I’m sitting here this Saturday afternoon wondering why we are struggling so hard to find good business development resource to join our Learning Pool dream team?  Sam Barbee is Learning Pool’s Head of Sales.  That’s him in the photo.  He hails originally from Orange County in California but like so many of his countrymen, he fell under the spell of an Irish colleen and now lives in Derry in the sunny NW of Ireland – California’s loss but Learning Pool’s gain as Sam is a 100% excellent Head of Sales.  He’s easy going but hard working, straight talking but fair.  He makes his targets and doesn’t destroy any of his colleagues getting there.  He’s honest & trustworthy and he’s never let me down.  You can check out what he says about working at Learning Pool here http://www.learningpool.com/jobcasts/

Learning Pool is a company that’s really going places.  Nearly 5 years old we’ve won the Deloitte Rising Star in both 2009 & 2010 (this award really counts as it’s all about achieving your numbers and has nothing to do with how much you’ve spent that year on sponsorship or advertising like many other awards).  Our fantastic team has grown to just over 50 people, all of us focused on success, providing customer delight, building a fabulous business and having a lot of fun on the way through.

Sam and I have been interviewing prospective business development executives now for about 9 months.  We must have interviewed 50 people in person and telephone interviewed a whole lot more.  We haven’t found anyone yet that we’ve wanted to bring into our team.  Admittedly we’re quite fussy.  Over the years at Learning Pool we’ve learned that it really is better to have a hole than an asshole when it comes to building your team.  Bringing the wrong people in satisfies a short term need but the long term fallout is painful to repair and recover from.  We’re in a fortunate position where we have a very engaged customer base and an active online community that’s taken a lot of time and hard work to build.  Our team has very personal relationships with our public sector customers and we want to protect those to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.

So what are we looking for:

·         Someone who’s confident but not arrogant, persistent but not pushy, a person who believes in themselves & their own ability and who is motivated to get up early in the morning & go out & get ‘em

·         A completer finisher who demonstrates the necessary attention to detail but never takes their eye off the big picture

·         People who love working in sales and the challenges that brings; we want a career sales exec who has a successful track record – not someone that wants to be in sales while they wait for something “better” to come along

·         Someone who cares about their colleagues, their customers and the company – not someone that tramples on the post on their way out

·         Someone that understands the UK public sector and its unique challenges – or is prepared to learn

·         A person that thinks and has ideas

·         Someone who isn’t afraid to discuss money with customers or be responsible for delivering a target

·         A person who really wants to be part of something great and who isn’t fazed by having the world as their oyster – at Learning Pool we talk a lot about being at Opportunity Central.

So – if you’re interested or know someone else that might be – there’s a job spec at this link here http://www.learningpool.com/files/2010/10/business-development-exec-Oct2010.pdf

Comments welcome as always.