Head of Sales recruitment
Head of Sales recruitment for businesses whose sales team needs leading, not just managing.
A Head of Sales is the appointment a business makes when it already sells, but not consistently. The team exists, the product works and the market is real — yet forecasting is guesswork, conversion varies by person and nobody owns the discipline.
Head of Sales recruitment for manufacturers, engineering and technical B2B businesses.
Why this appointment is difficult
A Head of Sales runs the sales team. They own activity levels, pipeline quality, forecast accuracy, sales process, coaching and conversion, and they are accountable for the team's number. The role is right for a business that already has salespeople and needs performance and discipline, rather than a business that needs its commercial direction set — that is a Sales Director.
Most businesses reach a point where the founder or Managing Director can no longer lead sales personally, but the business is not yet ready for a board-level commercial appointment. That is the Head of Sales moment, and it is frequently mishandled: the best salesperson is promoted, or a strategist is hired who has not run a pipeline meeting in a decade.
The role is operational in the best sense. It is weekly pipeline discipline, honest forecasting, coaching in front of customers, holding people to activity, and making a sales process something the team actually uses rather than a document nobody opens.
We define the role against the commercial gap — what the team is failing to convert, and why — then assess candidates on how they would close that gap with the people already in post, not on how well they interview.
When businesses need a Head of Sales
The founder still leads sales personally
Revenue depends on one person's diary. The business needs somebody to own the team so the founder can own the business.
Sales have plateaued with a team already in place
Headcount has grown but revenue has not. The constraint is discipline, focus and conversion rather than effort.
Forecasting is unreliable
Nobody can say with confidence what will close this quarter, which makes production, stock and cash planning guesswork.
The team has no coaching
Good salespeople plateau and weaker ones are carried, because nobody is in front of customers with them.
What the role does in practice
Pipeline and forecast ownership
A pipeline that reflects reality, a forecast the board can plan production and cash against, and the discipline to keep both honest.
Team performance and coaching
Field coaching, call reviews, structured one-to-ones and the willingness to address underperformance early.
Sales process and conversion
A process the team genuinely uses, applied consistently from enquiry through quotation to order.
Activity and territory management
Who covers what, how often, and whether effort is going to the accounts and sectors that can actually pay for it.
Recruiting and developing the team
Building the next layer of the team, and knowing which gaps to fill first.
Reporting into leadership
Translating sales activity into commercial information the Managing Director and board can act on.
What the wrong appointment costs
The salary is rarely the largest number. The expensive part is the commercial time a market-entry programme loses while an appointment that was never going to work runs its course.
Risk 1
A sales team that accepts a second year without accountability, and loses its best performers.
Risk 2
Forecasts that stay unreliable, with production and cash planned against numbers that do not arrive.
Risk 3
A strategic hire who will not run the weekly discipline the business actually needed.
Risk 4
A promoted top salesperson who stops selling and never becomes a leader — losing revenue twice.
Risk 5
Eighteen months of drift before the business admits the appointment was the wrong shape.
Decision support
Head of Sales or Sales Director?
The titles are used interchangeably in the market. The commercial tasks are not the same, and hiring the wrong one is expensive.
| Head of Sales | Sales Director | |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Running the sales team day to day: activity, pipeline, conversion, coaching | Commercial strategy, structure, pricing posture and where the business sells next |
| Seniority | Senior operational leadership, usually reporting to a Managing Director or Sales Director | Board or senior leadership team, accountable for the whole commercial function |
| Best when | There is already a sales team and the constraint is performance, discipline and consistency | The commercial direction itself needs setting or resetting, not just executing |
| Typical risk | Appointing a strategist who will not run a weekly pipeline meeting | Appointing a strong team manager who cannot set commercial direction |
How a Head of Sales search is run
01
Commercial briefing
The business, the market or territory, the route to market, the customers, the products, the realistic first-two-year objectives and the internal support the person will have.
02
Role definition
A role built around the commercial task: accountabilities, territory or team, targets, reporting line, tools and the profile that can genuinely deliver it.
03
Search and approach
Targeted identification within the relevant sectors and market, approached directly and discreetly on the strength of the commercial opportunity.
04
Commercial assessment
Structured assessment against the commercial plan — how the candidate would actually grow the business or territory, and whether their evidence supports it.
05
Shortlist and interview support
A shortlist with honest commentary, plus help running interviews that test commercial capability rather than interview technique.
06
Appointment and first-year structure
Support with offer, onboarding and the commercial plan the new appointment works to from day one.
What we need to understand before starting
The market being entered or developed, and how far the entry has already progressed.
The intended route to market: direct, distribution, agents, specification-led or a combination.
The products, their technical complexity and who has to be convinced to buy them.
What the role must achieve commercially in its first year and its first three years.
The internal support available: marketing, technical, logistics, pricing authority and leadership time.
The realistic package, including how it compares with the local market for that role.
Language requirements, travel expectations and where the person will be based.
Whether a permanent appointment is genuinely the right first commitment.
Common questions
If the commercial direction is broadly right and the problem is execution, discipline and conversion, you need a Head of Sales. If the direction itself needs setting — which markets, which route to market, what pricing posture, what structure — you need a Sales Director. We will say which we think it is, based on your numbers rather than your job title preference.
In most businesses under about £20m, yes, and they should. A Head of Sales who will not carry key accounts or get in front of customers loses credibility with the team quickly. The balance between selling and leading should be defined before the search begins, not discovered afterwards.
No. The same appointment is made by UK businesses growing domestically and by businesses building a team in a market they have recently entered. The commercial definition differs; the search discipline does not.
Then hiring a Head of Sales will not fix it on its own, and we will say so. Sometimes the honest answer is a sales assessment, a process rebuild or fractional leadership first, with the permanent appointment following once the shape of the team is clear.
Where the roles are commercial or technical sales appointments connected to growth, yes. We do not run volume recruitment across unrelated disciplines.
Related capabilities
The wider recruitment capability and the other commercial roles market entry usually requires.
Assess the market and establish the route to market the appointment will operate through.
Senior commercial leadership for an agreed number of days a week where a permanent appointment is not yet justified.
Salary bands, hiring timelines and role structures for international commercial appointments.
The digital commercial infrastructure a new appointment needs behind them in the territory.
Recruiting a Head of Sales?
Tell us how the sales team is structured today and what it has to deliver next year. We will tell you honestly whether a Head of Sales, a Sales Director or something else is the right appointment.