VP Sales Executive Search | Sales and Business Development Recruiters

Is Your Firm Reaching All The Customers and Markets That Your Firm Needs?

What Kind of Sales Person Do You Need ART to Find?

ART recruits individuals capable of serving as CSO's CMO's, and CRO's at companies in a vast array of industrial, hi-tech, and service sectors. A large-scale worldwide expansion and reorganization of businesses has created a tremendous need for every type of Chief Sales Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, as well as VP's, Directors, Sales Managers and Country Managers.

When a client asks us to find for them a Sales, Marketing or Business Development person, we don't just look at the job description. We also consider the current health and future business mission of the company. For us, every search is unique and every search has specific requirements, most of which never are found in a job description.

Selecting the right Sales Director is less about finding a "great salesperson" and more about finding a "cultural and structural match."

Try our free online ART CRO, VP Sales or Sales Director Recruitment Diagnostic Tool to assess your firm's current needs in Sales management.

A Few Recommended CRO, VP Sales & Sales Director Executive Profiles

When we do a search for a client, we try our best to find "hand-in-glove" fits, which first requires an analysis of the client's immediate situation and needs, as well as their long-term goals. No person is an exact fit for any job, but we understand what profiles are more likely to be good fits for both the candidate's career and for the client's business mission. The examples below should be viewed then only as starting points for a discussion of possible profiles for the client's Sales executive search.

The Company	The Style	The Experience	The Personality	Why?
Family-Owned Firm (including firms with revenue in the billions)	*The "Steward."* High emotional intelligence (EQ) is mandatory. They must respect the legacy while modernizing the future.	Proven track record in "Influence without Authority." They need experience reporting directly to owners/founders who may view the company as their "child."	Patient, humble, and loyal. They must be comfortable with longer decision-making cycles and potentially unconventional KPIs that prioritize long-term stability over quarterly spikes.	In these firms, "trust" is the primary currency. A shark-like, aggressive "disruptor" will often be rejected by the existing culture.
Closely Held Private Firm	*The "Practical Strategist."* These firms are often lean and "spend their own money." The Sales Director must be highly ROI-focused.	Experience in "Resourceful Scaling." They shouldn't be used to having massive corporate marketing budgets or huge support teams.	Pragmatic and Transparent. They must be comfortable with high levels of accountability and direct, sometimes blunt, feedback from a small group of stakeholders.	Decisions are made in a tight circle. The Director needs to be a "doer" who can also sit at the strategy table.
Large Multinational (MNC)	*The "Political Navigator."* Success in an MNC is as much about internal alignment as it is about external selling.	Experience in Matrix Organizations. They must know how to collaborate across regions (EMEA, APAC, Americas) and functions (Legal, Product, Finance).	Diplomatic, Process-Oriented, and Resilient. They need to be comfortable with bureaucracy and "corporate speak" without losing sight of the revenue goal.	In an MNC, a "Lone Wolf" will fail because they cannot navigate the internal approvals required to close large-scale global deals.
Private Equity (PE) Portfolio Company	*The "Value Creator."* This is a high-pressure, "Exit-Oriented" role.	"Data-Driven Sales Management." They should have experience in professionalizing a sales force, implementing CRM discipline, and rapidly improving EBITDA.	Urgent, Ambitious, and Thick-Skinned. They must thrive on weekly reporting and high-intensity growth targets leading toward a 3-5 year exit.	PE firms care about "Predictable Revenue." They need a Director who manages by the numbers, not by "gut feeling."
Fast-Growing Medium-Sized Firm	*The "Architect."* These firms are usually moving from "hero-led sales" (where the founder sells) to a "process-led" model.	Experience in "Building the Machine." They should have a history of hiring, training, and setting up sales playbooks from scratch.	Adaptable and Visionary. They need to be comfortable with "Grey Areas" where processes aren't yet fully defined.	The firm is in the "adolescent" stage; it needs someone who can provide the structure of a large firm but keep the speed of a small one.
Well-Funded Small Early-Stage Company	*The "Player-Coach."* In the early stages, there is no room for a "pure manager" who only watches a dashboard.	"0-to-1" Sales. They must have experience opening new markets and finding "Product-Market Fit."	Gritty, Highly Energetic and Entrepreneurial. They must be willing to make cold calls in the morning and write the board deck in the evening.	At this stage, the Sales Director is the primary "Intelligence Officer" for the company. They are not just selling; they are learning what the market wants.

