Hiring new sales reps for your team can be difficult, but that experience becomes even more challenging if you’re expanding your sales team internationally. One of our valued clients, Bulletproof, needed to hire sales reps in the U.S. and knew they needed to partner with a company that had experience in sales recruiting for international clients.
Keep reading to find out how Naviga Recruiting & Executive Search was able to assist a U.K.-based company expanding into the U.S. and hiring their first U.S. sales reps.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Bulletproof is a U.K.-based company that specializes in cybersecurity. They provide businesses with services to stay ahead of hackers, take control of infrastructure, and protect business-critical data.
The company has been around for four years and has doubled in size every year in both headcount and revenue.
Given their tremendous success in such a short period of time, Bulletproof planned to expand its services to the U.S. Before they could make their move, they first needed to prove that their business model could be as successful in the U.S. as it was in the U.K.
EXPANDING THEIR SALES TEAM INTERNATIONALLY
Bulletproof felt the timing was right to test their proof of concept in the U.S. in May of 2020. They began to generate organic sales leads in the U.S. while servicing them in the U.K.
Bulletproof was successful in generating the organic leads they needed. However, they quickly discovered that it would be extremely difficult to close the leads from the U.K.
“We proved that we could get the leads, and then we were like alright, we need to get someone in local because this clearly isn’t going to work in terms of time zones,” described Jon Foley, Bulletproof’s U.K. Sales Manager.
“We’ve always said that in sales, you have to be responsive. We were maybe picking up the initial inquiry at 8:00 p.m. and someone would fire off an email saying ‘Hey, we’ll give you a call,’’ but then they don’t hear from us again for quite some time. By the time our sales rep wakes up the next day, America’s already gone to bed,” said Foley.
It became apparent to them that if they were going to make their U.S. expansion work, they needed to hire a local sales team.
FINDING A SALES RECRUITING PARTNER FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES
Since Bulletproof didn’t have an established presence or team in the U.S. already, they knew they had to reach out to a global recruiting specialist.
Before they began their search, they came up with a list of attributes they wanted in a recruitment firm:
- Specialization in sales – they were only hiring sales representatives at the time so they wanted a recruiting agency with sales-specific experience
- Personalized experience – they didn’t want to partner with a large firm where they would become just a number
- Consultative approach – they needed a lot of help figuring out both recruiting and administrative issues when it comes to hiring in the U.S. like compensation, medical care, taxes, payroll, etc.
- Long-term partner – they wanted to find a firm that matched how they did business and who could help them build their U.S. team
After reaching out to different firms, Bulletproof was especially impressed with Naviga’s process and their willingness to find them the exact right person for their open position.
“From the start, I thought Naviga did a really good job of gathering information from us about our specific recruiting challenges and what job requirements we had for the position. After they gathered that information, it wasn’t just, oh we’ve already got the person for you. It felt like they cared about what we actually wanted,” Foley said.
Ultimately, Bulletproof chose Naviga Recruiting & Executive Search to become their long-term U.S. recruitment partner.
“We wanted some hand-holding throughout the recruitment process, a more boutique service since we had never hired anyone in the U.S. before. And I guess it’s how we operate. We try to give everyone the same service and hand-holding and that ‘you grow with us’ kind of partnership. Not just, sign this contract and therefore charge you a lot of money. And I think we found that with Naviga. Just someone that we could be honest with and just feel like we’re getting them,” Foley described.
BENEFITS OF USING NAVIGA RECRUITING
After signing the contract, Bulletproof was quickly able to see the benefits of Naviga’s consultative approach and sales recruiting expertise.
“Caroline gave us some great advice at the start,” Foley said, referring to Naviga’s Client Relations Manager, Caroline Bowersock.
After Caroline reviewed the job brief, she began to consult with Bulletproof on the type of sales candidate they needed for this remote role. Their ideal candidate was someone who was self-sufficient and who had a lot of experience.
“She advised us to not go with a graduate, entry-level type of candidate. It just helped validate what we had been considering when she said we needed somebody with more experience,” explained Foley.
Naviga quickly went to work and began recruiting the best salespeople to fill the open position. The recruiting team at Naviga vetted and evaluated their best candidates until they found the top four candidates to present to Bulletproof.
“The quality of candidate we got from Naviga was brilliant. Even the candidates that we turned down, it wasn’t that they were poor, it was just that they weren’t the right fit for us right now,” described Foley.
“And I think myself, the CEO, and the chairman that were all involved in this process, couldn’t believe the quality of candidates we were seeing. We would have had to go through 50 CVs on our own just to find one good one, whereas everyone we got through Naviga was such a high-level candidate,” Foley said.
Naviga also had the added benefit of knowing a reputable HR outsourcing vendor. Bulletproof was concerned with how they were going to manage all of the backend administrative tasks that come with hiring someone in another country.
The HR vendor was able to help Bulletproof get their payroll set up while they got their house in order.
RESULTS OF PARTNERING WITH AN INTERNATIONAL SALES RECRUITING COMPANY
At the end of the recruitment process, Bulletproof hired one of Naviga’s sales representative candidates, one of their first sales hires in the U.S. After their new hire completed their training in August, he was able to make an impact right away.
“Since September, he’s hit every target and across the whole period. He’s 120% percent against his quota and he’s done that against some really aggressive targets that we set for him. He’s just done a really amazing job and in terms of revenue that he’s brought in, he’s overachieved,” said Foley.
Shortly after their first hire, Bulletproof used Naviga to hire another sales representative. Both of their new hires have been great additions to the Bulletproof team.
“When they’re interacting with other people in the business, the feedback on them has been brilliant from everyone in the company. They bring a bit of energy to our meetings. When they’re on a team call, they always have something to say and it’s always positive and it’s always upbeat,” described Foley.
Foley said there are some really exciting things planned for the year ahead. They’re releasing a new product that’s going to be a pivot for even bigger growth in the company. Their new hires will be instrumental in launching and managing this product while growing the U.S. division of the company.
As the U.S. division expands, Bulletproof plans to use Naviga for all their sales recruiting and hiring needs.
“I don’t see why we would go anywhere else in the future. It’s been great working with Naviga and we can’t speak highly enough,” said Foley.
