Medical Device Manufacturer

the role

First North America VP of Sales

THE CHALLENGE

When Shared Resources Don’t Scale: The Need for Dedicated Sales Leadership

Our client—a publicly traded Australian company—approached Summit Search Consultants with a clear but urgent challenge: their Sleep Division was struggling to gain traction in the U.S. market.

Despite strong product potential, the business was losing ground to larger, more entrenched competitors.

The core issue? Lack of dedicated leadership. Sales efforts were being spread thin—team members were juggling multiple divisions, leaving no focused strategy or accountability to drive meaningful market penetration.

The Sleep Division was underperforming, and the company needed a player-coach leader who could jump in, make an immediate impact, and own the turnaround.

To fill this mission-critical role, our team was tasked with finding a rare blend: a hands-on sales leader with deep industry knowledge, a track record of success in the sleep space in a complex capital sale, strong existing relationships, and the grit to thrive in a fast-paced, low-resource environment.

The stakes were high—without the right leader, the division risked continued stagnation in a competitive U.S. market.

OUR SOLUTION

To address the client’s urgent leadership gap, Summit Search Consultants executed a highly targeted, nationwide headhunting strategy, focusing exclusively on top talent within the specialized medical device capital equipment sleep market.

Given the niche nature of the space, the target universe was limited, requiring precision outreach and deep industry insight.

Despite the narrow talent pool, SSC quickly surfaced a slate of highly qualified candidates. Within a matter of weeks, we delivered a shortlist of 7 top-tier finalists—all aligned with the client’s leadership, industry, and sales performance criteria.

the result

With strong candidates in hand, the client was able to confidently extend an offer just 27 days after launching the search, securing a high-impact VP to drive growth in the U.S. Sleep Division.

In the first half of FY25, our client booked a record $33M of orders — growth of 55% over the prior year.

“We like the tenacity, persistence, coverage, and determination to keep going after the talent. We were very happy with the process and the outcome, and very much enjoyed working with you and the team. ”

— CEO & CFO, Confidential Publicly Traded Client