Scarcity and talent are two words that are constantly repeated in startup circles. Two profiles that attract the attention of CEOs and startup HR departments: technological profiles and sales profiles.
Cristina Ferreres, Founder and CEO of Outbound People (HR consultancy specialising in SaaS B2B) met with the CRO of a world-leading tech aggregator. We’ll call him Diego.
When Diego explained to Cristina Ferreres that he needed to recruit 40 sales reps (or Account Executives), she did not have a heart attack because luckily she eats healthy and exercises often, but she was close.
Diego’s company is the real estate portal leader in LATAM and Asia. They had recently acquired a SaaS which is expected to revolutionise the real estate industry. This SaaS was in the growth phase, which is why he needed to hire 40 Account Executives.
Here’s the conversation:
Cristina Ferreres: It can be done. Let’s set an action plan for the next 3-6 months – (Cristina was used to complicated challenges, to impossible requests, but she has a very motivated, flexible, and dynamic team) – Diego, I like the project, the company, and the product so we are going to have fun.
Diego: I forgot to tell you that we need it in 30 days. They all have to be onboarded on the same day because we want to do one training for the whole team and we need to have them all within a month.
CF: Diego, sorry, the Internet isn’t working for me and I think I’ve lost connection for a few seconds, can you repeat what you said?
She adjusted her headphones and stopped breathing.
Diego: I need them in 30 days.
CF: Okay, I will have to assign an entire team to this project, we need fluid communication between our teams, we will need you to interview the candidates that we present to you a few hours after we send you the report, you have to be agile when it comes to making the offers… But we can make it. I like this project even more. By the way, will they all work in your Barcelona office?
Diego: I think I forgot to mention that we have to recruit them in 7 different countries in LATAM.
Diego’s testimonial
“We are in a process of business transformation. We operate in over 10 countries and we are always looking for ways to speed up this process, which is not only related to the product but also the mindset.
Talent is a fundamental factor for the success of any organisation, the main challenge is how we capture the greatest amount of talent, in the shortest possible time and manage to retain it.
Adding 40 people at the same time, in different countries in less than 1 month is quite a challenge. We decided on Outbound People because they have a great team, and above all, they are experts in this type of profile. They understand your needs, they integrate with any communication and performance tracking tool you have, and they are very fast.”
Thirty days later, an army of AEs started the training period in this large digital group. The team assigned to the project by Outbound People had scheduled interviews at unsociable Spanish hours, arranged daily calls with Diego’s team, and paused the mission impossible song every time a candidate accepted the offer.
Well, the song played for the last time when Diego called Cristina and told her that 85% of the candidates had successfully passed the training process.
The secret to this success: working hand in hand and having a clear definition of the profile to get all the candidates to join the same day in multiple countries.
The Outbound People team awaits the next challenge.
*This is a real success case from April 2022, the leading company has chosen to keep their name confidential.
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