Medical Device & Healthcare Sales Hiring — Talent Architects
Medical devices · Diagnostics · Care

The clinician wants it. Procurement won’t sign it off.

So we find people who can work both.

A shortlist of people who can already do the job, with the evidence on each one written down. You read it and decide who to see.

People already in your specialty — with clinical credibility and procurement access scored separately.

Tony Goodwin
Ninety seconds on how we find people who aren’t looking.
1:30

Tony Goodwin, founder

Filled in 2 weeks

“I have a mistrust of recruiters, but you’ve restored my faith in the value of getting the right hire.”

Neil Latcham
Sales Director, Tomrods
Multiple hires

“Absolutely delighted with the hires we’ve made. The screening was first class and we had amazing candidates to choose from.”

Gary Hall
Managing Director, TQ Environmental
140% of quota

“After 2 bad hires and months of lost opportunities, you found us an amazing Head of Sales — they’re 140% of quota.”

Emma Armytage
HR Director, HL Tech
Roles we fill
Territory and Account Managers
Clinical Specialists and Advisers
Key Account and NHS Account Managers
Product and Market Access Managers
Regional Sales Managers
Business Unit Managers
Heads of Sales
Commercial Directors
… and the roles either side of them
How this actually goes

Six things go wrong when you hire.

Here’s each one, and what we do about it.

01
Plenty of CVs. Almost none from inside the specialty.

The applications come from people trying to get into the sector rather than people already in it. The ones who can do this are at the majors, on good packages, with brands that open doors — and they aren’t reading job boards.

What we do

We map who is covering your specialty and your accounts, and approach them individually. You get that map free, before you commit to anything.

3×
Applications per hire have tripled since 2021. Volume was never the problem.
Candidate Market Map
Complimentary
Territory Manager
Work modelField, regional
MandateNew accounts + growth
Package£48k + bonus + car
Key barTheatre credible
Top candidates — ranked for sector relevance and origination
1A. WhitworthLeedsSeven years in the specialty. Case support credibility, and has taken two products through trust procurement herself.
2J. FerrisManchesterAt a major. Strong clinically, less exposed to procurement and the business case side.
3S. BrackenSheffieldCame from a clinical background into sales. Answers the hard question in the room rather than escalating.
4D. MalloryLeedsAdjacent specialty, same accounts and buyers. Would need product ramp, not relationship ramp.
Built from public profile evidence for this role. We verify current employment and availability before any approach.
23 mapped · 4 shown

Yours free, whether you use us or not.

02
The good ones ignore recruiters.

They’re at a major, on a package you’d struggle to match, and approached every week by agencies who can’t tell one specialty from another. Your business is a name they’ve never heard. Nearly nine in ten smaller businesses say they can’t match the salaries larger organisations offer — on a job board, that’s exactly what you’re competing on.

What we do

We market the role properly. Every person we approach gets a page built for the role and addressed to them by name, with a video explaining the business, the specialty and the accounts they’d own. You can’t outbid a major on package. You can out-argue one on autonomy, product and the territory itself.

“After 2 bad hires and months of lost opportunities, you found us an amazing Head of Sales that not only is a perfect cultural fit, they’re 140% of quota.”

Emma Armytage — HR Director, HL Tech
a page built for one person
Hi James — thought you might find this of interest.

Not sure if this is on your radar, but it felt worth putting in front of you.

The opportunity
Territory Manager — North
A product clinicians actually ask for
Autonomy a major manufacturer can’t offer
Direct line to the people who make the decisions
Who won’t enjoy this?

Anyone who needs a large marketing machine behind them, or a territory that runs itself.

A real page, sent to one person, by name.

03
You can’t tell who’s any good.

Interviewing is a separate skill to the job. Some people are polished because they’ve done a lot of interviews, not because they’re any good. Others are awkward in a room and would be the best hire you make this year. And every CV now arrives with an AI polish on it, so the ones that read best aren’t necessarily the best people. You come away feeling reasonably sure — but feeling sure and having evidence aren’t the same thing, and only one of them survives month five.

What we do

A long screening interview, conducted by someone who has sold in your market, then a written suitability report on every candidate we recommend — scored against your brief, with the evidence underneath. And a section called Watch Points, where we set out what isn’t proven.

