The hiring team at First Supply reached out to us after seeing us recruit in the plumbing space for several years. Over the years they’d expanded through organic growth and acquisitions. At the time they connected with us, they’d recently acquired a small wholesaler in Madison Heights, MI, about a dozen miles north of Detroit. 

They’d previously hired an outside salesperson with experience in a slightly adjacent industry, but ultimately it wasn’t the right fit. They realized they needed someone local with directly relevant industry experience, and that’s where they hoped we’d come in. This was our first search with them, and they hoped we could unearth additional talent their internal talent acquisition team might’ve overlooked, despite their thorough search of the market.

They had a few qualifiers, dictated by the geography and the nature of the industry. First and foremost, they only wanted candidates in and around Madison Heights. Knowing the buyers in the area, residential plumbing contractors, and the negotiating factors that were important to them would be key to success. 

To narrow the field, they specifically wanted to hire someone who either actively or formerly worked for a direct competitor in the area and didn’t have a non-compete. First Supply’s hiring team also didn’t want to hire a “step-up candidate” who’d grow into the role; they wanted someone with a proven track record of success in the area in their specific industry. 

We started by building a list of plumbing distributors in a reasonable radius around Madison Heights, including national players and smaller plumbing wholesalers. Then it was a matter of working around an industry-specific issue: while we start with candidates in our database and looking into external candidates through platforms like LinkedIn, not everyone who works for these residential plumbing contractors—especially the smaller, more local ones—is on those platforms or easily accessible. 

We called several local companies directly to get the lay of the land and parse out potential candidates, ultimately presenting five candidates to the hiring team at First Supply. 

Despite the lack of ease finding people through external research, the candidate they hired was already in our database. In fact, we’d reached out to him about a different position about three months before this opportunity arose. 

The pieces seemed to fall into place perfectly. He spent a decade working for a direct competitor in the area before leaving to work for a rep agency. After a short time, though long enough for his non-compete to run out, he decided he wanted to get back into the industry directly. 

His long tenure spoke heavily in his favor, having spent nearly his entire career directly in their industry in the exact geographic location they needed working for a direct competitor. By the second round of interviews, it was clear he was the winning candidate, with the other four paling in comparison. 

They did have to make one compromise to bring him on: bumping their budget up. Still, they’d told us to send the most qualified candidates, even if they ended up being more expensive than initially desired. They knew that, for the right salesperson, the additional investment would pay off long-term.

By the end of the hiring process, the First Supply team was incredibly excited to bring him on. They specifically noted his charisma, salesmanship, and exceptional drive as being exactly what they had hoped for. It became clear from his first day that it was an excellent fit, and so far he’s doing well in the role. 

While we haven’t made additional placements with them yet, they were pleased with the recruitment process and the outcome of our search. However, as previously mentioned, they have an incredible internal talent acquisition team that’s perfectly capable of handling the vast majority of their searches. But if they ever need additional support, they know our team is willing to step in to help anytime.

Experience a faster, smarter, smoother search.

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