Our relationship with Safco began when one of our recruiters saw they’d hired a new Director of Sales and decided to reach out. It was serendipity: during our very first call to him, after hearing we recruited for commercial interiors companies, he expressed surprise. Turns out we were exactly what he needed as he entered his new role.

While he’d only just started with the company, he had plans to build out his sales team and knew he’d likely need support finding enough of the right people. After a few months of settling in and getting his bearings, he was ready to start expanding his team and gave us a call.

This was our first search with both him and Safco, and it was a big ask: they were hoping to bring on three Regional Sales Managers before a critical trade show. The problem? The event was only a month and a half away. They needed three people in three completely different markets who could work with independent reps while expanding business development efforts.

With the details in-hand, we dove right into the three searches immediately.

Despite hiring for the same role, these were truly three completely separate searches happening simultaneously. We worked with Safco’s hiring team to stack-rank the three placements, determining the order from most to least important. This helped us prioritize our efforts accordingly to fill the most critical placements first.

When looking for candidates, they were specifically interested in people with existing commercial furniture experience who’d managed a team of people, whether independent or direct management. Their experience has been far more about “influencing” independent reps versus actually “managing” them, which required its own level of emotional intelligence (EI) and nuance.

In the end, two of the three candidates had their first day by the time the trade show rolled around. The third candidate came onboard shortly after, with the whole search taking about eight weeks from start to finish.

Each role involved a four-step interview process, including flying them out to meet with the hiring team in-person. While the candidates themselves were incredibly accommodating, timely, and flexible, having such a collaborative, actively involved hiring manager made an enormous difference in the candidate experience.

While the sales cycle in commercial furniture is about three years long, so far Safco leadership has been impressed with the three candidates we placed. Since this initial search, Safco has become an incredible hiring partner. Understanding our clients and their unique talent and cultural needs makes it much easier for us to source talent for them.

The collaborative way they approach our professional relationship allows them to rely on us for recruitment expertise while we lean on them for depth of organizational understanding. This trusting, give-and-take approach leads to smoother, faster hiring of high-quality candidates.

Our partnership with Safco’s hiring team is ongoing, with us continuing to support their growth efforts as they expand their sales team further.

Experience a faster, smarter, smoother search.

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