Head of Sales and Marketing, Electronics

One of our clients was an electronics company with several subsidiaries and sites in Germany and abroad. Its portfolio combined products and services. The company was repositioning itself in a dynamic market and, as part of a succession plan, was looking for a new Head of Sales and Marketing.

It was a fascinating but extremely demanding position – and one that was crucial to the company’s further development. That made it all the more important to find the candidate who was truly right: someone the company could plan the coming years with.

In the end, we had two candidates on the shortlist. In education, professional experience, seniority and track record, the two were fully comparable. They differed in just one respect: their personality and leadership style – but there, fundamentally.

What mattered now was not simply to assess them on paper and compare facts and figures, but to answer one question: which candidate was the better fit for the company’s strategic realignment?

To answer that, you need to know sales in the electronics industry yourself. This is exactly why the distinction between a search consultant and a recruiter matters so much – and why, as a hiring manager, you should be clear about what exactly you expect before choosing a service provider. A recruiter may well find suitable candidates. But without experience in the industry, they cannot assess the company’s strategic direction and therefore cannot support the hiring manager in making the choice. What defines a search consultant is precisely the expertise and experience in the area that matters for the decision.

These were also the projects that always fascinated me most as a consultant. Being able to accompany a company through its strategic development and find the right people for it is the perfect symbiosis of technology, business development and working with people.