Candidate Suitability Report
Private & Confidential
Recommendation
Progress to interview
8.0
out of 10
04
Scored against your brief
Clinical credibility in theatreStrong9.0
Consultant and KOL relationshipsStrong8.5
NHS procurement and framework accessStrong8.0
Evidence and health economics caseGood7.5
Capital versus consumable cyclePartial6.0
06
Watch Points
Clinically excellent, commercially untested above the clinician.
Genuinely trusted in theatre and by the specialist nurses. She has never personally taken a case through trust procurement or a medical devices group — that has always been someone else.
Territory was established, not opened.
Retention and growth on an inherited territory are strong. What she has converted from a standing start, at a centre with no existing usage, wasn’t evidenced.
Capital experience is thin.
Consumable and consignment business is well documented. If the seat carries a capital number with a twelve-month cycle, plan the ramp accordingly.
Talent ArchitectsPage 5 of 7
04
Interviewing eats your week.

Thirty CVs to read, eight people to see, half of them a waste of an afternoon. And you’re doing it around the day job, which is why the role has been open five weeks already.

What we do

You see the ones worth seeing, and nobody else. No padding a shortlist to make it look busy, and no thirty CVs to sift. The questions worth asking are already written down, because they came out of what we couldn’t close on the screening call.

19:4
People screened to produce a shortlist worth meeting
Shortlist — the ones worth seeing
01
A. Whitworth
Has taken two products through procurement.
8.5
02
J. Ferris
Strongest clinically. Least commercial.
8.0
03
S. Bracken
Already covers the accounts. Opens few new ones.
7.5
04
D. Mallory
Adjacent specialty. Needs product ramp.
7.0
Nineteen people screened to get here. Every one you see comes with a full report.
05
It falls apart at the offer.

Five weeks in, the person you wanted takes a counter-offer, or mentions a competing process nobody knew about, or turns out to have been thousands off on salary the whole way through.

What we do

We establish what it’ll take to land someone before you meet them — what they’re on, what they’d move for, whether they’re being pulled toward your role or pushed out of their current one, and what else they’re in process on.

Candidate Suitability Report
Private & Confidential
07
What it’ll take to land him
Current package
£46,000 + 20% bonus + car
Would move for
£50,000 base
Motivation
Pull — wants autonomy and a product she believes in
Other processes
One, at second stage
Counter-offer risk
Elevated
Notice
One month
Available to interview
Friday afternoons

Counter-offer. Majors counter to protect a territory. Establish her ceiling before the first offer, and be ready to move once.

Talent ArchitectsPage 6 of 7
06
And then they leave in month five.

Which is the expensive one. You’ve paid a fee, paid five months of salary, lost the ground for half a year, and you’re back where you started with less confidence than before.

What we do

If they leave, or you exit them, within six months, we run the search again at no fee. But the real protection is upstream: Watch Points exist so the risks are on the table before you hire, not discovered in month five.

Candidate Suitability Report
Private & Confidential
Recommendation
Don’t progress
5.5
out of 10
08
Verdict
Loved in theatre. Invisible to procurement.
Clinicians genuinely rate her and the case support is excellent. But she has never personally taken a product through trust procurement or onto a framework — that has always been the regional manager.
The territory was handed over intact.
Retention is strong. Conversion at a centre with no existing usage is unevidenced, and this seat is mostly that.
NHS procurement accessWeak4.5
Opening accounts from coldWeak4.0
Talent ArchitectsPage 7 of 7
Proof

Hired, and still performing.

Technical and regulated B2B. The method is constant — the criteria change with the buyer.

“After 2 bad hires and months of lost opportunities, you found us an amazing Head of Sales that not only is a perfect cultural fit, they’re 140% of quota.”
Emma Armytage — HR Director, HL Tech

“Absolutely delighted with the hires we’ve made. The screening was first class and we had amazing candidates to choose from.”

Gary Hall — Managing Director, TQ Environmental

“The quality and speed of the process has been outstanding. I have a mistrust of recruiters, but you’ve restored my faith in the value of getting the right hire.”

Neil Latcham — Sales Director, Tomrods
11
Criteria scored against the brief on our most recent report in a regulated market
14 days
Completed brief to shortlist
0
Candidates put forward without a written suitability report
Who it’s for

Field and clinical roles selling into the NHS and private care.

Where the person who wants your product and the person who signs for it are never the same person.

—Territory Managers and Territory Sales Managers
—Clinical Sales Specialists and Clinical Specialists
—Product and Application Specialists
—Key Account Managers
—Regional and Area Sales Managers
—Business Development Managers
—National Sales Managers and Sales Directors
—Clinical education and in-service training
Who this works for

Device, diagnostics, consumable and care businesses.

  • Typically 20 to 200 people
  • A UK business or the UK arm of a smaller manufacturer
  • Selling into trusts, ICBs, private groups or primary care
  • Territory-based field roles, clinical or hybrid
If the role is senior enough that getting it wrong costs you a year, it’s worth assessing properly.
Three routes, scored differently
After the first one

Most clients don’t stop at the role they came for.

