WoodJobs filled a Senior Sales Director role in 32 days for a wood-products supplier evaluating automotive OEMs and Tier 1 manufacturers as potential customers. The supplier needed a commercial leader who understood its wood products and materials and could navigate complex OEM sales processes. WoodJobs’ role was to recruit that leader for a wood-products business.
The hiring need: sales leadership at a wood-products supplier
The supplier already served construction, industrial, and distribution markets while evaluating an additional customer channel. The role called for a leader who could understand the supplier’s materials and capabilities, assess potential product fit, and guide a long sales process involving procurement, engineering, quality, and supplier approval.
The central hiring challenge was the combination of wood-products context and complex business-to-business sales experience. The supplier needed a leader able to evaluate opportunities and coordinate with internal teams as the company explored a new market.
Why automotive OEM experience mattered
Automotive experience was relevant because automotive OEMs and Tier 1 manufacturers were potential customers the supplier was evaluating. Their sourcing and qualification processes can involve multiple functions and extended timelines. The search therefore called for a sales leader who could work through that kind of process while learning and representing the supplier’s wood-products capabilities.
How WoodJobs approached the search
WoodJobs partnered with the supplier to define the role around that business need. The search focused on three qualifications:
- Wood-products and materials knowledge: the ability to understand the supplier’s products and explain their capabilities to business customers.
- Complex OEM sales experience: experience building customer relationships and navigating extended sourcing, qualification, specification, and supplier-approval processes.
- Strategic sales leadership: the judgment to evaluate market opportunities and align sales with engineering, quality, and operations.
WoodJobs focused on senior sales talent whose background connected industrial or materials sales with the supplier’s wood-products market. Within two weeks, the search identified 24 candidates who met the core criteria. After screening and interviews, WoodJobs presented a shortlist of four candidates by the third week.
The result
The supplier selected a Senior Sales Director with automotive OEM sales experience and a materials background. The candidate accepted the offer 32 days after the search began.
The hire gave the wood-products supplier dedicated commercial leadership to evaluate the potential customer channel, build OEM and Tier 1 relationships, and coordinate internal teams around prospective programs.
Why this is a WoodJobs story
The employer was a wood-products supplier, and the search addressed its need for permanent commercial leadership. WoodJobs’ relevance comes from recruiting for the wood-products business and understanding why the role required both industry context and senior sales capability. Automotive OEM experience was one qualification for a potential customer channel; it did not change the employer’s industry.
WoodJobs helps lumber and forest-products businesses define specialized roles and recruit permanent sales and leadership talent.
Learn more about lumber and forest-products recruiting.
Hiring sales leadership for a wood-products business?
If your lumber or wood-products company is expanding its sales organization, exploring an adjacent market, or replacing a senior commercial leader, WoodJobs can help define the role and recruit experienced talent for the wood-products industry.
