No less than three new employees at Quotation Factory in two months thanks to a successful campaign
Quotation Factory was founded in 2019 and has ambitious growth plans. The transition from start-up to scale-up created the need for an in-house sales team. In total, Quotation Factory hired 8 new colleagues, including 3 directly as a result of the recruitment campaign by Michael van Esdoorn de Vries. Why this was such a success and what are the plans for the future? That's what we asked CFO and co-owner Luc Versmissen.
”Quotation Factory is a software provider. We make calculation software for the metal industry to help our customers make quotes faster with less qualified staff. This is because calculating operations with the capital-intensive machines is often done by people who have been with a company for a long time and have a lot of specific knowledge, but are also difficult to find or replace,” explains Luc.
In 2021, the software solution was market fit and Quotation Factory entered the market. “We have now built up a stable customer base of around 55 companies and want to grow to 400 subscriptions in the Netherlands and Belgium in the next 2 years. To achieve that growth, we need a strong sales department.”
When Luc came into contact with Esdoorn de Vries, a sales campaign was initially looked at, taking over the lead acquisition. “Apart from that, when we decided to set up an internal sales team and found out that Esdoorn de Vries could also help us find the right new employees, we started a recruitment campaign,” says Luc. “I saw it as a test and was really curious what it could do for us.”
Luc explained two different vacancies with Michael neer: Account Executive and Customer Success Officer.
“We discussed the profiles that suited us and Michael looked for suitable candidates via my LinkedIn. It goes like this: he makes contact, tries to trigger them and has an interview with interesting candidates,” says Luc. “With the most suitable candidates, Michael schedules a follow-up interview with me. Beforehand, he shares a report with me, which also has a score. After the interview, I'll report back how the interview went and whether we hired the candidate.”
Luc experiences communication with Michael and other Esdoorn de Vries team members very positively. “We are in regular contact by phone and email. That contact is always very clear. I also receive a weekly report that shows, among other things, exactly how many people Michael has approached.”
Why does this approach work so well? “The traditional recruiters, who we also work with, look for a match with the profile in existing databases of job seekers. In fact, Esdoorn de Vries is what it's all about: they take the profile as a starting point and look for people to join it,” says Luc.
“The advantage of this is that I not only speak to people who are already looking for a new job, but also who have been triggered for another reason. A bit of the head hunting principle. In my view, this has a big advantage: the interviews with candidates are very open and can lead to a direct employment contract, but also to enriching our network for the future.”
Luc sees even more advantages of Esdoorn de Vries' unique approach. “Michael is doing a very good pre-selection. Because he searches in such a focused way, he comes up with candidates who already know the industry. This is not easy with traditional recruiters. 90% of the candidates I get to talk to through Michael are compliant. That saves me a lot of conversations and therefore valuable time.”
“The campaign also works in such a way that I don't have to pay a mediation fee after we hire someone. In the unlikely event that it turns out to be a mismatch after a short time, I certainly don't have a bad taste because of the amount of money this has cost. Once all vacancies have been filled, such as now, we can temporarily stop the campaigns and restart them if we want to expand further or if there are gaps. Of course, the campaigns are also an investment, but it's more of an ongoing story,” explains Luc.
Luc concludes that the collaboration with Esdoorn de Vries has been a very successful test. “We have currently filled all vacancies, still talking to good candidates and a list of 50 people who are also interesting. For now, the campaign is therefore on hold, but as Quotation Factory continues to grow, I would like us to continuously use the campaigns and thus continuously get to know new, interesting people,” says Luc enthusiastically.
