Industrial Automation Account Director | Case Study

THE CLIENT

Our client is a global leader in IIOT / Industrial Automation. Following a period of detailed research, several growth opportunities were identified in key industry verticals. To execute the strategy, the organisation required two highly skilled and experienced Account Directors to develop business in a defined vertical.

THE ROLE & ITS CHALLENGES

These roles were strategically incredibly important to the Client and one of the key initiatives for the Board. The future of the company direction was very reliant on the growth of a new revenue stream and this industry vertical was deemed the priority.

The roles provided multiple challenges. The individuals needed to have considerable experience in the vertical and be experts in this domain. They needed to be completely fluent in the language of the Client stakeholders and have a deep understanding of the technology and workflows. It was also highly beneficial for them to be very well connected and be able to provide a quick route to market.

It was necessary that they also be capable of forging relationships and generating high levels of new business. As this function was focussed on solutions, they would be required to be highly consultative, strategic and innovative. We were almost looking for someone that was half technical and half sales hunter.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITY

THE SOLUTION AND RESULT

We were very fortunate to have a very in depth briefing with multiple stakeholders that gave us both a history of where the plan had originated and what the future looked like. They were very transparent in terms of the challenges and the pace at which things were changing and moving internally to support this function.

We identified all the main competitors in this space and started to map out the employees that had the desired level of experience and demonstrated both sales and technical affinity. As the location of the individual was completely flexible, we identified just over 370 potential Candidates. We had a good response to our initial outreach and started our introduction calls.

It quickly became apparent that we needed further information and collateral to provide more detail on this new strategic direction. The website was still completely focussed on products and there was little detail on solutions. We consulted with the Client and video interviewed the key stakeholders who provided more context and examples of what they were looking to achieve. This really helped further increase engagement.

It was also during this search and outreach that we trailed tailored video messages to the individual Candidates that we really wanted to speak with. This worked really well and made the opportunity stand out.

Having submitted ten Candidates to the Client, they wanted to interview all ten. As the role was completely new, the Client was able to really focus in on what was important to them. Two Candidates were progressed to final interviews, offered and accepted.