Showcase

Recruitment of a BDM

Permanent recruitment

How we recruited a Business Development Manager for a specialist steel manufacturer

Our client

Our client is a steel and wire manufacturer. They are a premier specialty steel-manufacturing facility offering a unique combination of carbon, stainless and other specialty steel making capabilities.

Location - Brisbane, QLD
Industry - steel manufacturing
Size - 30 employees

We applied our three-phase service delivery model for this recruitment drive.

Video job advertisement

Social media algorithms favour videos over still content, so we create video advertisements for all vacancies to help source our candidates.

We take full advantage of this unique and highly effective form of candidate sourcing in order to reach the right candidate at the right time.

We post our videos on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. They are posted on these platforms 10-20 times, based on relevance. Our videos typically receive over 1,000 views within the first 24 hours.

Job advertisement

We constantly refresh, rewrite and reformat our job advertisements to optimise the quality of applications received. Our approach is aggressive - we post around 20 advertisements for every permanent job. Advertisements are posted on:

Job boards - Seek, Adzuna, Glassdoor, Indeed and Jora
Social media - LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
11 Recruitment's website

On average, our advertisements receive over 100 applications and perform well above the market benchmark for Seek, shown in this graph

Business Development Manager

On-the-road business development role, reporting directly to the Managing Director
Promote the full product range of high-quality galvanised welded wire mesh products
Are you a "hunter" and a "farmer"?
Great salary package

The role

The duties for this role will include:

Chasing distributors (selling to mining companies / contractors) and fabricators
Acquiring new clients face-to-face, via email and over the phone
Attending conferences and making presentations
Building relationships and cold calling decision-makers
Acquiring new clients through tenders
Managing existing clients through monthly face-to-face visits (across QLD, but monthly within the Brisbane metropolitan area), via email and over the phone

About you

The successful candidate will need:

Experience conducting B2B sales with a proven track record
Solid experience working in steel fabrication or a manufacturing environment
Experience selling products directly to fabricators and distributors 
Managing long-term client relationships 
The ability to work from home and operate under minimal supervision with a high degree of independence and initiative
The ability to use a CRM database to track clients
Strong interpersonal and communication skills
To be a self-starter with a positive "can do" attitude

About our client

Our client is a Western Australian steel and wire manufacturer. They are seeking a superstar salesperson – a hunter and a farmer - to join their ISO 9001 certified business. They are looking for someone special - a top salesperson with a hunger for business development.

You should have good time management skills and be a self-starter who can work autonomously as you will be working from home.

Assessment Matrix design

Our in-house designed, custom made software generates an Assessment Matrix, which is our blueprint for the recruitment process. Our process consists of screening, interviews, document verification, skills testing, personality profiling and reference checks.

Ticks indicate the point at which each criteria is addressed. More importance criteria are checked multiple times throughout the recruitment process.

Selection criteria	Screen	Interview	Docs.	Skill test	Profiling	Refs.
Education
Bachelor's degree - desirable	✓		✓
Experience
Steel industry	✓	✓				✓
B2B sales - lead generation	✓	✓				✓
Record of reaching revenue targets	✓	✓				✓
Established network	✓	✓				✓
Broad knowledge of the steel market	✓	✓				✓
Development / maintenance of short and long-term contracts	✓	✓				✓
Account management success	✓	✓				✓
Cold-calling and on-the-road sales	✓	✓				✓
Tendering	✓	✓				✓
Sales metrics monitoring	✓	✓				✓
Other
Microsoft Word - advanced	✓			✓
Microsoft Excel - advanced	✓			✓
Grammar & spelling - excellent	✓			✓
Passion for business growth	✓	✓				✓
Verify LinkedIn vs CV	✓	✓				✓
Will undergo personality assessment	✓	✓				✓
Willing to travel across QLD for visits	✓	✓				✓
Accept expected salary ($120k)	✓	✓				✓
Previous warning of termination?	✓	✓				✓
Will you pass a drug test?	✓	✓				✓
Behaviour
Dominance - 69%		✓			✓
Influence - 45%		✓			✓
Steadiness - 27%		✓			✓
Compliance - 47%		✓			✓
Forms signed
Health / police check			✓
Signed document - tell the truth			✓
Docs verified
Driver’s licence	✓		✓
Citizen AU / NZ or PR	✓		✓

DISC profiling

Similar to people, jobs have their own behavioural profile that is based on duties, environment and communication. We create a profile for every job vacancy, enabling us to match an applicant's behaviour against that of a specific role.

We use DISC, which examines the following attributes:

Dominance - accomplishing results, the bottom line, confidence
Influence - persuading others, openness, dependability
Steadiness - cooperation, sincerity, dependability
Compliance - quality, accuracy, expertise

DISC profile - Business Development Manager

As well as being driven, this role also call for someone with charisma; an individual who is a good communicator, able to persuade others to their point of view as well as get their message across without appearing pushy or over-bearing.

The sort of person suited for the role enjoys the company of other people and the challenge of negotiation. But by the same token is not overly sensitive as to what people think of their decisions. That is not to say they do not want people to like them and see them in a positive light but where it comes to closing the sale for example, the person in this role needs to feel comfortable asking for the order without fear of offending.

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This role requires an individual who is comfortable with a dynamic work environment and is able to adapt as required. Furthermore the role will require a person who is goal focused and motivated to achieve the desired outcomes, without significant management intervention or the guidance of rules and procedures.

The person would need to have a resilient character such that they can cope with the challenging aspects of the role, which would require strength of character and skill to adapt to possibly changing circumstances to do the job.

The position requires an individual who will be comfortable with responding quickly to work demands and who will be adaptable and comfortable with change. There will be times when deadlines need to be met with little warning and the individual will need to be able to adapt to meeting tight deadlines.

This job will suit someone who is enthusiastic, energetic and confident with adapting to the changing environment, and not reliant on rigidly following a process or procedure.

Another characteristic of this role is that it will require a person who is self confident and unlikely to experience doubt as to their decisions. The ability to act on instinct rather than following the procedure or process is an aspect of the role.

The role requires someone who is likely to be confident, goal oriented and determined to get the job done to their liking.

A significant requirement will be for a person who is optimistic and enjoys socialising and meeting new people, a person who likes people and who is a good communicator and negotiator. This person would be happy to venture where others are more cautious.

This role requires someone who is able to work independently and act on their own initiative whilst seeing the big picture, but at the same time recognising the need for conforming to certain rules or procedures in order to get the job done.

BDM

Shortlisted candidates

Candidate A

Candidate B

Candidate C

Behavioural adaptation by candidates to match the job profile:

Candidate A

Candidate B

Candidate C

Results

Our aim is to produce a strong shortlist by sourcing widely. We measure every stage in our recruitment process to ensure we meet this key objective.

Our service comes with an extended 18-month replacement guarantee. This guarantee means our interests are mutually aligned - to recruit high achievers who will excel and stay.

Video views

1,815

Applications received

106

Interviewed by 11 Recruitment

Shortlisted

Interviewed by client

Hired