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We’re looking for a Sales leader to build out the French market for us, can you help?
Employers turn to head-hunters when hiring into senior roles and ones they find difficult to fill themselves. And right now, we’re working on a classic example.
One of our clients wishes to quickly ramp up their sales in the French market, they have a window of opportunity to seize market share whilst they have a competitive advantages. However in France their contact base is limited and they do not have the time nor resource in-house to find the person themselves.
They’re looking for someone to grow a sales team from 2 to 7 salespeople fast without compromising quality. Remit is to sell into France’s biggest companies, requiring a pro-active, clever approach and smart navigation of the power bases.
Stakes are high, a lot to gain and a lot to lose.
Here’s the headlines…
The company and role:
- US software company, they sell on-premise and SaaS (SaaS accounts for c. 80% of their sales)
- Solutions: contact centre / multi-channel, customer service, customer retention, sales, marketing, social media
- Gartner rated quadrant leader
- Growth 20% plus each of the last 3 quarters
- 500 employees
- Markets sold into Banking, Insurance, Telecoms, Utilties, Retail / CPG
- Their solution set is very very topical, CXO agendas are largely focused on better customer engagement and working in a digital world
- Grow France
- They have a legal entity in France and have an office
- Role is Sales Management, this is not a General Management role
- Task is to grow sales team from 2 to 7 quickly, and do so with good people
- Task is to create sales pipeline, with wins, contribution in the business year AND with strong position for following year
- Task is a new business agenda, to hire people, coach people and work with them to gain entry into new accounts, identify, bid, win new deals, to then maintain relationships with those accounts to achieve expand out sales
The person and personality type I’m looking for:
- High energy, upbeat personality, impactful
- 3 or more years Sales Management experience (this needs to be current now / not in the past) running business software apps sales team
- 10 years or more Sales career
- Must have an up to the minute psyche – familiar with mobile, social media, ebusiness phenomena
- Stable employment history e.g. no more than 4 employers last 12 years
- Able to show strong sales record managing people over the last 3 years
Guide….
- Euro 80-100K Basic
- Euro 160-200k OTE
- Plus benefits
- Possibly stock (the company is a listed firm / NOT pre IPO)
- They have good customer references in France
- They have marketing and lead generation to help
- Solutions are strong
This is a real job, if you’re interested contact me robert.tearle@arena.co.uk +44 1344 724 654
How to better approach your first 100 days in position
The first 100 days of employment within any business represents a golden opportunity to cement your place in the organization and build a platform for ongoing success, or to relegate your future career with the organization to ‘catch-up’ mode. Even worse, some people will manage to kill their future prospects with an organization before they get their seat warm. Regardless of the role in which you join an organization, the first 100 days is a golden opportunity to make a positive impact and be sitting on top of the world by day 101.
Some things in the overall list will be more important than others and will vary from role to role and business to business, but by the end of the first week you should have a plan in place for the first 100 days that either captures all of the following elements, or allows you to cross any of them off for a well-founded reason.
In this article we outline what’s considered best practice – derived from original research sourced from business leaders, management & leadership trainers and performance & career coaches. In addition, we have included an addendum for those people assuming sales leadership and senior sales roles in which performance can be more clearly identified – and some additional insight to maximise chances of getting off to a successful start and avoid placing yourself at early risk.
Click on the link below to read our white paper which covers….
Presenting yourself | Building your network | Meeting expectations Setting
Personal Objectives and Development Plans | Specifics for CXO level
Pre-requisites for Sales leadership & senior sales
Here’s a CV Resume template to help show you at your best
What worked and was good enough 5 years ago is no longer good enough today.
Standards and expectations by those people making executive hiring decisions are rising – the content you include and logic needs to be sharper.
And the image you present, should show you to be up to date not dated – we hope this contemporary CV Resume template may help guide to create a CV which is current and up to the minute in it’s styling and the tips we’ve embedded enable you to showcase your strengths.
The executive CV / Resume Why it’s more important than you think!
The closer to the top you get, the tougher the competition.
And to remain at the top table, if you are moving from one exec position to another CXO to CXO or senior management into the exec CXO team, you need a CV Resume which represents you at 100%, not 60% of what you are.
There are three key aspects you should be aware of…
1) Implications as to where you stand in the pecking order
- At the top, the field is much more competitive
- Potential employers’ stakes are higher
- Too many senior people just add the last job onto their dated CV
2) Implication for career progression i.e. senior manager to “C” suite
- CV Resumes indicate growth potential
- CV Resumes are used as a key point of reference in succession planning
- CV Resumes are referred to when re-structuring a business and deciding who goes up, down and out!
3) Implication for grade level / seniority, salary and eligibility for stock
- CV Resumes in themselves are an example of the quality of your work! Are you presenting yourself with an “executive presence” or diminishing your “personal brand”?
- A well written CV Resume should suggest you could be a great asset to an employer
- CV Resumes present an opportunity to show the contribution you have made to an employer in the past (your track record), and the contribution you can make in the future, giving an implied value
You can view an example of how to best layout your CV Resume together with tips, in the candidate zone in this web site.
July 2011
Arena completed searches including Client Solutions Director with a global Tier 1 Consulting Services practice. The remit is to advise clients about strategy, evangelise and design solutions in Cloud, big data and business transformation, Sales Director, Central Government with a Cloud vendor, Sales Leader, Platform as a Service various other senior sales roles.
