Hiring Situation

• ・Company D, a Global Ad-Tech company on the cusp of entering the Japan market, asked us to find a Sales Professional.
• ・Their Japan branch was small and they were looking for a bilingual candidate who could communicate directly with HQ. They also hoped for a candidate who could last through the coming expansion of their organization and be active as a manager in the future.

Our Approach

We first tried to clarify what the client meant by "someone able to become a manager in the future," whether they want someone with prior mangerial experience or someone without such experience. Some clients prefer the latter because an experienced manager often brings managerial style from past companies.

We learned that Company C follows an inbound sales approach rather than the traditional sales approach of Japanese advertising agencies. Consequently, we decided to introduce a candidate without managerial experience, since experience leading a Japanese advertising agency would not be the right match for clinet's need.
From a pool of candidates, we introduced a candidate who had worked overseas after graduating from university and who was a top sales at a start-up company in Japan.

Since Company C was on the cusp of entering the Japan market right when the candidate was hired, many elements of the work environment were not yet firmly in place; however, It did not take much time before he gave positive impacts to the new company through his incredible adaptability cultivated in the startup environment.
Now they have expanded in size and he is responsible for hiring processes as a Senior Manager for existing clients.

Understanding what type of sales style Company C utilized allowed us to introduce the appropriate candidate that best met their criteria in this case.
Additionally, understanding "exact need" of our client lead this search closed successfully.