Now that we have our marching orders set out before us; our jobs in a work document with the job’s name, title, job description, all the target companies we want to source out of and all the accompanying information we researched on for “names in” to begin our journey, it’s (finally) time to get on the phone!
This particular search is for a Director of Sales and Business Development. Although the customer wants to hire for that specific title, she wants the person we’re targeting to come ideally out of new product development or product development. We’re told to target the following titles:
VP or Director New Product Innovation (and any other business-oriented new product development titles)
Category Managers or Directors
Business Unit Managers/Business Manager
VP or Director of Product Management
Might also be a Sales Director who has experience in leading Product Development
This last definition, to me, appears to be further a-field for this search, because I have no idea if a sales director would come out of a technical product development background and when I bring this up to the customer she insists she actually PREFERS this category. Oh well.
Titles vary depending on the size of the company, but in general, the bigger the company, the lower your title-strike should be, and the smaller the company, the higher the title-strike can be. In other words, a Manager level in a $10 billion sale company could be at the same experience level as a Director in a $900 million sale company or a VP in a $100 million sale company.
This information is offered as a learning exercise.
Scanning my work document, I decide to begin at the beginning.
Company Name
Somewhere, USA
(xxx) xxx xxxx
www.companynameexamplethis.com
This is a real-life example of how a company is set into a names sourcing job. It is one of millions of companies available that allows access to the general public information about their most valuable asset – their people. It may be doing a few thousand in revenue - it may be doing billions. It may have one location – it may have thousands worldwide! Reminder: Its’ general information is usually available through information services like Hoovers and its employees (the savvy ones) post information on the internet daily regarding their internal activities in the company, including their titles and contact
information. The really savvy are beginning to realize the importance of the burgeoning social/professional
networking groups like LinkedIn, spoke.com and others who allow FREE access to their directories and allow these individuals to register and post information about themselves so other people can “find” them.
8:53 a.m. I call - receptionist answers.
Me: “Hello, this is Maureen Sharib, can you please tell me who heads your product development function there?”
R: “Well, we have different departments – which departments do you want?”
Me: (Eyeing the company’s description) “Plastics.”
R: “Well, we have trim, interiors…”
Me: (Quickly) “Trim please – who heads product development for trim?”
R: “Well there are two really – Mark Pestin is in charge of engineering and Rich Rutney is Director of Advanced Technology.”
Me: “What is Mark’s title?”
R: “Director of Engineering.”
Me: “Okay thank you, and oh by the way, just in case, who heads the interiors development?”
R: “Well that’s Mr. Ralph Salston - He’s the Director of Product Development.”
Me: “Thank you very much. Bye.”
Bingo. It took way more time to type this than to get the above info – about 45 seconds, I’d say, total, on the phone.
Results I could submit from this call:
Mark Pestin Director of Engineering/Trim
Rich Rutney Director of Advanced Technology/Trim
Ralph Salston Director of Product Development/Interiors
Did you notice I didn’t use anyone’s name in my initial approach? Wonder why?
Watch for the next installment of “Search and Source – What’s Next?” You’ll find out why!
“Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour.” ~ Ovid
