James Bowesman

By James Bowesman, Specialist Recruiter, Specified Select Group Your best salesperson is the most undervalued asset on your headcount. You’ll only find out what they’re worth when they resign. We see it every quarter across the Australian building products market. A top BDM walks. The hiring manager scrambles. Six months later the territory has gone soft, two key specifications have walked out the door with the rep, and the replacement is still ramping. The number that lands in the P&L is a...

By James Bowesman, Specialist Recruiter, Specified Select Group The most expensive mis-hire we see in flooring and tiles isn’t the rep who can’t sell. It’s the rep who can, but who learned to sell at the merchant counter and now has to win business at the architect’s desk. The skills look adjacent. They aren’t. Across the flooring and tile manufacturers we work with, the pattern repeats. A business hires a strong BDM from Beaumont, National Tiles, or a trade network. Track record’s good. ...

By James Bowesman, Specialist Recruiter, Specified Select Group At Specified Select, we see the same pattern every quarter. A manufacturer hires a BDM. The plan looks reasonable on paper. Eighteen months in, the BDM walks. The plan, the team and the client all blame each other. Most building products comp plans are paying reps for the wrong job. The structure was built for a sales cycle that doesn’t exist in this market. Below is the design pattern we’ve seen work for our manufacturer and...