SPECIALIST RECRUITMENT · SOUTH AFRICA
Find people who understand your customers and how your business grows. We help employers distinguish new-business selling, account development and customer support when defining a recruitment brief.
UNDERSTAND THE APPOINTMENT
Sales and customer service recruitment becomes more effective when the role's commercial or service mandate is explicit. Start with the product or service, customer type, route to market and length of the sales or support cycle. Then distinguish new-business development, account growth, order support, complaint resolution and team leadership. Each calls for a different kind of experience and conversation.
Describe how performance is understood in your business, the territory or customer portfolio involved and the support available from marketing, operations or delivery teams. For South African roles, include travel, shifts, contact-centre hours, site attendance and language needs where they are genuinely relevant to serving customers. Candidates should understand both the targets or service standards and the resources, handovers and decision rights around the role. Make clear whether the vacancy is growth, replacement or a newly created responsibility. The answer shapes the level of independence and change management the hire needs.
Share your requirements even if the exact title is not listed. We’ll discuss the scope and where our recruitment support fits.
MAKE THE CONVERSATION COUNT
Ask for examples that establish context before performance: the offer, customer, sales cycle, account ownership and team support. Explore how the candidate identifies opportunities, follows through, handles objections or restores a service interaction. This gives a more balanced view than treating a headline sales figure as a complete measure of contribution.
A structured role-play or account scenario can reveal preparation, listening and communication. Keep it relevant to the customer conversation your team actually has, and explain the criteria in advance. Include stakeholders from sales, service and operations when the appointment depends on good handovers after the first conversation or order. Debrief the exercise with consistent questions about choices, alternatives and next steps. This shows how the candidate reflects as well as how they present. Assess preparation and follow-up thinking alongside performance in the conversation itself.
Identify whether the person wins new customers, develops existing accounts, responds to inbound enquiries or leads a service team. Explain the sales cycle, territory and decision makers involved. This prevents candidates with a different route to market from being treated as an automatic fit because their titles sound similar.
Set out how activity, pipeline, revenue, retention, service quality or response standards are reviewed in your team. Describe the reporting line and resources available. Candidates can assess the role honestly, and interviewers can ask about comparable responsibilities rather than judging performance without understanding the operating conditions.
Clarify what happens after a sale, enquiry or service request. State the teams involved, customer information that must be captured and where responsibility changes hands. This helps you assess whether a candidate can build relationships while maintaining the internal discipline needed for a dependable customer experience.
A useful vacancy brief combines the skills you need with the conditions in which the person will use them. Bring your priorities and any questions still to be resolved.
Share your priorities, working arrangements and timing. We can discuss the brief and the recruitment approach with you.
Discuss your hiring needsBusiness development usually focuses on opening new opportunities, while account management often develops an established customer relationship. Many roles combine both. State the expected balance, customer portfolio, territory and revenue responsibility so candidates and interviewers can assess relevant experience accurately. Also explain the role's involvement after a sale or service escalation.
You can discuss how targets were set, how performance was reviewed and what the candidate controlled. Put results in context: product, sales cycle, territory, account ownership and team support all matter. The aim is to understand contribution and working discipline, not to compare isolated figures. Ask how they planned activity and maintained their pipeline over time.
Look for structured problem solving, clear communication, accurate record keeping and ownership of the customer interaction. Ask how the person handles a difficult request, uses systems and works with other teams to resolve an issue. Technical knowledge can matter too, depending on the product or service. Align the interview with the channels customers use, such as phone, email or in person.
We can discuss permanent appointments, contract needs and temporary cover. The right approach depends on the work, your timing and the responsibilities of each party. For an ongoing leadership appointment, we can also discuss the mandate and confidentiality requirements for an executive search.
PREPARE FOR YOUR NEXT HIRE
YOUR BUSINESS. YOUR NEXT CHAPTER.
Bring us the role. We’ll help you shape the next step.
