Sales Manager Recruitment for High-Performing Sales Teams
Kingman Lennox recruits Sales Managers who coach their people, hold the team to account and deliver forecasts the business can rely on.
- Fixed fee agreed before the search starts
- Shortlist within two weeks
- 12-month replacement guarantee
We help UK businesses appoint Sales Managers who make the whole team better, not just their own numbers.
A Sales Manager’s results come through other people. The right appointment lifts the performance of every salesperson in the team, brings discipline to the pipeline and gives the business forecasts it can plan around. The wrong one can hold a good team back for a year or more.
Every Sales Manager search we run is built on direct headhunting and evidence-led assessment, so the decision rests on what a candidate has achieved through their team rather than how well they interview.
Why Sales Manager Recruitment Is So Hard to Get Right
Many Sales Managers are promoted because they were the best salesperson in the team. It is an understandable decision, but selling well and managing well are different skills. A study of 53,035 salespeople across 214 firms found that the strongest sellers were the most likely to be promoted, and tended to make weaker managers. We look at what that means for hiring in why promoting your best salesperson often backfires.
Interviews make the difference hard to see. A strong salesperson presents well and can talk convincingly about coaching. What matters is whether they have improved other people’s performance, and whether they can show how.
The best Sales Managers are usually valued where they are. Reaching them takes a direct, discreet approach and a clear case for the role: the team they would lead, the support they would have and what success would look like.
We are typically engaged when:
- A top salesperson was promoted and the team has not moved forward
- The Sales Director is spending too much time managing salespeople directly
- Forecasts are unreliable and the pipeline is hard to read
- The team is growing and needs a manager who can coach and recruit
- The right candidate is performing elsewhere and will need to be approached directly
A good salesperson is not always a good sales manager
An industrial supplier had promoted its best salesperson to manage the team. It was an understandable decision, but a year later the business had a frustrated manager and a team that was still receiving very little support. Most of the manager’s time went into their own accounts, and when colleagues needed help, the tendency was to step in and take over.
The business agreed a move back into a senior sales role and asked us to find an experienced Sales Manager. We concentrated on candidates who could show how they had improved other people’s performance, and we wanted the detail: what had been going wrong, what they had done about it and how they knew it had worked.
The successful candidate brought experience of managing a field sales team and a straightforward approach to coaching. They spent time out with the salespeople, worked through live opportunities and addressed problems early. The Sales Director began to receive more dependable forecasts, and the former manager was able to concentrate on the customers they enjoyed working with.
How We Recruit a Sales Manager
Every Sales Manager search starts with the brief. We work closely with your leadership team to define what the role has to achieve: the people to be developed, the standards to be set, the pipeline and forecasting disciplines needed, and how much selling the manager will still do personally. That becomes the scorecard every candidate is measured against.
We then identify and approach sales managers directly, including those who are not looking, and assess them in depth. Because our assessment is led by people who have run sales teams themselves, we know which questions show whether a candidate has genuinely developed their people.
Your shortlist is a small number of candidates who have been properly tested, each with a written assessment. We stay involved through the offer, the resignation and the notice period, so the move is handled carefully on both sides. Read more about how we work.
Coaching
How they have improved individual performance, with examples of who and how
Pipeline discipline
The reviews and routines they run, and how they spot problems before they cost a deal
Forecasting
How accurately their team has called the number, and what they did when it slipped
Recruitment
The salespeople they have hired, and how those hires performed
Context
The team size, sales model and type of customer behind their results, and how closely they match yours
Sales Manager and Sales Leadership Roles We Recruit
Our sales leadership and sales management recruitment covers every stage of a growing business, from a first Head of Sales to executive search for Chief Revenue Officers.
Building a sales function
The first dedicated sales leader, who leads from the front while the team is built.
- Head of Sales
- First Sales Director
- Sales ManagerThis page
Leading an established team
Leaders who own the revenue plan and run managers or a larger team.
- Sales Director
- Regional Sales Director
- National Sales Director
Executive and board level
Senior leaders responsible for revenue across the business.
A Sales Manager sits closest to the day-to-day work of the team. Their standards become the team’s standards, which is why the appointment deserves the same care as a director-level hire.
Sales Manager Recruitment Across B2B Sectors
Our focus is sales rather than one industry, and we recruit Sales Managers across the UK’s main B2B sectors, including:
SaaS and technology
Financial services and fintech
Professional services
Industrial and engineering
Energy and sustainability
Healthcare and life sciences
Manufacturing and distribution
FMCG and consumer goods
The strongest Sales Managers understand how their customers buy. Experience of a similar sales cycle, deal size and type of buyer counts for more than a matching job title or sector.
Why Businesses Engage Kingman Lennox for Sales Manager Recruitment
A Sales Manager shapes the performance of every salesperson they lead. Our role is to make sure the appointment is made on evidence, with a clear view of what the role needs and who can genuinely deliver it. What defines the way we work:
- Specialist focus on sales roles, and nothing else
- Leadership assessed by people who have run sales teams
- Direct, discreet approaches to sales leaders who are not on the market
- Close partnership with your leadership team from brief to start date
- A 12-month replacement guarantee on every placement
- Over 95% of placements still in role after 12 months
Sales Manager Recruitment: Your Questions Answered
If your question is not answered here, the quickest route is a short, no-obligation discovery call.
How much does Sales Manager recruitment cost?
Many agencies charge a percentage of the successful candidate’s first-year salary, which rises with the salary agreed. Every Kingman Lennox search is on a fixed fee agreed before it starts. A fixed fee removes any incentive to put forward candidates at the top of the salary range, and it lets us commit properly to the search. Every placement is also backed by a 12-month guarantee.
How long does it take to recruit a Sales Manager?
A well-run search typically delivers a strong shortlist within two weeks, and most searches reach an accepted offer within four to six weeks. The successful candidate’s notice period then sets the start date, so it is worth building into your plans from the outset.
Should we promote our best salesperson to Sales Manager?
Sometimes it works, but it is a risk worth testing rather than assuming. Selling well and managing well are different skills, and research on promotions in sales has found that top sellers often make weaker managers. Before promoting, look for evidence that the person has helped colleagues improve, and that they want to lead rather than simply progress. We cover this in more detail in why promoting your best salesperson often backfires.
What is the difference between a Sales Manager and a Head of Sales?
The titles vary between businesses. As a rule, a Sales Manager runs the day-to-day performance of a team, coaching individuals and managing the pipeline, while a Head of Sales is responsible for the sales function as a whole, including its plan, structure and recruitment. In smaller businesses one person may do both. We help you define the role before the search starts.
Do you recruit Sales Managers across the UK?
Yes. We run Sales Manager searches across the UK, covering London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Aberdeen. We also help international businesses make their first UK sales hire.
What happens if the Sales Manager you place does not work out?
Every placement is backed by a 12-month guarantee, which is considerably longer than the three months most agencies offer. If the person leaves or is let go within twelve months, we rerun the search at no additional fee. In practice this is rarely needed: over 95% of the candidates we place are still in role after twelve months.
Speak to a Sales Manager Headhunter
If you are planning a Sales Manager appointment, we would be glad to talk it through. An initial conversation is confidential and without obligation: you describe the role and what has to go right, and we tell you honestly whether and how we can help.