Results
What did they grow, win, build or improve?
FOR EMPLOYERS
The right people know your industry. So do we.
GRS helps manufacturers and distributors hire proven sales, operations, manufacturing, engineering and executive talent who understand their products, processes and markets. Instead of waiting for applicants, we identify the people already succeeding in your industry and recruit them directly.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO RECRUITING
The best person for the job probably isn't looking for one.
Traditional hiring starts with a job opening and waits to see who applies. That works when the right candidate happens to be looking.
GRS takes a different approach.
We start with the market. We identify the companies, products, channels and people most relevant to your search. Then we reach out directly to professionals who are successfully doing similar work — including people who may never respond to a job posting because they weren't planning to leave.
Your candidate pool shouldn't be limited to people searching for jobs.
THE GRS DIFFERENCE
Your market is not a keyword.
Finding someone with the right title is easy. Finding someone who understands your products, processes, customers and operating environment is different.
Our recruiters specialize in defined industrial markets. We spend every day talking with the manufacturers, distributors and professionals inside those industries. Over time, those conversations become market knowledge, relationships and networks we can bring directly to your search.
Industry fluency
We understand the products you sell, the customers you serve and the channels that connect them.
We know that selling hydraulic components through distribution is different from selling automation systems to OEMs, packaging machinery to manufacturers or valves into a process plant.
That context helps us recognize relevant experience that may not be obvious from a résumé alone.
Targeted, active recruiting
We identify proven performers and approach them directly — even when they are not looking for a new role.
We don't wait for the right person to find your opening. We map the market, identify potential fits and start conversations.
Relationships, not transactions
Great recruiting depends on knowing people, not just finding profiles.
Our recruiters build relationships in their markets over years. Those relationships help us understand who is successful, what might motivate them to move and whether an opportunity genuinely makes sense.
EUROPEAN COMPANIES IN THE U.S.
Building your U.S. leadership team from Europe?
GRS works with European-based industrial companies recruiting leaders for their U.S. subsidiaries.
We help find Presidents, General Managers, Sales Leaders, Operations Executives, and other senior leaders who understand the American market while working effectively with a European parent organization.
Our industrial specialization gives us access to leaders who already understand the products, customers, competitors, and markets our clients operate in.
Explore U.S. Subsidiary Leadership SearchWHY IT MATTERS
Applicants are only part of the market.
Traditional Hiring
- Post the opening
- Promote the position and wait for candidates to respond.
- Review applicants
- Choose from the people actively looking and interested enough to apply.
- Search résumés
- Identify people based primarily on searchable titles, keywords and experience.
- Interview the strongest applicants
- Evaluate the best people who entered the process.
The GRS Approach
- Define the ideal background
- Understand the products, customers, channel, territory and experience that will translate.
- Map the market
- Identify relevant competitors, adjacent companies and potential candidate pools.
- Recruit proven performers
- Approach professionals directly, including successful people who aren't actively looking.
- Evaluate the right people
- Dig into results, motivation, commercial or operational performance, industry knowledge and fit before presenting them.
The difference is simple: instead of asking, “Who applied?” we ask, “Who should we be talking to?”
SPECIALIZED BY INDUSTRY
Recruiters who already know the landscape.
Our recruiters don't work every type of position in every type of industry. They build expertise within specialized industrial markets.
That means your recruiter begins the search understanding the terminology, products, competitors and sales channels involved — and often already knows people within the market.
Market knowledge
Products, applications, competitors and channels aren't something we learn after you give us the search. They're part of the markets we work in every day.
Established networks
Years of conversations with professionals in the industry create relationships that can't be built by running a database search.
Better conversations
When a recruiter understands someone's market and career, the outreach feels relevant. That creates conversations generic recruiting messages rarely do.
BEYOND THE RÉSUMÉ
Experience gets someone into the conversation. Performance matters more.
A résumé tells us where someone worked and what they sold, built or managed. Our job is to understand how successful they were and why.
Commercial & operational performance
How do they win business, improve productivity, strengthen quality or develop their teams?
Industry fit
How closely do their products, customers and channels translate to your business?
