Sherrington Associates successfully recruits new sales leader to head UK business for US construction materials giant, Huntsman Building Solutions (HBS).
Huntsman Building Solutions
Born in 2020 with over 150 years combined heritage of several market-leading brands, Huntsman Building Solutions are a leading provider of spray polyurethane foam, supporting clients in the construction industry to achieve a more energy-efficient building envelope. Being customer-centric, environmentally responsible and leading the way in their niche area of the construction sector, are the hallmarks of the Huntsman organisational culture.
UK Sales Manager
As part of the organisational expansion across the European territory, in early 2024, a requirement arose to recruit an experienced UK Sales Manager to lead and grow sales in the UK market. Appointing a territory-focused sales leader to leverage further growth in the UK would allow the UK-based European Sales Director to step away from directly managing sales in the United Kingdom and instead focus on strategic leadership of the European sales team. To achieve this outcome, a highly experienced Sales Manger was sought, bringing knowledge and experience of the UK construction sector, in particular a track record of successful sales leadership working with main contractors and specifiers in a relevant niche product area.
The Search
Huntsman Building Solutions retained Sherrington Associates to carry out a targeted search of the UK market in March 2024, with the principle aims of identifying, engaging, attracting and assessing candidates from the building materials sector, in particular those with strong records of commercial performance in the insulation space. Given our 20+ year pedigree of recruiting senior sales positions for construction and building products companies, we got to work approaching our existing network for referrals and recommendations, whilst simultaneously carrying out in-depth desk research to identify fresh talent.
Clients at Huntsman were keen to appoint a sales leader with the requisite cultural qualities to assimilate well in their organisation, and as such Sherrington carried out a values appraisal early in the briefing process to determine clear and tangible values to assess candidates against. As an environmentally-responsible manufacturer with an entrepreneurial culture, we focused on engaging targets at similarly eco-focused materials manufacturers, as well as those whose culture represented one of entrepreneurial ambition.
After four weeks, a shortlist was delivered to the client, comprised of high-calibre sales managers, all with relevant backgrounds and experience. After sharing insights from our own competency interviews with the shortlist, the client moved to selection stage and quickly identified two candidates to progress to final interviews. By April an offer had been to the best candidate for the role and an acceptance was gained. Commenting on the recruitment experience with Sherrington Associates, Huntsman's European Sales Director commented...
Joe and the Sherrington team helped us with the recruitment of a UK Sales Manager. The service he delivered was quick and thorough. He really listened and understood the profile we were looking for. He regularly updated me through the process and we are very confident we have the right candidate now after an exhaustive search campaign. I would highly recommend working with Sherrington Asscociates.
Quentin Bassieux - Sales Director, Huntsman Building Solutions