Summary Table for an ART Executive Search Sales Management Recruitment

Company Environment	Primary Requirement	Sales Director Style Type	Red Flag (Who to avoid)
Family-Owned	Cultural Alignment	The "Steward"	The "Corporate Climber"
Closely Held	Cost-Consciousness	The "Practical Strategist"	The "Big Spender"
Multinationals	Matrix Management	The "Political Navigator"	The "Lone Wolf"
Private Equity	Speed & Data	The "Value Creator"	The "Relationship-Only" Seller
Mid-Market	Scalability	The "Architect"	The "Status Quo" Manager
Early-Stage	Individual Contribution	The "Player-Coach"	The "Delegator"

The Big Question: What is the cost of a bad hire in time and money to an employer's business goals or to a candidate's career?

To do a successful search that will likely produce the best results, with the client's frank guidance and advice, we examine the current or past person in the office, as well as the team's strengths or weaknesses, in order to learn what kind of Sales, Marketing or Business Development person really might be best suited profile for our client's unique and special needs.

Then we go to work... the ART way:

Targeted headhunting of the best candidates in the client's sector
No job advertisements
No outsourcing to unqualified remote recruiters
No inter-office or inter-agency buck-passing, causing miscommunications, long waits, and bad matches
No reliance on luck. ART is not hired to be lucky. We are hired to find the right person for the job!

In our candidate-client matches, we try to understand, at the outset of the search, precisely what is the client company's business mission, and how the client's business culture, resources, and expectations, might harmonize with the talents, experiences, contacts, and career paths of our excellent candidates.

Our goal is to not simply produce a "resume-to-job specs" match that results in a placement, but rather to create a candidate-company match that has a reasonable chance of producing long term benefit for both the candidate and the client.

The very nature of sales and marketing involves risk, but in our work, we try to minimize the risk for both parties by seeking to understand what is really important to both parties. When we recruit in the sales and marketing fields, then, we look beyond titles and the promise or hope of success. We want to understand the sales, marketing or business development manager's track record (what percentage of sales growth, what record of surpassing quotas, etc.), as well as the important issue of whether the client's goals are realistic and whether the firm's resources --human, financial, or technical-- are sufficient to allow a good sales or marketing head to accomplish their mission..

When ART does this kind of search, we start from the expectation of the candidate already having a track record in our client's industry, but there is more to our search work than that. We need to see a candidate's track record of success in business models that are comparable to and suitable to our client's business style.

By seeking these candidates, we are all much more likely to be happy to see long term comfort and success in a placement - candidate, employer and recruiter alike.


	SALES & MARKETING MANAGEMENT Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Chief Customer Officer Vice President Sales & Marketing Director Sales & Marketing Vice President Business Development Director Business Development Sales & Marketing Manager Business Development Manager Head Sales & Marketing Head Business Development

SALES MANAGEMENT Chief Sales Officer Vice President Sales Sales Director Sales Manager - Sales Head Sales Supervisor - Sales Rep. Director Enterprise Sales Director Government Sales Director Retail Sales Director Consumer Sales Customer Service Manager Technical Services Manager Field Sales Manager Channel Sales Manager Sales Account Manager Key Account Manager Applications Engineering Manager Sales Engineering Manager

	MARKETING MANAGEMENT Chief Marketing Officer VP Marketing Director Marketing Marketing Head Marketing Manager Director Advertising Media Manager Product Manager Brand Manager Pricing Manager Digital Marketing Manager E-Commerce Manager Communications Director Public Relations Director Strategic Planning Manager Merchandising Manager

REGIONAL SALES & MARKETING MANAGEMENT Global VP Sales & Marketing VP International Sales & Marketing Global Business Head Country Manager Territory Manager Regional VP Sales & Marketing Regional Director of Sales & Marketing Regional Sales Manager Commercial Director Commercial Manager