Director of Sales & Marketing Search

We were tasked with finding a Director of Sales & Marketing who could lead an Open Die Forger's sales team and further expand their footprint across North America. This person needed to be degreed, have management/leadership experience, be a good communicator, be willing to travel 20% of the time and have prior success developing & growing new accounts through selling forgings and value added processes like machining and heat treating.

We began, by combing through the United States' forging industry, where we have identified over 400 operations. Our primary targets were sales leaders from forge operations who had in-house heat treating and machining.

We ultimately identified and contacted 154 prospective candidates who we believed might be qualified from across the United States forging industry.

Below is the criteria we considered when evaluating the candidates we spoke with:

Must have at least 5 years of experience managing a team with at least 3 Direct Reports
Must have Sales & Marketing leadership experience
Must have experience selling Forgings
Must have a proven track record of sales volume and/or new account growth with a differentiated sales strategy
Must have experience identifying and solving customer problems which result in sales
Must have the ability to sell with a value selling approach
Must be great listener and questioner
Must have a passion for selling
Must have experience making presentations to customers
Must be proficient with Microsoft Office
Must be capable & willing to travel 20% of the time
Bachelor’s degree required
Master's degree preferred
Strongly refer prior experience with value added processes like Machining and Heat Treating
Strongly refer prior experience with quality systems and standards like ISO 9001, AS9100 & NADCAP
Must not have history of job hopping
Must fit with company culture
Must be US Citizen or Green Card holder
Must be able/willing to relocate

As we began evaluating these Sr. Sales Leaders from across the forging industry, there were 2 major categories which eliminated most prospective Director of Sales & Marketing candidates in the United States:

Many of the sales people who were willing to travel 20%, had a history of outside sales but did not have enough management experience
Many of the sales people who had the required management experience were not interested in travelling 20% of the time

From the 154 people we spoke with:

6 candidates were submitted
4 candidates were phone interviewed
3 candidates were brought for onsite interviews

In less than 3 months we identified, attracted, thoroughly screened and successfully hired a premier Director of Sales & Marketing from the forging industry, and we ended up finding the Director locally, which saved the company relocation expenses!

Don't wait for the perfect candidate for your job position to find you. Find them today with the help of Laminin Corp's knowledgeable recruiting staff. Visit our EMPLOYERS page or CONTACT US for more information and to get started.