WHOLESALER NEEDS HELP UNEARTHING A COO

THE CLIENT

A Southwestern seed wholesaler that’s been operating for a half-century and has had steady 8 figure sales needed a COO, a new role with the intention of cultivating a true leader to oversee the next generation of senior executives.

THE ROLE

Primarily overseeing the finance side of the business, the client needed the COO to be technologically savvy, financially grounded, and eager to understand the workings of their medium-sized operation. While titled ‘COO’ it was really a ‘take on what we need to attack next and lead’ kind of job.

THE CHALLENGE

With a budget of $150,000, the client had employed a Top 5 national recruiting firm to find the perfect fit. After 8 months, no one within the budget and financial background was presented. The client began to feel like this was an ‘impossible search’ since such a large firm was unable to find success.

HOW RHODES WOLFE PARTNERED

After a series of discovery calls, Rhodes Wolfe determined that while the ultimate goal was to hire a COO, the actual candidate required was a more of an entrepreneurial controller looking for their next career move. Cold outreach to passive candidates and aggressive advertising was initiated to identify a local candidate.

RHODES WOLFE RESULTS

We submitted the candidate that ultimately was hired on day 7 of our search (and month 9 of the other firm’s…). The candidate was $30,000 under salary budget based on our insight on who the client really needed and our invoice, of course, was substantially lower. We’re excited to see how the candidate blooms in his role.

WE’D LIKE TO PARTNER WITH YOU

We help our clients get talent with our focus on alignment through custom-built searches, pay-you-if-the-search-fails guarantee, and 15-month placement backing. If you need a true partner to work on your search, contact us.