Niche commercial roles can’t be filled with a wide funnel

Volac is an established international business operating in a specialised market where commercial success depends on strong customer relationships, technical credibility, and access to high-performing regional sales talent.

Roles like Key Account Manager in that environment are not solved by volume. There are perhaps a few dozen people in any given country who can credibly do the job — and most of them are already employed. Pushing more CVs through the pipeline doesn’t help; it just creates more noise to filter.

Volac homepage
Volac is a global dairy nutrition company producing high-performance animal nutrition, dairy ingredients, and agricultural products for farms, food manufacturers, and consumers.

Germany: the role that wouldn’t close

The most acute version of the problem was a Key Account Manager role in Germany that had remained open for an extended period. Multiple efforts had failed to close it. Each rejected offer, slow shortlist, or candidate who didn’t pass the technical screen reinforced the question: was the role even fillable on the timeline the business needed?

Headhunting that filtered out the noise

RemotePeople treated the assignment as a precision headhunting exercise — not a recruitment process. That meant working long-listed candidates rather than waiting for inbound, qualifying for technical credibility before scheduling client time, and presenting a tight shortlist of people Volac actually wanted to interview.

For the Germany role, that approach broke the deadlock. The role closed within the search engagement, after months of having gone unfilled.

France and Poland: extending the model across Europe

The same approach was applied to Key Account Manager roles in France and Poland. The market dynamics were different in each country, but the model — long-list, qualify hard, present only what’s worth interviewing — was consistent. All three roles were closed in record time, allowing Volac to maintain commercial momentum across its European footprint.

The Results
3 countriesFrance, Germany, Poland
Precision headhuntingLong-list, qualify, present only candidates worth interviewing
Stalled search closedA Germany Key Account Manager role open for an extended period —
closed
Record timeThree commercial hires closed at unprecedented speed across Europe

RemotePeople delivered top-tier talent across three countries in an accelerated timeframe. Their headhunting approach ensured we saw only the best candidates, allowing us to maintain momentum and grow our presence across Europe with confidence.

Simon Power Senior HRBP, Volac

The Bottom Line

For senior commercial roles in specialised markets, the difference between “stalled for six months” and “closed in record time” usually comes down to who’s running the search. A wide funnel and generic outreach won’t reach the people who can do the job. A targeted headhunting model will.

Volac saw both — and chose the model that actually closed the role.

Have a senior commercial role that won’t close? Get a free proposal from RemotePeople.