Two kinds of leader. One standard.
Every search we take is for a seat that matters in the board pack. Some leaders deliver the plan. Some test it before it is set and show how results track against it. Both are hired against the same test: has this person done it, at this stage, under this kind of owner.
Leaders who deliver the plan
Chief Revenue Officers and VPs of Sales. Heads of business development, account management, professional services and customer success. Product and product-operations leadership. This is where the record is deepest: revenue organizations built end to end, from the first regional director to the CRO who inherits them.
95% of senior Bennett Search Group placements were still in seat at 12 months. For one public capital-markets client, the VP of Sales and SVP of Sales through a business-model change, and eighteen of the sales hires beneath them in the platform's launch year. On the product side, the VP of Product Operations for a PE-backed private-markets platform and the Head of AI Product Management for a public company's AI product line.
Leaders who test it and prove it
Chief Accounting Officers, and the workforce planning, revenue operations and analytics leaders beside them. We search the FP&A market for the same companies. Their work runs in three acts: pressure-testing the plan before it is set, sharpening the decisions while it runs, and proving, month by month, how results track against it. The right candidate is defined as much by who they will sit across from as by their own résumé, which is why these searches run best for companies whose revenue teams we already know.
For one sponsor-owned financial-infrastructure platform, the Chief Accounting Officer and the Head of Workforce Planning and Analytics, the two seats that give an owner visibility into performance and headcount, both on retained mandates. For a public capital-markets company, the SVP of Sales Operations who ran the number through a business-model change.
When the search happens
Post-investment
New capital, a hundred-day plan, and a leadership team built for the last stage.
Scale
A national or international go-to-market footprint that has to exist by a date.
Transformation
A legacy revenue model moving to platform or SaaS, and a sales organization that has to change with it.
Pre-exit
The leadership bench a buyer will diligence.
“He is well-organized, highly responsive, and has exceptional negotiation and closing skills, resulting in a high offer acceptance rate and impressive one-year retention rate. His ability to support founders to 'sell the dream' is critical to his success.”Head of Corporate Development, venture-backed AI company. Now a growth-equity principal and board advisor. Client for eight years.