A founder decides the company needs a VP Sales. Revenue has plateaued, the founder is still closing the largest deals and the existing team lacks direction. A search brief is drafted and the recruitment process begins.
Six months after the hire, expectations are already under strain. The new executive says the pipeline is weaker than expected, the team needs rebuilding and the go-to-market strategy is unclear. The founder wonders why an expensive leader has not fixed the problem.
Sometimes the appointment was wrong. Just as often, the business was unclear about the job that actually needed doing.
A senior sales hire is not a substitute for diagnosing the commercial operating problem. Getting that diagnosis right makes recruitment more focused, fairer to candidates and more likely to produce the intended result.
“We need a VP Sales” is a proposed solution, not a brief
What does the organisation expect this person to own? The answer varies dramatically between businesses.
One company needs a player-coach who can sell directly while establishing early process. Another needs a manager to improve the output of an existing team. A third needs a builder who can create territories, hiring plans, onboarding, forecasting and a repeatable enterprise sales motion. A fourth needs an executive who can lead managers, allocate resources and translate a board-level growth plan into execution.
These are different roles. They require different experience, operating styles and compensation expectations. Using the same title does not make them interchangeable.
The recruitment brief should begin with the problems, outcomes and constraints—not a generic list of desirable traits such as “strategic”, “hands-on” and “proven track record”.
Diagnose the business before defining the candidate
Start with five areas.
Market and proposition. Is there credible evidence of product-market fit in the segment the company wants to scale? If the business is still changing its offer, pricing and target market every month, a candidate with experience scaling an established sales motion may be the wrong fit.
Sales process. Are opportunities qualified consistently? Are stages meaningful? Can the business explain how deals advance and why they are lost? An incoming executive should know whether they are inheriting a working model or being asked to design one.
People. Does the current team have the capabilities needed for the intended market? Is the challenge hiring, coaching, performance management or role clarity? A leader who excels at developing managers may not be the ideal choice to recruit the first two account executives.
Data. Can the company produce credible information on conversion, cycle length, average contract value and pipeline quality? If the evidence is poor, growth commitments should be treated with caution.
Leadership expectations. Is the founder genuinely prepared to delegate decisions about hiring, process, performance and sales priorities? A VP Sales cannot be accountable for outcomes while lacking the authority to change the system.
A brief assessment of these factors gives the search firm better information and prevents candidates from discovering material surprises after joining.
Distinguish a builder from a scaler
This is one of the most important distinctions in commercial hiring.
A builder is comfortable with ambiguity. They design operating rhythms, establish first principles, recruit early sellers and test what works. They may spend substantial time in customer conversations while creating the foundation for others to follow.
A scaler inherits or improves a demonstrated sales motion. They optimise territories, capacity, management layers, forecasting, enablement and consistent delivery across a larger organisation. They are often more focused on systems and management leverage than direct selling.
Some individuals can do both, but the burden of proof should be higher than a CV containing both words. Ask candidates to describe the exact state of the business they inherited, the decisions they made personally, the resources available and the measurable results over time.
Growth achieved with a substantial established team and marketing budget is not necessarily evidence that someone can build a function from zero. Equally, a successful founder-stage sales leader may not be suited to leading several layers of management.
Use evidence rather than interviews alone
Senior commercial candidates are often persuasive communicators. That is useful, but it can make informal interviews unreliable as assessment tools.
A structured process should evaluate role fit and commercial judgement through comparable evidence. Give candidates an appropriately scoped written exercise based on a realistic business scenario. Ask them to diagnose the issues, prioritise the first 90 days, identify risks and explain what they would need to learn before making commitments.
Score submissions against the same criteria: quality of diagnosis, prioritisation, commercial logic, leadership approach, clarity of communication and realism of assumptions. Follow with a structured discussion that tests the candidate's reasoning rather than rewarding presentation polish.
References should verify what the individual personally delivered. A headline revenue figure without context is a weak indicator. Ask about team size, starting point, ownership, quota attainment, retention and what continued after the individual left.
Consider whether interim leadership is needed first
A permanent appointment can take time, and the business may need commercial direction immediately. But urgency can create pressure to hire the first plausible executive rather than the right one.
Interim or fractional sales leadership can help stabilise the operation while the search proceeds. It may clarify the role, establish baseline metrics, repair immediate forecasting issues or improve onboarding materials. That can make the eventual permanent hire more successful.
The point is not to replace recruitment. It is to make the recruitment process better informed and to avoid leaving a leadership vacuum during the search.
In some businesses, an initial Sales Performance Audit may reveal that the need is narrower than a full-time executive: perhaps better pipeline discipline, manager coaching or a defined build-and-scale project. A credible adviser should be willing to say so.
A better partnership between recruiter and commercial specialist
Executive search firms understand talent markets, candidate assessment, remuneration and the mechanics of hiring. A specialist commercial operator understands the sales system the candidate will inherit and the practical demands of the role.
The combination is powerful when responsibilities remain clear. The recruiter owns the search and candidate relationship. The commercial specialist can support role definition, independent evaluation, practical exercises and early operating priorities. The client benefits from a stronger link between the candidate selected and the problem to be solved.
That is particularly useful when a founder is making their first senior commercial hire or when a business has had one appointment fail and wants to avoid repeating the experience.
The question to ask before starting the search
Instead of asking only, “What sort of VP Sales do you want?”, ask: “Which commercial capabilities must exist in this business twelve months from now, and what is missing today?”
From that answer, define the outcomes, authority and operating conditions of the role. Only then build the candidate profile and interview process.
Better recruitment begins with a more precise understanding of the business. That improves the experience for founders, recruiters and candidates—and reduces the chance of a high-profile hire becoming a costly reset.
