How Son-Aero Hired a Record-Setting Sales Manager with Amtec

The Challenge

Son-Aero is a 120-employee aerospace and defense company that needed a new Sales Manager, fast. The existing sales team was struggling, momentum was at risk, and leadership knew the next hire couldn’t just stop the bleeding. They needed someone who could rebuild continuity across sales and customer service, motivate the team to hit higher numbers, and fit the company’s culture from day one.

In A&D, that’s a tall order. Sales leaders in this industry have to navigate long, technical sales cycles, contract complexity, and customers who care as much about who they’re buying from as what they’re buying. Layer on the urgency and the cultural fit requirement, and the candidate pool narrows quickly.

The new Sales Manager would need to:

• Stabilize and lead an underperforming sales team
• Build continuity between sales and customer service
• Motivate the team to hit (and beat) revenue targets
• Bring a personality that worked across the business, not just inside the sales department
• Step into the role quickly and start producing

Why It Was Tricky

When a sales team is floundering, every week without a leader compounds the damage: pipelines slip, customer relationships fray, and the team’s confidence erodes. But moving fast on a senior, culture-critical hire is exactly where most searches go sideways. Rushed placements at this level have a habit of becoming the next vacancy six months later.

We needed to compress the timeline on sourcing without compressing the time spent making sure the candidate was actually right.

We also knew something else going in: the right candidate almost certainly wasn’t applying anywhere. Senior A&D sales leaders who can rebuild a team are rarely on the market. They’re employed, performing, and not refreshing job boards. Reaching them requires going to them.

What Amtec Did

We went after senior Sales Manager profiles with the right A&D background and leadership track record, and reached out directly. The candidate who ultimately got hired hadn’t applied. He wasn’t looking. He loved his employer.

What surfaced in conversation was that a daily commute from Orange County to San Diego was wearing him down. Two-plus hours in the car was eating into his life, and he knew he’d eventually burn out on it even though the job itself was a good one. Son-Aero’s role in Anaheim cut that commute by more than half.

Details like a brutal commute don’t surface in resumes or applications. They come out in detailed screening conversations, the kind that go past surface-level qualifications and into what’s actually shaping a candidate’s thinking. If that detail had been missed, the candidate likely wouldn’t have moved. But a passive candidate who loves his employer is exactly the kind of stable, high-performing hire you want. The commute was just the lever that made this one willing to listen.

From there, we ran the rest of our standard direct-hire process: an hour-plus deep dive before he reached the client, with particular focus on leadership style and culture fit.

The Results

• First contact: December 23
• Candidate submitted: December 30 (7 days)
• Offer signed: February 21
• Start date: March 27

Seven days from first contact to a vetted candidate in front of the client. The longer back half of the timeline reflects Son-Aero’s own due diligence: multiple interview rounds, internal alignment, and a hiring decision they took the time to get right. That’s the trade we want clients to be able to make: get a qualified candidate in hand fast, then have the room to be careful about who they hire.

Over a year later, the Sales Manager is still in the role and exceeding expectations. He’s restored alignment between the sales and customer service teams that had been lacking and proven to be the kind of leader who contributes across the business, not just inside his department. In his first year, Son-Aero posted 15% revenue growth, more than triple the A&D industry average of 4.2%.

“Our Sales Manager has been with the company for just over a year and has outperformed our expectation. He has built continuity in the sales and customer service teams and has motivated his teams to achieve record sales over the past year. Most importantly, he has a great personality that works well with others and is willing to assist with any project. Thank you again to Amtec … for the work you do to make us a better company.”

Jeff Greer

CEO at Son-Aero

Why This Worked

The match solved a real problem on both sides. Son-Aero got a Sales Manager who could rebuild a team. The candidate got his life back from a brutal commute. A competitor calling next quarter with a 10% raise isn’t going to undo the geography. That’s what a structurally sound match looks like: both sides have reasons to stay that go beyond the offer letter.

Culture fit was treated as a hiring criterion, not a nice-to-have. “A great personality that works well with others” isn’t soft outcome language. It’s the reason this hire is lifting performance across multiple teams, and it’s what we screened for in the hour-plus conversation before he ever reached the client.

The right candidate was found, not filtered. Job boards would not have surfaced this person. He wasn’t applying. The work was in identifying him, reaching out, and having the kind of conversation where a non-obvious motivator, a commute in this case, could surface and become the opening.

Looking for a Hire Who Moves the Needle?

Amtec has been placing high-performing talent in aerospace, defense, and manufacturing since 1959. Our direct-hire process is built to find candidates who don’t just fill the seat, but raise the bar once they’re in it. If you’re looking for that kind of result, or just some guidance on a tough search, feel free to reach out. We’ll take good care of you.