Case studies · Sales engineering
Two shapes of a search
Two technical sales roles, both filled. One took five candidates. The other took 152. What separates them is not effort — it is whether the talent already exists in a recognisable form. On a fixed fee, that difference is ours to absorb, not yours.
Field Sales Engineer
A family-run engineering business supplying and supporting sheet metal machinery across the UK · Sheet metal machinery
- Time to fill
- 35 days
- Brief taken
- 6 May 2026
- Filled
- 10 June 2026
- Package
- £45,000 basic + 5% machine profit
- Location
- UK-wide field role, office in North East England
The brief was a Field Sales Engineer to carry the territory — a mix of inbound enquiries and self-generated business, with real autonomy over how the week is structured. Commission is paid at 5% of machine profit on installation, so the hire had to be someone who could hold a technical conversation on the shop floor, not a generalist closer.
That specificity is what made the search tractable. People who sell sheet metal machinery are a small, identifiable population, and they are already doing the exact job. The brief did not need widening — it needed accuracy.
Pipeline — candidates reaching each stage
- Sourced & screened 5
- Internal interview 5
- Presented to client 5
- Client interview 2
- Hired 1
5 candidates worked in total — every one of them reached the client.
No filler on the shortlist. All five candidates were put in front of the client, and the offer went to a sales manager from a laser and sheet-metal machinery manufacturer — a direct sector match.
Two months later the same client opened a second Field Sales Engineer role with us. That search is live now.
Technical Sales Executive
A robotics and automation venture backed by an established facilities management group · Robotics & automation
- Time to fill
- 81 days
- Brief taken
- 26 March 2026
- Filled
- 15 June 2026
- Package
- £35,000–£42,500 base, OTE £60,000–£70,000
- Location
- London, hybrid — 2–3 days in the office
The client brings intelligent cleaning robots, robotic mowing systems and light industrial automation to UK organisations on a Robot-as-a-Service model. The Technical Sales Executive would own the full cycle: prospecting, negotiation and close, field-based and client-facing.
Nobody has ten years of experience selling Robot-as-a-Service, because the category is barely ten years old. There was no pool of people already doing this job. The search had to run wide and qualify hard — testing commercial instinct and comfort with an unproven proposition rather than matching a job title.
Pipeline — candidates reaching each stage
- Sourced & screened 152
- Internal interview 24
- Presented to client 12
- Client interview 4
- Hired 1
Bars drawn to scale against 152. Ratio to hire: 152 : 1.
140 of the 152 never reached the client’s desk. That is the work the fee covers.
Twelve candidates were put forward, four were interviewed and one was hired — 81 days from brief to filled, for a role with no established talent market to draw on.
How the fee works
Every role on this page was delivered on the same basis: a fixed fee, agreed before we start, with no percentage of salary attached. The straightforward search and the difficult one cost the client the same.
That is the point of the model. A percentage fee charges you more for hiring a better-paid person and rewards us for the easy search. A fixed fee puts the risk of a long search where it belongs — with us. And if we do not fill the role, you get every penny of your fee back.
Every figure here comes from our own placement records. Clients and placed candidates are not named. Full detail on the model is on our Guaranteed Hire page.