When growing companies need to make a consequential sales leadership hire, they need more than a recruiter who moves fast. As Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters, Onboard Recruiting Partners takes a structured, intentional approach to finding the leaders who will shape your team’s direction, culture, and results. Headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and serving a national client base across the United States, the firm focuses exclusively on leadership and key functional roles for companies in the growth stage of building their teams.
Why Sales Leadership Hiring Demands a Different Process
Filling a senior sales role is not the same as filling any other position. The person you place at the top of your sales organization sets the tone for how your entire team performs, recruits, and retains talent. A poor cultural match or a misaligned leadership style can create friction that takes years to correct. Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters at Onboard Recruiting Partners evaluate candidates on much more than their track record: leadership approach, team-building philosophy, and organizational fit all factor into every recommendation made to a client.
Founder Chris Masson brings more than 25 years of hands-on management experience from corporate environments, including Sherwin-Williams and AkzoNobel, as well as entrepreneurial experience running his own venture. That operator background shapes how every search is conducted. Learn more about that perspective on the Onboard Recruiting Partners About page.
The Retained Search Difference
Unlike contingency firms that present whichever candidates come available first, the retained model means Onboard Recruiting Partners commits fully to each engagement. Every search is structured, dedicated, and aligned around one outcome: finding the right long-term hire for your organization. This mutual commitment produces better alignment between clients and candidates, and it holds the firm accountable to quality rather than speed.
For growing companies in the mid-market, that difference is significant. When a sales leadership vacancy creates pressure on the business, it can be tempting to move quickly. The retained model slows that instinct just enough to ask the right questions first: What does this leader need to accomplish in the first year? How does this role interact with other parts of the organization? What kind of leadership style will this team actually respond to? Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters at Onboard work through those questions with clients before a single candidate conversation takes place.
Markets Onboard Recruiting Partners Serves
The firm works with a focused range of organizations where intentional leadership hiring has the greatest impact. Explore the full industries and expertise overview to see where the firm’s search experience runs deepest.
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Mid-Sized Companies: Organizations with growing complexity that need experienced leadership, not just functional contributors.
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Growth-Focused Organizations: Companies actively scaling their teams and building out functional leadership for the first time.
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Private Companies: Businesses where hiring decisions are made by founders or CEOs who need a thoughtful search partner, not a vendor.
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Corporate Teams: Established organizations looking to strengthen a specific function with proven leadership talent.
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Entrepreneurial Businesses: Fast-moving companies that need leaders who can operate with autonomy and build from early stages.
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Leadership-Driven Environments: Organizations where culture and management quality are treated as strategic priorities.
Positions Onboard Recruiting Partners Helps Clients Hire With Confidence
As Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters, the firm’s engagement scope spans the leadership and functional roles that have the greatest influence on organizational growth. A full picture of the firm’s search capabilities is available on the employers page.
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C-Suite
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Director of Human Resources
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Human Resources Manager
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Talent Acquisition Leader
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Marketing Director
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Brand Marketing Manager
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Engineering Manager
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Operations Manager
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Divisional Merchant Manager
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Category Manager / Buyer
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Regional Manager
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District Manager
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Store Manager
A Hiring Process Built Around Honest Conversation
What separates Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters at Onboard Recruiting Partners from larger or generalist firms is the nature of the engagement itself. Chris personally leads every search. Clients are not handed off to a junior team member once the contract is signed. That direct involvement means the person evaluating candidates understands the client’s business, the team dynamics at play, and the nuance of what this particular hire needs to accomplish. In our experience, this level of founder/leader engagement consistently yields candidates who fit culturally and strategically.
Connect with Onboard Recruiting Partners on LinkedIn to follow the firm’s thinking on leadership hiring, team building, and the retained search model.
If your organization is ready to approach a critical sales leadership hire with more clarity and intention, the form below is the right place to start that conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to work with Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters on a retained basis?
A retained engagement means the firm is exclusively dedicated to your search from the moment the partnership begins. Onboard Recruiting Partners does not split attention across multiple clients competing for the same candidates. The retained structure creates a real commitment on both sides: the client commits to a structured process, and the firm commits to presenting only candidates who have been thoroughly evaluated for leadership fit, team dynamics, and long-term alignment with the organization.
In our experience, clients who choose retained search report higher quality pipelines and faster time-to-impact when the right leader joins the team.
Does Onboard Recruiting Partners work with companies outside of Michigan?
Yes. While the firm is headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Onboard Recruiting Partners serves a national client base across the United States. Geography is not a limiting factor for the firm’s search process, and leadership searches are conducted for growing companies in markets throughout the country.
Practitioners in this field often emphasize that national reach combined with local market insight improves candidate fit and onboarding success.
What size companies does Onboard Recruiting Partners typically work with?
The firm focuses on companies in the growth stage, generally those with between 50 and 500 employees. These organizations are typically building out their leadership teams for the first time or replacing key roles that have a significant impact on the business. Founders, CEOs, and HR leaders at private and entrepreneurial companies make up a large share of the firm’s client base.
How is a leadership search different from posting a job and reviewing applicants?
Most strong candidates for senior leadership roles are not actively browsing job boards. They are currently employed and performing well, which is often precisely why they are the right hire. Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters at Onboard Recruiting Partners conduct proactive outreach into passive candidate pools, which means the firm surfaces talent that a standard posting process would never reach. Beyond sourcing, every candidate is evaluated for leadership style, team fit, and organizational compatibility before a client conversation takes place.
What functional areas does Onboard Recruiting Partners specialize in beyond sales leadership?
The firm’s expertise covers human resources, marketing, engineering, operations, and merchant functions, in addition to sales leadership. Each of these areas shares a common thread: they are roles where the quality of leadership has a direct and measurable impact on organizational health and growth. Onboard Recruiting Partners does not conduct high-volume or entry-level staffing; every engagement centers on a leadership or key functional position.
Why does the founder’s operator background matter for a leadership search?
Most recruiting firms are led by career recruiters who evaluate candidates primarily on credentials and prior titles. Chris Masson’s background as an operator at companies including Sherwin-Williams and AkzoNobel, as well as his experience running his own business, gives him a different frame of reference. He understands what it actually looks like to manage a team, navigate organizational complexity, and make leadership decisions under pressure. That perspective shapes how candidates are evaluated and how client conversations are structured, making Chicago Sales Leadership Recruiters at Onboard Recruiting Partners a more practical partner for growing companies.