Metroc is a SaaS company that built a sales platform for the construction industry. It was founded by Jussi Virnala in 2019. Metroc has been growing rapidly, and they just raised a funding round from Lifeline Ventures (Backing companies like Wolt, Aiven, Smartly, and many others). 

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They had high hiring goals as they are doubling their headcount from 20 to 35 this year and their current team was busy with other tasks, so they decided to look for a partner who could work as their interim TA team to ensure that hiring continues.

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They already knew TalentBee and our focus on helping SaaS scale-ups like Metroc, so they contacted us and asked if we could help them. And, of course, we could.

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Setting up clear goals for the cooperation

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As always, we set clear goals for cooperation. We agreed that in the beginning, we would work together for six weeks, and the goal for that time is the following:

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✅ To find two salespeople for Metroc’s sales team and build a significant pipeline of people for the future as they continue to scale their sales team.

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✅ Find a new TA manager to take over their talent acquisition and people operations.

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The founder, Jussi, and the team had worked earlier with other agencies, and based on those experiences, they had a few things that were important to them:

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✅ Speed of execution on things

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✅ Quality of candidates - they are not just filling the roles but looking for critical players in the organization

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✅ Great communication - both for candidates and within the project team

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Because of the tight schedule and big goals in a short time, TalentBee worked with a three-person team to help the customer. The team included: 

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✅ TalentBee’s CEO Samuli has experience in hiring salespersons and working as a head of sales

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✅ TalentBee’s Co-Founder Saara, who previously worked as a TA Lead in a SaaS company and understands what kind of skillset Metroc will need for the future TA Manager

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✅ TalentBee’s Talent Acquisition Specialist Linda helped with sourcing the candidates and running the intro call for the TA manager role.

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Here’s the happy project team after the project was finished:

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Execution of the project

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We started the project by defining the needed profiles for Metroc. Metroc had already hired many salespeople, and the TA manager was also a role they had previously. Therefore, they had already documented the needed profiles so we could quickly start the search.

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Our primary strategy for both roles was headhunting, but we did some promotion on LinkedIn from both TalentBee’s and Metroc’s sides. Here is one example from TalentBee’s founder Samuli’s post:

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Testing three different styles of messaging in headhunting

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After some promotion for the open roles, we started the headhunting activities first with the sales executive roles. We are big fans of testing different kinds of messaging, so we tested out three different ways of reaching potential salespeople:

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Version 1 was a personalized video with a short written introduction to the role.

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Version 2 was a short written message with small personalization for each candidate.

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Version 3 was a longer message with more information about the role and the company.

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We sent a follow-up message if the potential candidate didn’t respond to the first message.

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For the sales role, the data looked like this:

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We usually don’t contact this high number of candidates, but as the goal was to find two great people for the team and build a future pipeline for sales roles as Metroc continues to grow, we wanted to have a lot of good quality candidates. Now, we can continue to nurture the candidates that don't fit in this stage.

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We only need one TA manager

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The TA manager role is a bit different because, at this stage, they are hiring only one person for this role, and the TA team isn’t growing any time soon. There, the volumes were a bit smaller.

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Running the intro calls for the roles.

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We had pretty clear roles for the project, and we had agreed that TalentBee would take care of everything until intro calls, and after those, the candidates are handed over to Metroc’s team. The main reason for this was to save their time as much as possible and make sure all the candidates are top-notch that they are meeting.

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Here is how we structured the intro calls for both roles:

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✅ Validation of the needed skills of the candidate

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✅ Validation of the culture-fit and the motivation towards role

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✅ Selling the opportunity - most candidates were headhunted, so we focused on sharing why this would be an exciting opportunity for them. It’s, of course, important not to oversell the opportunity.

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After the intro calls, we picked up the top candidates to go through two final stages of the recruitment process directly with Metroc’s team.

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Results of the project

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As the project ended, here are the results we achieved together:

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✅ Offered the sales position to 1 person, who accepted the offer. 

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✅ Collected an excellent talent pipeline of possible salespeople for Metroc, so the next sales hires will be fast to do.

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✅ Had three great candidates in the final round for the TA Manager position to choose from and hired a person for this role.

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If you need help with talent acquisition - long-term or short-term, we are here to help you.