This was a fintech that had spent several years building its platform and selling it to financial advisers. Then the market started to move its way. Regulation and the way people invest had both shifted, and what it offered was suddenly far more relevant to the advisers it was talking to.
The sales team hadn't moved with it. They'd grown up selling in a fairly transactional way, and the conversations advisers now wanted to have were bigger than that.
The role
A Head of Wealth at distribution director level. The job was to take over the sales team and change how it worked: less pitching the product, more consultative conversations that got into an adviser's deeper questions and the clients they look after.
There was a structural job too. The distribution model needed shape, so the larger adviser firms were covered properly at the top and the local firms were looked after in the middle. Whoever came in would also be hiring the next people to hold it together.
Why it was hard
The client wanted someone from an asset management or investment platform background, with real credibility in front of advisers. They also needed someone who could change the way a team works, which is a different skill altogether. On paper, people with both look rare, and it would have been easy to decide the pool was too narrow.
How I mapped it
This was an exclusive search in summer 2026. I knew where people with that mix of experience tend to sit, so it moved quickly. I put ten people forward, three reached the final stage, and the whole search took two weeks.
The outcome
One offer, accepted. The client tells me they're already making real progress, and the team is starting to work differently.
What it taught me
A brief that looks narrow on paper often isn't. The people are usually out there. The work is knowing where they sit, and what would make the job worth a conversation.