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Who do you hire below the leadership tier?

Contingent and retained search for the specialist commercial and operational people below the top team: account executives and enterprise sellers, business-development and partnerships managers, solutions consultants, and delivery, program and vendor managers.

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Scope

What does this practice cover?

This is where hiring volume sits, and where domain fit matters most. An enterprise seller who has carried a number into language-services buyers and one who has not are not interchangeable, and neither is assessed well by a generalist recruiter reading a keyword list.

A larger qualified pool, where domain fit does the work. A seller who knows this industry and one who does not are not interchangeable.

Roles covered

  • Account executives and enterprise sales
  • Business development and partnerships
  • Vendor and supply-chain management
  • Solutions consulting and pre-sales
An open-plan office floor with people working at computers
A larger pool, where domain fit does the work

Process

How does the process run?

4 stages. Each one has something that has to be true before the next begins, which is why they are numbered rather than listed.

  1. 01 / 04

    Brief and calibration

    Agree the bar, the must-haves and the things that only look like must-haves. Calibrate against two or three real profiles before the search runs.

  2. 02 / 04

    Search and screen

    Network, database and direct approach. Every candidate is screened by someone who understands the difference between a seller who has closed in this industry and one who only looks the part.

  3. 03 / 04

    Submission

    Candidates submitted with a written summary of fit and gaps, not a forwarded CV.

  4. 04 / 04

    Process management

    Interview scheduling, feedback loops and expectation management on both sides through to offer.

01 / 04

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Terms

What does it cost and how long does it take?

Basis
Retained or contingent
Fee
20% to 25% of first-year total compensation

Coverage

Which verticals does this apply to?

All four practices run across the same nine verticals. Each has its own hiring market, salary shape and supply constraint.

Gaming localization

Questions

Talent search: common questions

Can this run on a contingent basis?
Yes. Talent search runs either way. Retained makes sense where the role is genuinely hard to fill or you need the whole market covered; contingent works where the population is larger and speed matters more than exhaustiveness.
How do you screen commercial roles in this industry?
Against the actual work: whether a seller has carried a quota into language-services buyers, opened a new market, or run a real technical evaluation in a pre-sales role. A generalist recruiter reading a keyword list cannot tell these apart, which is why so many submitted candidates fail the first serious conversation.

Also

The other three practices

Ready to start a search?

A consultation is a call with Melanie about the role, the market and whether the brief is winnable as written. It is not a pitch meeting.

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