FAQs

Our founder Mark Pickles started his career in pharmaceutical sales with Galen Pharma, and also spent time with GSK, Quintiles/IQVIA, Astra Zeneca, Napp, Janssen Cilag and Actavis. He worked in Retail Pharmacy, Generics, Primary Care, Hospitals, Market Access and Sales Leadership, and since then has worked in sales training and commercial consultancy roles for various Pharma companies in addition to working as a Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences recruiter, before founding Snowdon Talent. Mark is ABPI qualified, and if ever there was a Pharma Sales Recruiter that truly understands Pharma Sales inside and out, then it must be him!

Our founder Mark Pickles is deeply passionate about sales excellence, having spent the best part of 15 years “Carrying the bag” as a Pharma sales rep and Sales Manager, followed by 5 years in Sales and Sales Management Training and subsequently selling consulting and recruitment services into Pharma and Life Sciences markets across the US and Europe. His practical experience working as a Sales Trainer with Sandler Training was both eye opening and priceless, and now our Recruitment and Executive Search clients directly benefit from this experience.

Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences are global industries, so given that we specialize in Commercial Recruitment and Executive Search for Senior Sales, Business Development and Commercial Executives, the sales regions our candidates cover are extensive and frequently global. Therefore, we recruit Senior Commercial Talent for Pharma Tech, Pharma and Lifesciences globally, however our specialist knowledge and contact base is strongest across the US and Europe.

Our passion and expertise lie in recruiting senior commercial roles, for instance Business Development Directors, Account Directors, Sales VP’s, Sales and Marketing Directors, Sales Leadership, Customer Success Leaders and Commercial C Level Executives. For some clients we partner extremely closely with, we manage all their commercial recruitment including entry level SDR’s, BDM’s and Account Managers.

Good question, but not one we can answer properly here! Take a look at our “Snowdon Vision” platform, and better still please get in touch to start a conversation.

Bad hires are a symptom of weak hiring models, and the sad fact is they happen predictably and regularly and also create substantial costs for business. Typically, around 30% of new hires fail within 12 months. Using our Snowdon Vision platform, that figure is 4%. The Bad Hire Calculator enables you to establish what bad hires really cost your business, and ultimately show you the potential savings you could generate by working with Snowdon Talent.

Snowdon Vision is our Executive Search Platform, which utilizes multiple layers of assessment and evaluation. Ultimately enabling us to deliver exceptionally well qualified candidates who will fit in with your culture and do the job the way you like it done, meaning they are happy in their work, productive and loyal. Using Snowdon Vision, 96% of candidates placed are still in position 12 months later. In addition to improved employee retention rates, our clients also benefit from reduced commercial downtime and substantially reduced overall costs to hire.

The name says it all!

As professional recruiters who incessantly strive to deliver a uniquely excellent service, which delivers long term value for our clients, we created a unique model that brings integrity back to recruitment. Ultimately it’s a strong statement of how confident we are in consistently delivering the very best talent, that will perform and remain loyal to our clients year after year. We believe our service is without comparison and genuinely excellent, hence being comfortable having considerable “skin in the game”.

We recognize that for us to consistently deliver an excellent service, we must work closely with our clients. This means high levels of engagement, mutual trust and alignment on common goals, strategy and process.

We are not interested in delivering one off transactional recruitment, as it frequently does more harm than good, and is largely behind the deservedly poor reputation the recruitment industry has. When we take on a new client, we expect to work closely with that client for at least five years, and the only way this can happen is for us to consistently deliver value above and beyond our competitors. Consequently, we have developed two iron clad differentiators in our “Try Before You Buy” model and our “Snowdon Vision” Executive Search platform, which is proven to reduce the commercial downtime of our clients, improve new employee retention rates and reduce overall costs to hire for our clients.

Above all else, we listen to you and go to great lengths to understand your business, your business challenges, how you like to work and your specific needs.

