The English Football League (EFL) is the world’s original league football competition. The largest single body of professional clubs in European football, it administers and regulates the EFL, Carabao Cup and Papa Johns Trophy.
During a period of rapid growth with commercial revenues rising, but expectations rising in equal measure, the EFL appointed Executives In Sport to make a key commercial appointment, which quickly became two!
The EFL were going to market with key rights / assets including major partnership opportunities and a new broadcast deal. They felt it was the right time to bolster their commercial team to ensure they had the capacity to deliver.
The size of commercial / partnership deals negotiated at league level are quite similar in value and complexity to those negotiated by major Premier League clubs. This made the role really appealing but also meant the EFL wanted to focus on individuals with a certain level of partnership sales experience.
When we’re retained on partnership sales / business development executive searches we use an assessment framework that’s comprehensive and ensures we truly understand the skills, character and track record of every applicant, whether they apply for the role or are targeted as part of our headhunting activities.
The framework breaks down significant partnership deals from initial lead identification and pitch concept development through all the key stages such as presenting to the prospect, negotiating the deal and onboarding / activation. It helps us understand where the individual genuinely brought value to the deal, if they had a big internal team supporting at each stage, and often if sales agencies had made the initial introduction (Which is never an issue, but always good to know!)
Armed with this information we conducted 360 referencing, where appropriate within the realms of confidentiality. This helped us validate the information we’d received and really understand who the high potential individuals were.
The result we achieved for The EFL exceeded all expectations. With two high calibre individuals at final stage of interview, they decided they couldn’t choose between them so made the decision to appoint both.
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