US · Go-to-market2 min read
The go-to-market leader IT services firms need now
Relationships and closing ability are still necessary. As services firms sell more technical, AI-enabled work, they are no longer sufficient.
By Avier Partners
For most of the past two decades, IT services firms hired sales leaders for their relationships and their ability to close. That is still necessary. It is no longer sufficient.
As services firms sell increasingly technical, AI-enabled work, the go-to-market leaders who succeed pair commercial skill with real technical credibility. They can sit with a client's CIO, scope a complex solution and still build the pipeline to support it.
Why the profile has changed
Three shifts are driving this.
- The offering is more technical. AI, data and cloud transformation work cannot be sold from a slide deck alone. Buyers expect the person across the table to understand what is being proposed.
- Deals are shaped earlier. Much of the value in a services deal is created in how it is scoped. Sales leaders who can work hand in hand with presales and delivery shape better deals.
- Buyers are better informed. Technology buyers arrive having done their research. They have little patience for generalist pitches.
The hard search is the leader who is equally credible with a client's CIO and with your own delivery team.
What to look for
When we run a sales leadership search for a services firm, we look closely at a few things beyond the numbers on a CV:
- How they won their best deals. Not the size of the deal, but what they did to shape it, and who they brought in.
- Their relationship with delivery. The best services sales leaders have delivery leaders who are glad to work with them again.
- How they build a team. A VP of Sales hires and develops account executives and often presales talent. Their track record as a hirer matters as much as their own quota attainment.
A market in demand
Demand for this profile is strong. Executive search across the US continues to grow; Hunt Scanlon reports that the top 50 US and Americas search firms grew fee revenue by around 11% last year. Within that, go-to-market leaders who combine commercial and technical strength remain among the harder, higher-value searches. Starting early, with a clear brief, makes all the difference.
