Team builds
You need a functioning unit rather than a set of filled vacancies: an SDR pod, an SDR plus AE structure, market entry or a rebuild.
Build my sales teamOne leadership mandate
Executive search
The hire changes the shape of the revenue function, the market has to be mapped properly, or an incumbent is still in seat.
Start an executive search
Find my next sales hire?
The seat, the number attached to it and the bar it has to clear. We will come back with a straight view on who is realistically available.