We have developed a range of cutting edge and bespoke Flexible Talent Solutions incorporating multiple layers of assessment and evaluation, which virtually remove the risk of making costly bad hires, for instance 96% of placements made using our Snowdon Vision platform are still in post 12 months later.

We are also fully and uniquely invested in the long-term success of all our placements, meaning our focus is all about excellence and ultimately ensuring your long-term success. Our confidence in what we do is so high, that we can even offer up to a 12 month candidate replacement guarantee or you can use our Try Before You Buy model.

We don’t wish to give away our hard earned “secret sauce” to competitors, so if you’re open to investigate the substantial difference we could make for you and your business, let’s talk!

The best sales talent for one company in the same market is rarely the best sales talent for their nearest competitor. Every business is different, and we are acutely aware of that. The first thing we do is listen to you, take the time to understand your business and what you need. After all, if you’ve not taken the time to properly assess what exactly your ideal candidate is going to look like, how are you going to know when you find it?

Once we have absolute clarity on what you need, then we have an arsenal of resources to draw on, ranging from Talent Pipeline Management, Flexible Talent Solutions, our game changing Snowdon Vision platform, Try Before You Buy, extensive and relevant networks, a customized version of the Sandler “SEARCH” model and then ultimately tenacity, hard won experience, diligence and ongoing hard work.

Flexible Talent Solutions is our umbrella term for the range of services we can provide. These include (but are not limited to) Retained Search, Talent Banking or Talent Pipeline Management, Temporary or Contract hires, Permanent Hires, “Try Before You Buy”, Snowdon Vision and the traditional Contingency Recruitment model.

Our Flexible Talent Solutions have been described by a Senior HR Director, as “Unique, exactly what the market needs and an ethical approach to recruitment”. Essentially we have rewritten the rules and created a bespoke Recruitment Model, specifically designed around the individual needs and desires of our clients.

We have created a recruitment service that helps deliver exceptional quality of both service and results, minimized risk of bad hires, long term business partnerships, increased value, productivity and ultimately profitability for our clients.

Put yourself in the shoes of a Sales Leader, running a team of six Business Development Directors. One of them hands in her notice, meaning you have lost one of your better performers and your annual sales performance v target goals are now under deep pressure.

Most Hiring Managers would typically go to a recruiter or their internal recruitment team and start the whole recruitment process, typically resulting in a new hire coming on board 3-6 months later, who would then have to get up to speed, and before you know it you’ve not achieved your annual performance goals.

The reality is that Business Development Directors and Commercial Leaders move on. It’s entirely predictable. So why not plan for the predictable event?

With our Talent Banking and Sales Pipeline Management service, this is what we specialize in, meaning when your star performer hands in his or her notice, we will have already completed much of the recruitment process and can deliver highly qualified candidates that same day. Typically, they are also better candidates as we have had the luxury of time to deliver a thorough and comprehensive search process. Your valuable business continuity is now maintained and so are your chances of achieving annual targets. In short, the time to speak with us is right now!

No. We don’t have to, because our clients have the confidence and peace of mind that we will deliver, and nobody does it quite like us! Ultimately, if you feel the need to work with multiple agencies simultaneously, then we shouldn’t be working together.

We don’t wish to give away our hard earned “secret sauce” to competitors, so if you’re genuinely open to investigate the difference we could make for you and your business, let’s talk!

Yes. We will do whatever it takes to get the right people on board for you, and we are fully invested in only placing the very best people who subsequently develop into great employees.

Yes. Amongst numerous other means of assessment and evaluation, our Snowdon Vision platform utilizes three separate products from McQuaig.

Yes. Even with the best recruitment process, and a new hire who is a great ‘fit’ for your team, they still need to transition into a completely new environment, before they can become fully effective.

When a new Executive integrates into the business, receiving the right support cuts the time it takes them to get up to speed by over 50% (Genesis Advisers / Egon Zender 2016).

Our Transitional Executive Coaching supports your new hire in the crucial early months and can dramatically increase their impact and success.

Please contact us for more information.