The team at Wayne Dalton, an Overhead Door Corporation company, had several internal talent shifts, transfers, and promotions that led to a vacancy in one of their District Sales Manager positions. We have a long history with the company, having worked with them for over ten years and even placing the incumbent hiring manager. As with any of their other searches, their internal talent acquisition team at Wayne Dalton did their due diligence in hiring for this role. Ultimately, they came to us after identifying the need for extra support on the search. 

They ran into several complicating factors that led them to lean on us. Most importantly, as with many of our clients, they needed to hire someone quickly. Culture fit was critical, and they wanted to find someone who—regardless of age—brought a sort of youthful exuberance to their team. This District Sales Manager role also oversees a larger-than-usual geographic area for similar roles elsewhere. 

We followed our proven process to look at talent: look at what we have, then see what else we can find. In this case, we looked first at their direct competitors’ talent. Not finding what we were looking for, we expanded our search to ancillary products like windows, roofing, siding, and insulation. While we found plenty of candidates with the right experience level, it was surprisingly difficult to uncover someone with the right personality and culture fit. 

Eventually, we found our unicorn candidate in a completely unexpected market: working for a two-stepper. 

This was a perfect example of how someone can come from a seemingly unrelated industry and be a perfect fit elsewhere. Their chosen candidate came from a two-stepper who manufactured some products while also selling wholesale building materials. He started working there straight out of school and stayed for ten full years, being promoted through the company along the way. 

His long tenure showed a strong sense of loyalty and dedication, plus an incredible work ethic. It was clear they kept him around for the incredible value he brought to the organization. But he’d climbed as high as he could within the company and was looking for the next growth opportunity. As the cherry on top, he was bilingual, speaking English and Spanish fluently, which is incredibly helpful in the region: California, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

The only piece that wasn’t a perfect fit was his previous sales region. While his company was B2B with some dealers, they served a significant number of builders and contractors. The new role was also multi-state, making it a much higher volume and dealer base than his former role. This would truly be a growth opportunity: he’d be transitioning from “a” point of contact for the area to “the” point of contact. But he was ready to take on the challenge. 

Since joining the team, he’s gone all-in on the role, jumping in with both feet. Wayne Dalton’s Director of Talent Acquisition has expressed admiration for his get-up-and-go energy, and he’s brought everything to the role they hoped he would. We continue to place talent on their team, with an average of 3-4 placements each year. 

Several months into his new role, he reached out to our team to thank them for their support throughout the process, calling his new job “the apple of [his] eye,” and expressing how excited he was about the future. 

This was the only major job move this gentleman had made in a decade, in his entire professional career. While finding someone their next dream job is an everyday occurrence for us, this placement was an excellent reminder that the right job opportunity can completely change someone’s life. 

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