Searches that mattered

Challenge

A mid-sized Salesforce consulting partner lost their most senior delivery leader to a competitor. The role had been on the market for three months through a generalist agency with no serious shortlist to show for it. The firm was at risk of losing a significant client renewal if the gap wasn't filled with someone credible.

Solution

We started with a market map of Salesforce practice leads across UK consulting partners and GSIs, focusing specifically on people who had both delivery accountability and the credibility to step into a client-facing leadership seat immediately. We identified and approached seven individuals directly, none of whom were looking actively. Four agreed to an initial conversation. Three progressed to interview.

Result

The client appointed a Head of CRM Practice with a background in both delivery and pre-sales, someone they hadn't previously considered in scope. The candidate joined within eight weeks of the search opening, and the client retained the renewal in question.

Challenge

A fast-scaling MarTech consultancy was winning more business than its existing commercial infrastructure could support. The CEO needed a VP of Revenue Operations to own the entire revenue process, from pipeline architecture to forecasting to tooling. They had hired a VP Sales before finding the right RevOps candidate, which created tension around who owned what.

Solution

We spent time upfront helping the client distinguish what they actually needed (someone who could design and run RevOps from scratch) from what they thought they needed (a senior ops manager to support an existing team). That reframe changed the brief significantly. We then approached candidates with specific experience of building RevOps functions inside high-growth consulting and SaaS environments, rather than those coming from large, mature operations.

Result

The appointed candidate designed the firm's first formal revenue process within their first ninety days, bringing pipeline visibility and forecasting accuracy the leadership team hadn't had before. The CEO's view was that it was among the highest-impact hires the business had made in two years.

Challenge

An established e-commerce platform business had committed to a Salesforce Data Cloud implementation as part of a broader personalisation roadmap. They needed a specialist with hands-on Data Cloud experience to lead the technical delivery, but their internal TA team had been trying for two months and couldn't find candidates who genuinely had the skills rather than just the certification.

Solution

Data Cloud expertise is currently one of the most constrained skill sets in the Salesforce ecosystem, because the product is recent and the people who have genuinely deployed it are a small group. We approached them directly, had honest conversations about the role and the organisation, and focused the shortlist on delivery experience rather than certification level.

Result

The client appointed a Data Cloud specialist within six weeks. The project that had stalled for lack of technical leadership was able to begin in earnest. The candidate is now eighteen months into the role and has since expanded the team around the Data Cloud practice.

Challenge

An Adobe Experience Cloud partner with a strong UK practice was expanding into the Benelux market and needed an Alliances Director who could build the Adobe partnership relationship in-region from scratch. The hire needed to understand the Adobe partner ecosystem, bring existing relationships with Adobe's regional teams, and be credible with enterprise clients in a market the firm didn't yet have a foothold in.

Solution

We mapped Adobe partner organisations and digital consultancies across the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK that had relevant Benelux relationships, then approached individuals at the Alliances Director level directly. The shortlist prioritised people who had built partnership relationships with Adobe rather than those who had simply managed them, a distinction the client was clear was important and that most CV reviews would miss.

Result

The appointed candidate had spent five years inside the Adobe ecosystem and had existing relationships with Adobe's Benelux leadership team. Within their first year, the firm signed its first two Benelux client engagements and achieved Gold partner status in the region.