AgWorld’s Senior Sales Executive

AgWorld

AgWorld is an agriculture technology organisation based in Australia, that recently opened an office in the US. They offer farm management app-based solutions for growers across the globe. AgWorld was established in 2008 however are experiencing great levels of growth in the US and at the time we were working with them for this role, they had a team of 50+ globally. 

The Challenge

AgWorld were looking for a Senior Sales Executive to pick up their US business as part of the expansion of the company.  This individual would take over all sales activity in the US, taking this on from an overworked team member whose role was diversifying. 

They had used a number of other recruiters unsuccessfully, in fact when we first approached them they responded that they were ‘sick of recruiters’ and wouldn’t use any in the future.  They felt they had wasted a lot of money with recruitment agencies that promised a lot but weren’t delivering.  After many conversations they said they would try us out, but this really was their last try with recruitment companies.  

We clearly had our work cut out, our client had a tough brief and low expectations of our service.  We really needed to blow them away so Phil and the team took on the challenge.

Our Actions

We started by completing the assignment brief with the AgWorld team and drilled into what the ideal candidate looked like.  It resulted in quite a difficult candidate profile, someone who has experience both in agriculture and in software.  This combined experience is quite tough to find as the two industries don’t tend to come hand in hand, particularly in the US.

We found 123 potential individuals worth speaking to and networking with, from this we interviewed 40 potential candidates that fitted the profile, and identified seven to go through to interview process with the AgWorld team. The client interviewed all seven in a three-stage interview process, and at one point were trying to find roles for five of the seven within the business. Each one fitted the ideal candidate profile and we’re delighted to report that the client even said ‘they were blown away by the quality of the shortlist’.

While they couldn’t find roles in the business for all five candidates, they did end up offering and hiring two individuals who were stand out candidates. They had more direct experience and were both offered (and subsequently accepted) the roles of Senior Sales Executives covering different regions of the US.