The VP of Commercial & Industrial Sales at Burnham Commercial Boilers, a spin-off division of Burnham Holdings, was openly planning to exit the company. He brought us in to help backfill his position, connecting us with the company’s president as we kicked off the search.

The organization is pretty lean, especially for leadership, with overall low turnover rates. Because their people tend to stick around, finding the perfect fit—in hard skills and experience, but also personality-wise—was crucial. 

We worked with their team to define three critical aspects of the role: 

1. What had the soon-to-be-former employee done incredibly well?
2. What areas did they feel could be improved upon in their next hire?
3. In what ways did they want to further evolve the role? 

This uncovered a slight conundrum: they hoped to find someone with an engineering-level understanding of the industry who could also facilitate and manage their national commercial sales efforts. 

While we always start by looking at our existing database, we knew the niche nature of their industry would likely require us to look outside our existing candidate pool. We strategically cast our nets out within their competitive space to find the best candidates who checked all BCB’s boxes. They had their first candidate within a week of launching the search, and we ultimately presented four qualified candidates to them. 

From the very beginning of the interview process, one candidate from our existing candidate pool stood out from the rest. 

About six months before starting this search, our recruiters discovered a candidate who felt stagnant working for a niche division of a well-known company in the space. He’d spent over half a decade as a National Sales Manager and was looking for the next step in his career. He knew staying at such an enormous company was limiting his upward mobility, and he was ready for a fresh start. 

We’d actually identified him as a highly placeable candidate due to his personable nature and plumbing-specific engineering background. He brought experience managing a spread-out national team, had handled his own P&L for years, and professionally presented incredibly well. 

After confirming his interest in the role, we presented him to BCB’s hiring team in less than two weeks. They quickly saw what we did: a great leader with a technical engineering background who could explain complex concepts simply and knew how to sell within the industry. 

As with most high-level leadership hires, the process required sign-off from several levels of leadership across the company. Still, it took just under two months from the first candidate we presented to them to the date their chosen candidate accepted the job offer. Three weeks later, he walked in the door for the first time as the company’s new VP of Commercial & Industrial Sales. 

Since then, he’s supported the company growing at a rate twice their annual goal, and his sales team is the leader in the commercial boiler space. He and the rest of the BCB team have continued working with us as they develop their sales teams across the country, about a dozen placements and counting. We’ve maintained a highly collaborative, trusting partnership with them as we continue supporting their company’s growth. 

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