Strategic Expansion of a Sales and Marketing Team in Manufacturing

A Twin Cities based electronics manufacturer needed to expand its sales and marketing leadership team without disrupting a strong, collaborative culture. The company designs and manufactures high quality motion control systems and applications, selling through a mix of direct sales, channel partners, engineering driven solutions, and industry sales agents across multiple markets and global regions. This combination of complex products and diverse go to market models made finding the right sales and marketing leaders especially important.

The challenge: Adding sales and marketing leaders who fit both the business and the culture

Growing the sales and marketing organization meant more than adding headcount. For this manufacturer, corporate culture and cross functional collaboration are core differentiators that shape how value is delivered to customers and the broader manufacturing marketplace. Any new sales and marketing leaders needed to operate confidently in a highly technical, engineering driven environment, while also fitting a culture where character, collaboration, and shared ownership matter as much as skills and experience.
The roles the company needed to fill sat at the center of product complexity and a dynamic market landscape. These leaders would be responsible for working across sales, marketing, engineering, and operations to bring new motion control solutions to market, extend the company’s value proposition, and meet increasing customer expectations for innovation and precision. One of the roles would also help guide the organization’s growing use of AI in sales and marketing, shaping how advanced analytics and AI engagement show up across the enterprise and in the marketplace.

The solution: A boutique search focused on leadership, alignment, and impact

Intuitive was engaged as a boutique talent solutions partner to secure two critical leadership roles reporting directly to the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. To align talent with both business needs and culture, Intuitive met with sales and marketing leadership, key partners in engineering and operations, and human resources. Together, they clarified the blend of go to market experience, manufacturing and motion control familiarity, leadership capabilities, and cultural attributes that would be required for success.
From there, Intuitive ran a targeted search focused on manufacturing sales and marketing leadership talent. While the initial skill requirements produced multiple candidates for each role, applying the cultural expectations, leadership qualities, and collaboration mindset quickly narrowed the list. Intuitive used a multi interview internal process to evaluate each candidate against the full set of role requirements, including comfort with complex product portfolios and the ability to partner effectively across engineering, operations, and sales.

The outcome: Two leaders who extend impact across sales, marketing, and innovation

Intuitive presented a focused slate of candidates for client interviews, including multi team panel interviews that brought in voices from sales, marketing, engineering, and operations. This process helped the client evaluate how each candidate would perform in a highly collaborative manufacturing environment and in visible roles on the sales and marketing leadership team.

The selected leaders have hit the ground running. They are contributing directly to strategic decisions, helping translate complex motion control solutions into clear, differentiated market positioning, and supporting the company’s continued expansion into new markets and applications. Their work is extending the company’s global perception of value while supporting ongoing innovation, cost management, and the thoughtful expansion of AI engagement across the sales and marketing organization.