Hiring the First True Salesperson During a Business Model Shift
A new model needs a new kind of seller
Mulhall's, a 60-plus-year, third-generation family business, had built its reputation in residential design-build landscaping. But sustaining growth meant moving toward B2B commercial landscape management — and that required a strategic, outbound business developer, a role they had never hired for.
They tried three things. Moving an internal designer into sales: "it just wasn't a fit." Hiring a business developer without a defined process: "that didn't go very well." Then a recruiter.
“Neal literally told us, ‘Call me in three months when he hasn’t hired you anyone.’ And he was right.”
Six to nine months of failed attempts later, they hit the real problem. They couldn't clearly define who they were looking for.
“We thought we were clearer than we realized. The OMG process really helped us articulate exactly what we were looking for.”
Clarity, structure, and accountability
Working with Neal Glatt Sales & Strategy and the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment, Mulhall's rebuilt the process from the ground up.
Some of it was logistics — calling and texting candidates the day before phone screens so people actually showed up. Some of it was filtering, screening out the good talkers who couldn't complete the process. But the biggest shift was recognizing they had never been testing for the traits the role actually required.
“It wasn’t like paying a recruiter and hoping they got it right. Neal gave us a process and the right tools, but we were still running the sales and making decisions — with an expert guiding us.”
The results
Mulhall's hired their first true business developer. She was on track to sell $1 million in contracts in her first year — the national industry benchmark — and hit her annual plan by June in year two, six months ahead of schedule.
On what it cost:
“A recruiter is 20–30% of first-year comp — $25,000 to $40,000. Neal’s program was less than that.”
“Don’t think about whether you want to use this program — think about whether you actually want to grow. Because if you use it, you will grow.”
