Sales and Commercial recruitment have been central to our development, and prior to starting in recruitment both Joby and Chris had spent their entire careers working in a sales environment. As a result they have an unrivalled knowledge both of the various roles in the sales sector as well as the industries that the sales roles we recruit for function within. Due to the relationships they have built up from their personal experience of working in the publishing, beauty, automotive and media sales sectors, they have access to unrivalled networks of sales professionals.
We recruit across a broad spectrum of sales roles, whether it’s Field Sales, Account Management, Business Development, Inside Sales, Regional Sales Managers or Customer Success. Moving into the area of Commercial recruitment, we have helped many businesses secure talented individuals to join their Commercial or Operations teams – often the kingpins of the organisation who will interact with key departments internally and a range of customers or partners externally.
Cambridge Talent Partnership have extensive experience as a sales recruiter across Cambridge, Norfolk, Essex, East Anglia, Milton Keynes and the East of England, as well as select clients across the UK. We’ve been tasked with sourcing candidates for many forms of commercial positions, such as Sales Executive, Commercial Manager, Business Development Manager, Head of Commercial and Sales Director. The approach we take for each role is the same, ensuring our clients receive a full market shortlist on every occasion.
Recently filled Sales and Commercial roles
Bid/Tender Manager
Cambridgeshire
Healthcare
£60k
Senior Sales Executive
Essex
Publishing Company
£30k plus commission
Regional Sales Manager
Northamptonshire
Consumer Durables
£45k + car
Case Study
Head of Business Development – Accountancy Firm
On the back of an investment-backed management buy-out, the board of a long-established SME accountancy firm were looking to recruit a Head of Business Development to spearhead an active BD drive. Formerly there was no dedicated Business Development function, with the company heavily reliant on repeat business and referrals to the senior team.
Initially they adopted a ‘recruit ourselves’ strategy, using both online job boards as well as LinkedIn adverts in combination with social media activity to try and attract their new recruit.
With limited response and a string of first interviews which left them unconvinced and finding themselves at an impasse, the HR Manager reached out to us after hearing about our salary benchmarking and market-mapping services from a mutual contact. These are services we have always offered to businesses on a no obligation basis – there’s no need to engage us as an exclusive recruitment agency to benefit from them.
After discussing the specifics of the role and probing into the culture of the company (both pre- and post- buyout), we were able to proffer a role profile which firmed up both the kind of experience the likely candidate should have as well as some key characteristics of their personality.
Initially the client’s focus had been exclusively on recruiting an out and out Sales or Business Development professional – someone who had a proven track record of nurturing relationships, knocking on doors, and converting leads to revenue. Whilst this aspect of the role was undoubtedly key, whilst profiling the role it became clear that the successful candidate would also need to possess ‘soft’ relationship-nurturing characteristics as well as the hunger for making a sale. With no Sales or Business Development team to assist them, they would be reliant on colleagues across all other internal departments to adopt and support any new initiatives and processes on top of their existing duties. In addition to this in any buy-out or change of ownership there is always resistance to change from longer serving members of the team, which can lead to conflict – out and out salespeople will often struggle to negotiate these internal ripples, especially when they are new to an organisation.
Spending the time with members of the board and reviewing the wins and losses of their own recruitment process, followed by an interrogation of the exact requirement allowed us to help them identify exactly what they needed in their new hire. Satisfied that we had and would continue to add value to their recruitment process, and with their own specialist roles to focus on, they engaged us on a retained basis to source the new recruit for the Head of Business Development role.
After such an immersive introduction to both the practice and the requirements of the role, we were able to identify a handful of candidates and present a shortlist within days of being engaged, and in less than one month the firm had made an offer to their chosen candidate.