Friedrichs & Partner

IRC Recruitment partner

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Sales Manager Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Client/industry

Telecom supplier

Situation

The stock listed Canadian manufacturer of test equipment for the global telecom industry had tried for a number of years to grow the business in the German speaking parts of Europe. The company has worked successfully with several IRC Recruitment members in Europe including Friedrichs & Partner in Germany. The key contact for this client was the French-Canadian IRC Recruitment member. Via this key contact the client was referred to Friedrichs & Partner again to recruit for a crucial management position.

Assessment

The main competitor of the client was originally a German company dominating the German speaking market for decades. Recently this competitor had merged with an American company and was then acquired by a major Telecom supplier. In addition about 10 other companies were active in this specific market segment where the main customer was Deutsche Telekom AG. It was the main target for the client to recruit a sales manager who had good contacts to this key account.

Challenge

The market segment was shaken by a number of restructuring and downsizing periods due to the break-down of the Telecom industry in 2001. Therefore only a limited number of potential candidates were available in the market and the client was still a relatively unknown company in Germany with a very small team. The candidate to be sought needed to have a strong business development personality and a very systematic, strategic work style combined with in-depth know-how in fibre optics and the test equipment industry.

Methodology/Solution

Friedrichs & Partner started with a detailed market analysis and identified the potential candidates. Then, one after another, all candidates were approached confidentially and cautiously in order not to irritate the market. In phone calls and interviews candidates needed to be convinced that the client had a sound business strategy and offered a unique career opportunity. At the same time the client managed to win a prestigious tender for the first time and this industry news had to be spread systematically to attract the potential candidates.

Candidate

Eventually Friedrichs & Partner managed to present a short-list of 5 suitable candidates from the relevant market. 2 final candidates were chosen for further technical interviews and the final candidate had been determined after that. This candidate was formerly working in Marketing and business development for the dominating competitor and had then changed to a smaller international company, focussing on business development in the German speaking markets. This candidate had the ideal technical and personal skills and could also make the next career step with our client. In addition he was involved in handling the major account Deutsche Telekom and was familiar with the internal organization of this client.

Post-mortem

We were successful in convincing the candidate to accept our clients offer and make the move. He subsequently quickly became involved in a number of promising sales and business development activities. Through these activities he was able to increase the market share with the major account, Deutsche Telekom.