When the VP of Sales seat is open, the CEO is usually the one running the pipeline. Forecasting becomes guesswork. Reps have activity but no structure. And every week without a sales leader in place is a week the team is not being built, developed, or held to the standard the business needs. If you are hiring someone to build or rebuild the sales organization, not just manage what is already there, the stakes of this search are as high as any you will run.
Talent Executives conducts retained executive searches for sales and revenue leadership across the United States. We understand what separates sales managers from the leaders who build repeatable revenue organizations, hire well, and give the CEO real clarity on what growth is going to look like. That distinction drives everything about how we run this search.
A $40 million company came to us needing both a VP of Sales and a VP of Marketing to drive a major revenue push. Through our screening and discovery process, we identified a candidate who had the rare combination of both skill sets and the leadership range to own the full commercial function. Instead of two hires, they made one, saved a senior-level salary, and gave that person the expanded role they were ready for.
The kind of outcome that comes from understanding what the business actually needs, not just what the job description says.
We place senior sales and revenue executives at the Director level and above. Some of the roles we fill include:
High-performing sales leaders are among the most courted professionals in the executive market. They are consistently approached, and the good ones are selective about where they take their time. A generic recruiting message does not reach them. A job posting does not attract them.
What works is a search process built around research, relationships, and a genuine understanding of what makes a revenue leader successful in your specific environment. That means knowing your go-to-market model, your sales cycle, your competitive landscape, and the kind of leader your team needs to get to the next level. We do that work before we ever reach out to a candidate.
We begin by understanding your business model, your current sales motion, and your growth objectives. We want to know what is working, what is not, and what you need your next sales leader to build, fix, or scale.
We identify high-performing sales executives across relevant industries, company types, and go-to-market models. This is targeted, research-driven outreach, not a keyword search.
We engage candidates directly and assess their track record with rigor. Sales executives know how to present well. Our job is to understand what is behind the presentation: the actual results, the conditions they operated in, and how they built and led their teams.
We evaluate each candidate for revenue performance history, leadership style, team-building capability, and alignment with your specific go-to-market motion. We also assess cultural fit and executive presence, because the CRO is often one of the most visible leaders in any organization.
For VP-level and above searches, we incorporate Hogan leadership assessments as a standard part of our process. Hogan measures how a leader performs under normal conditions, how they respond under pressure, and the core motivators that shape how they compete, build relationships, and lead their teams. For a sales leader, understanding those motivational drivers and stress behaviors before they are running your revenue organization is a meaningful edge. The best-presenting candidates in an interview are not always the strongest leaders over time.
We present a curated shortlist with written assessments that give you meaningful context before you invest time in interviews. You will know why each candidate is on the list and what we believe they bring to your specific situation.
We assist with offer structuring and compensation benchmarking for variable compensation plans, equity, and total package design, and we remain a resource through onboarding to support a strong start.
Our clients come to us from across the country when they have tried other approaches and realized that this search is too important to run casually. A bad CRO hire does not just fail to hit a number. It costs you pipeline, people, and time you cannot get back.
Talent Executives conducts retained executive searches across the United States. We are headquartered in Frisco, Texas, and have deep roots in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, but our clients and the executives we place are not defined by any single region.
We work regularly with companies in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, across the Southeast in Atlanta, Miami, and Nashville, throughout the Midwest in Chicago, and across the Mountain West and West Coast in Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. In Texas, we serve clients in Dallas, Frisco, Plano, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and East Texas. Wherever you are building your leadership team, we have the network and the reach to run a search that surfaces the strongest available candidates in the market.
Go-to-Market and Revenue Expertise We Recruit Across
Our sales executive searches span a wide range of revenue models and go-to-market approaches:
Enterprise and Complex B2B Sales
SaaS and Subscription Revenue
Channel and Partner Sales
Revenue Operations and GTM Strategy
Business Development and Strategic Accounts
Sales Transformation and Team Building
We recruit sales and revenue executives across a diverse range of industries:
Working with Talent Executives was different, in the best way, from other recruiting firms we’d worked with over the years. It was a partnership from the start, not just a role to fill, which helped align our teams. The greatest value was their vetting process: when candidates came to us, they fit not just the job description, but the intangibles we were looking for. The process was efficient throughout.
Most succession plans look solid on paper until a critical leader leaves. The Bench Index is a structured, eight-minute assessment that shows you exactly where your bench is strong, where you are exposed, and what to do about it.
We recruit for Director through C-suite sales and revenue positions. The most common searches are CRO, VP of Sales, and Sales Director, though we also conduct searches for VP of Business Development, Revenue Operations, and regional VP roles.
Sales resumes are the most polished in any function, and the numbers on them rarely tell the full story. We go well beyond the resume to understand the context behind every result: the size and quality of the territory, the competitive environment, the resources the candidate had, what they built versus what they inherited, how their team performed under their leadership, and whether their top performers followed them to their next role. We also conduct structured reference conversations specifically designed to test the narrative the candidate has presented.
This is one of the most important questions we work through with clients at the start of every search. A sales leader who excels at building a function from the ground up, creating process, and hiring a first team is a fundamentally different profile from one who thrives in a scaled organization managing regional leaders and complex forecasting. And an enterprise hunter who opens seven-figure deals is not the same person as a relationship manager who retains and grows a strategic account base. We spend significant time in discovery understanding what your business actually needs before we build a single candidate target.
Yes. Revenue leadership is one of the most requested search types in PE-backed environments. PE firms want to see ARR growth, improving net revenue retention, and a sales organization that can perform consistently under reporting scrutiny. We recruit sales and CRO candidates who have delivered in those conditions and who understand that their performance will be measured with precision.
Yes. For VP-level and above searches, we incorporate Hogan leadership assessments as a standard part of our process. This is particularly valuable in sales searches, where candidates are often highly skilled at presenting well and managing the impression they make in an interview. Hogan looks past the presentation. It measures how a leader actually operates day to day, how they respond under quota pressure and pipeline scrutiny, and the core motivators that drive how they compete, build loyalty in their teams, and handle adversity. For a CRO or VP of Sales, that data gives our clients a meaningful advantage in making a confident final decision.
If the seat is open while we run your search, we can arrange interim coverage so the team stays focused and pipeline keeps moving.
If you are building your sales organization, navigating a CRO transition, or simply want to understand what the market looks like for your specific profile, we would welcome a conversation. Reach out to Talent Executives to learn more about how our retained search process works.
