Our clients consider us partners, and they share our passion for results
We never underestimate the impact the people we recruit can have on a company, and we only work with those clients who champion that vision. We are fearless in the pursuit of extraordinary leadership talent. We never confuse effort with outcome.
The Company: 7Shifts
7shifts is the most intuitive employee scheduling and management software, designed specifically for the restaurant industry. Not only is 7shifts offering innovative technology to restaurant owners and managers, but this software reduces labor costs and improves the overall efficiency for management and the restaurant as a whole.
Whether it’s pulling in employee’s availability, filling shifts, forecasting, or eliminating scheduling conflicts, 7shifts covers all the bases. It creates seamless interaction between employees who receive a text or email with their upcoming shifts. 7shifts is used by more than 100,000+ restaurants such as Panera Bread, Boston Pizza, Levetto, The Chopped Leaf, and so many more.
To keep up with the breakneck speed of their growth – and to stay on the cutting edge of consumer and business technologies – the 7shifts team needed self-starting people committed to continuous learning.
An essential part of the CEO's role is to bring a dedicated team together and plug them into their existing network of connections. Jordan Boesch and 7shifts had the network in place – what was needed was a Sales leader who could maintain their pace.
CASE STUDY
Hiring Your First Sales Leader
One challenge that many growing organizations face is knowing when to expand their leadership team. In particular, how do you recognize when it’s time to bring on your first sales leader: CRO, VP Sales, Director, Manager?
The Leadership Agency's unique sourcing strategies were recently put to the test when a fast-growing tech start-up needed to hire their first ever sales leader. Not only had the scheduling software app 7shifts never hired a dedicated sales lead, but they had also never worked with a recruiter before – and they thought that they never would.
• We will help you lead by helping you build your entire sales team
The Challenge...
7shifts was growing fast, rapidly expanding its client-base, but to reach the next level, to go from Seed funding to Series A, they had to become rigorous in its sales strategy. That required a dedicated sales leader.
At the time, the CEO and founder, Jordan Boesch was hiring, training, and leading the sales team. Considering that he does not have a sales background, he led the team to its remarkable early successes. Still, this made it difficult to recognize when the time had come to hand over the sales team to a new, dedicated leader. They started with small steps.
After months of searching without success for a Sales Director who would be a good fit, 7shifts turned to The Leadership Agency for help. This would be the first time they used a recruiter to help grow their team. "We had that start-up mentality," explains Jordan Boesch.
"We were used to doing all of the hiring ourselves, but when you reach a certain level, you realize there are people who specialize in this, who are really good."
Delegation is a part of leadership, but it also meant trusting experts to do what they do best. The team realized that not only was sales expertise needed at the helm, but industry- leading recruitment expertise could also be leveraged to find just the right person for the job.
The Solution...
The team at 7shifts engaged The Leadership Agency to find them a Director of Sales. The Leadership Agency’s first step in its unique sourcing process began with meeting the 7shifts executives and sales team to fully understand their requirements and gain in-depth knowledge of the company, the culture, and the brand.
Discovery With The CEO
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Company culture analysis: The Leadership Agency begins every search by learning the company culture, and understanding the core values of the team and leadership. In the case of 7shifts these included excitement, ambition, and a passion for learning. Says Boesch, "Every day, I'm excited to work alongside the talented, self-starting, and hungry team at 7shifts. It is so important for a recruitment partner to understand this about me as a leader and the culture of our company."
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Revenue model analysis: To truly align with the goals of a business – and identify and attract the best candidates for the role – requires an understanding of the financials. The Leadership Agency acquires comprehensive knowledge of a company's revenue model by asking the right questions: Are they looking to grow current contract revenue, acquire net new business, lower their churn rate, increase monthly recurring revenue, expand into new markets, or go up-market and get to enterprise?
Project And Timelines Set In Advance
The Leadership Agency set up transparent and aggressive timelines in advance so that 7shifts would know what results to expect and when. 7shifts understood and approved the precise dimensions of the search including:
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The date of when candidates and a talent market analysis will be presented
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A fully managed interview process
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Candidate profiles and analysis tools
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Strategic offer guidance
"The Leadership Agency are creative and inquisitive. They have a deep understanding of our needs, and they act fast. Their competitive positioning of 7shifts in the market attracted a high caliber of leadership talent," says Boesch. "Their team really gets our business. Their understanding of our culture and mission allowed them to attract four top performing sales leaders to our opportunity in just five days".
The Results...
Within an hour of its initial consultation, The Leadership Agency launched the search. Key deliverables included:
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Search launched in an hour
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Within five business days, 7shifts was presented with vetted, qualified candidates and a talent market analysis.
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The Leadership Agency team held detailed conversations with hundreds of potential sales leaders to find just the few who would be great fits for the 7shifts brand.
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Within four weeks 7shifts had their first Sales Director hired and onboarded.
Based on the time and resources spent, the total cost of 7shifts’ internal search for a new sales leader prior to reaching out to The Leadership Agency was approximately $20,000. The ROI on that investment was precisely $0.
The total cost of the search after engaging The Leadership Agency was roughly that same amount, only with measurable, valuable results. Not only was the ideal candidate found for the role, but in less than three months 7shifts has also:
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Doubled the size of its sales team
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Strategically realigned revenue targets
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Executed on an enterprise solution
The tech start-up that had never used a recruiter before now has the team at The Leadership Agency sourcing four other roles for their rapidly expanding tech firm.
"It's the care and professionalism that sets them apart," says Jordan about The Leadership Agency. "And the attention to detail. Not only did they take the time to get to know us to find the right fit candidates, but they also followed up after the fact, making sure we were happy and everything was working out."
"We would definitely use them again... In fact, we are."