Commercial & Sales Executive Search
Finding the best sales leader is an investment decision that will yield the highest return for you in the coming quarters.
Achieving your commercial results requires leadership, but attracting the right leader is difficult and risky. A strategic executive search partner can help you with that.
With 15 years of experience, we combine deep expertise, a powerful network, and a development-driven candidate approach in our data-driven search and assessment methodology. This allows us to find the commercial leaders who set direction, accelerate growth, and make the difference for you in 8 to 12 weeks on average.
"Typically, the issue lies not with the sales team, but with how it is led."
Source: Harvard Business Review
The Executive Search Questions We Help Answer
Executive search begins with asking the right questions. With our proven approach, we help organizations find leaders who drive commercial growth and create lasting impact.
- How do we find commercial leaders who can successfully execute our growth strategy?
- Which leadership qualities are decisive for sustainable commercial growth in a rapidly changing market?
- How do we build a commercial leadership team that accelerates revenue growth, customer value, and innovation?
- How do we assess whether a leader is capable of achieving commercial results within a specific sales, marketing, or customer success role?
- How do we identify leaders who have previously successfully solved similar commercial challenges?
Why SalesQuarters?
With SalesQuarters, you choose the best available candidate in the market. Bold statement? Absolutely. But SalesQuarters actually delivers on it. For three reasons.
1. Hyperfocus
Sales is our niche. We do nothing else. This allows us to invest deeply and with focus in knowledge, resulting in better service for our clients. On one hand, knowledge about who the most qualified commercial leaders are, what drives them, and why. For more than fifteen years, we've spoken with them daily: C-level executives, their successors, and high potentials. We continuously track outperformers in the sales pyramid. When we place someone, you don't get a snapshot of someone's talent, but the full story of how that talent led to outperformance. On the other hand, we develop extensive knowledge about sales as a discipline. We translate this directly into our services.
2. Evidence Based
Our process is thorough and grounded in proven insights. Evidence based, in other words, rather than a black box. No gut feeling, but testable criteria. We first analyze your organization, market, and growth phase, so that every step in the search is well-founded. When we put forward a candidate, you can be sure there is no better one available, and you're therefore making the best possible hire.
3. Development Driven
How do we convince scarce, highly talented people to choose you specifically? Not by pushing, but by aligning. Together, we create a position and growth path in which your prospective hire feels known and valued. We call this DDS®: the development of both candidate and company are central. Extensive experience in candidate-driven placement and our own published research form the basis for this.
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Frequently asked questions
Which roles does SalesQuarters handle in executive search?
The commercial top: CCO, Commercial Director, Sales Director, Head of Sales, Business Development Director and General Manager with a commercial brief. We do this for entrepreneurs and family businesses, for PE-backed companies and for corporates.
How does Development Driven Search® work?
We start from what the role must deliver in one and two years, and then look for the leader who can carry that. We assess candidates on their proven results, the context in which they achieved them and their room to keep growing. That development angle is also what attracts strong candidates: they choose a role in which they can build something.
How long does an executive search take?
From intake to signed contract, 8 to 12 weeks on average. That depends on the role, the market and how quickly you as a client can move. If the position needs to be filled sooner, an interim leader can bridge the period.
Do you also approach leaders who are not actively looking?
Yes. Strong commercial leaders are rarely actively looking. We have known many of them for years, including their results and their motivation. We approach them discreetly, even if your own organization does not yet know about the change.
How do you assess whether a candidate fits our organization?
On the factors that predict success in sales, such as commercial knowledge, adaptiveness and how someone gets a team to perform. And on how someone will land in your organization: the growth phase, the culture and the team. For each candidate you receive a substantiated recommendation. Where it helps, we use our assessment.