Motivation
Why would a successful person consider leaving, and does your opportunity offer something meaningful enough to make the move?
Our goal isn't to send the most résumés. It's to introduce people worth meeting.
RECRUITING WORKS BOTH WAYS
We recruit the candidate while we evaluate them.
The people you most want to hire often aren't looking for a job. That means presenting an opportunity matters just as much as evaluating someone's qualifications.
We help candidates understand the company, role, leadership, opportunity and reasons the move may make sense for their career. At the same time, we learn what matters to them so our clients aren't surprised late in the process.
Why would they move?
Understand career goals, frustrations, motivations and what would make them consider a change.
Why your opportunity?
Communicate what is genuinely compelling about the company, role and future.
What could stop the hire?
Identify compensation expectations, location issues, counteroffer risk and other concerns early.
Recruiting isn't just finding someone you want. It's creating a process that makes the right person want you, too.
BEYOND SALES
The people who sell it. The people who build it. The people who run it.
GRS has built its reputation recruiting within specialized industrial markets. That market knowledge extends beyond the sales organization.
We also recruit Operations and Manufacturing professionals who understand the products, processes and environments behind our clients’ businesses.
Whether you’re looking for a Plant Manager who can improve performance, an Operations leader who can scale the business or a Manufacturing Manager who understands your products and processes, we bring the same targeted recruiting approach to the operational side of the organization.
Manufacturing Leadership
Plant Managers, Manufacturing Managers, Production Leaders and Directors or VPs of Manufacturing.
Operations Leadership
Operations Managers, Directors and VPs of Operations, General Managers and Business Unit Leaders.
Operational Excellence
Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, Continuous Improvement, Reliability and related functional leadership.
The same industry knowledge that helps us recruit your sales team helps us recruit the people who build, operate and improve the business.
Direct-hire professional and leadership recruiting—not temporary labor or hourly staffing.
Discuss an Operations or Manufacturing SearchTHE PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Talent across the commercial and operational side of your business.
From the people who sell the product to the people who manufacture it, GRS recruits professionals who understand your industry.
Sales & Business Development
- Territory Sales
- Outside Sales
- Account Managers
- Sales Engineers
- Business Development
- Key Account Managers
- Inside Sales
Operations & Manufacturing
- Plant Managers
- Operations Managers
- Manufacturing Managers
- Production Managers
- Quality Leaders
- Supply Chain & Procurement
- Continuous Improvement Leaders
- Maintenance & Reliability Managers
Technical & Engineering
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Application Engineers
- Engineering Managers
- Technical Specialists
- Field Service Professionals
Leadership & Executive
- Regional Sales Managers
- National Sales Managers
- Sales Directors
- Vice Presidents of Sales
- Commercial Leaders
- Branch Managers
- General Managers
- Business Unit Leaders
- Presidents
- C-Suite & Executives
HOW WE SEARCH
A search built around the market, not the job board.
- 01
Understand
Products. Customers. Channel. Territory. Culture. What does the right person actually need to bring?
- 02
Map
Identify target companies, adjacent markets and the professionals most likely to fit.
- 03
Recruit
Reach out directly and create conversations with proven performers.
- 04
Evaluate
Understand results, experience, motivation and fit before making an introduction.
- 05
Manage
Stay involved through interviews, feedback, offer, resignation and start date.
Industrial recruiting since 1979. Relationships built one conversation at a time.
GRS has spent decades recruiting within specialized industrial markets. Technology has changed how we find people, but the most important part of recruiting hasn't changed: knowing the market, earning trust and having the right conversation with the right person.
Since 1979
Industrial recruiting experience
Specialized Markets
Dedicated industry-focused recruiting teams
Nationwide Reach
Recruiting across the United States and select international markets
THE RIGHT CONNECTION CHANGES EVERYTHING
Don't wait for the right person to apply.
Tell us what you're trying to accomplish, who has succeeded in the role before and what your ideal hire needs to bring. We'll help you find the people worth talking to.
Not sure exactly what the profile should look like? Start with a conversation. We can help you define it.