Hiring a sales leader for an industrial equipment company.

In Industrial Automation, Packaging and Processing, and Material Handling, the salesperson is often the most important translator in the company. They turn a customer's production problem into a specification your engineers can build, and they keep the relationship alive long after the equipment ships. That is why a sales leadership hire can shape a company for years, in either direction.

Why these roles are different

• Long, technical cycles. Engineered equipment is often sold over many months, to buyers in engineering, operations, finance and purchasing at once.
• Channel relationships. Many products reach customers through distributors, dealers, reps or integrators. Winning and keeping a channel is its own skill.
• The installed base. Aftermarket parts, service and upgrades can be a steady business, and the customer relationship is what keeps it.
• Credibility with engineers. The best sellers are respected by your engineers and your customer's engineers alike.

What to define before you search

Most failed sales hires trace back to an unclear brief. Before you talk to a single candidate, agree internally on a few things:

• Is this role mainly about new customers, growing existing accounts, or managing a channel?
• How are deals actually won today, and who supports the salesperson technically?
• What territory and travel does the job really involve?
• How long will it take a strong hire to produce, given your sales cycle?
• How does compensation work, and does it reward the behavior you want?

Where strong candidates come from

The obvious pool is competitors, and they are worth knowing. But some of the best candidates come from the edges: a seller from an adjacent industry who already calls on your customers, an applications engineer ready to move into sales, a leader from a channel partner who knows your products from the other side of the table, or someone from a customer who understands the buyer's problem. These three industries overlap enough that good people move between them.

How to assess

• Ask for specific deals: what was sold, to whom, how long it took, and what nearly went wrong.
• Find out whether a territory was built or inherited.
• Listen to how they talk about engineers, service teams and customers. Respect for all three is a good sign.
• Check references in proportion to the role, including people who worked for them.

Common mistakes

Hiring the biggest brand name on the résumé without asking what support that person had. Underestimating how long it will take to ramp. Writing a commission plan that rewards quick wins when the business depends on long relationships. And moving so slowly that the best candidate accepts another offer.