We’re usually brought in for a commercial hire. Then, once we know how the business works and what it takes to succeed in it, clients ask us about the roles around it.

The method doesn’t change. The criteria still come from your brief, and where the assessment needs technical depth we bring in someone from our bench who has done that job.

Commercial
Business development, account management, key accounts, sales management and commercial leadership. Where we usually start.
Operations
Service delivery, operations management, project and programme management, planning and coordination. The people who keep what the sale brought in.
Technical
Where the brief demands it and we can assess it properly. One client currently has us filling a cloud engineer, a DevOps engineer and a project manager.
Leadership
Heads of function and director-level appointments, usually once we’ve placed underneath them and know what the seat actually needs.

One client has had us fill four roles across commercial and operations. Another started with a Head of Sales and is now three roles into a technical team. If we can’t assess something properly, we’ll say so rather than take it on.

Risk removal

You don’t pay unless you hire.

◎

No fee unless you hire.

Most clients start here. We ask for 21 days' exclusivity so we can invest properly in the search rather than race three other agencies to the same active candidates.

⟳

Six-month replacement.

If the person leaves, or you exit them, within six months of starting, we run the search again at no fee.

✕

We’ll tell you when to stop.

If the market for the brief isn’t there at the package you’re offering, you’ll hear it early — and we’d rather send three people we’d back than four to fill a shortlist.

Full terms confirmed in writing before any search begins.

Tony Goodwin, founder of Talent Architects
Tony Goodwin — Founder
Who screens your candidates
Built them.
Sold them.
Hired for them.

Tony Goodwin has built, scaled and exited B2B businesses — selling them himself — and spent the years since rebuilding the commercial function inside more than 170 companies. He designed the way we screen, and he still runs searches.

What we assess against comes out of your brief, not a template. And where the assessment needs depth we haven’t got in-house, we bring in someone from our bench who has done that job — a sector specialist, an engineer, whoever the brief actually demands.

Most screening tests whether someone can talk about the job. Ours tests whether they’ve done what your role actually requires.

Why we’d rather bring someone in than guess.

A generalist recruiter can check a CV against a spec. Only someone who has sold in your sector can tell whether the numbers were earned or inherited, whether the accounts they name are the ones that matter, and what they’d struggle with in your business.

170+
Companies we’ve worked inside
30yrs
Selling and hiring in B2B
19:4
People screened to produce a shortlist worth meeting
0
Candidates sent without a written report
Straight answers

The things people ask before they call.

If yours isn’t here, ask it on the call. We’d rather tell you no early than sell you a search you don’t need.

We score it separately from procurement access, because a candidate strong on one and weak on the other is a very specific risk. Every search is run with someone who knows the specialty.

That’s the common problem here. What we can do is make the case for the role properly to people who aren’t on the market — autonomy, product, territory, the things a large employer can’t offer.

We work on contingency for most roles — no fee unless you hire. The fee is a percentage of first-year salary and we agree it in writing before anything starts. We aren’t the cheapest option in the market and we don’t try to be; what you’re paying for is the research, the screening and the report.

Tell us on the call. If you’ve someone promising we’d rather pressure-test them than run a search you don’t need. We’ll be straight with you about whether it’s worth doing at all.

For 21 days, yes. It’s what makes the approach possible — nobody writes a page for each candidate and records a video on a role four agencies are racing. After 21 days the role is yours to run however you like.

If they leave, or you exit them, inside six months of starting, we run the search again at no fee. Full terms are confirmed in writing before we begin.

The UK, the United States and Australia. Most of our searches are field or hybrid roles outside the major cities, which is where the agencies chasing volume tend not to look.

A limited number. The research and the reports take real time, and doing eight searches badly is worse for everyone than doing three properly. If we can’t give a role the attention it needs we’ll say so.

Next step

Tell us the role.
We’ll show you who’s out there.

A researched Talent Map for your role, built from scratch, and fifteen minutes to walk through it. Yours whether you use us or not.

No fee, no obligation.

The map takes days. The search starts the moment you say go.

Talent Architects
Fifteen minutes
Fifteen minutes on the role. Then you’ll know whether it’s fillable.
◎
We go through the brief. What the hire has to deliver, by when, and what has to be true for that to happen.
→
We’ll be straight about the package. If the salary won’t buy what you’re describing, you’ll hear it on the call, not in week three.
✓
Then you decide. If we go ahead, you’ll get a shortlist with a written report on every person we recommend. No fee unless you hire.

No sales deck. No hard sell. Just an honest conversation about the role.

Choose a time
Free Talent Map
The people who could do it, before you spend a penny.

We research your role properly, then walk you through it on a fifteen-minute call. Yours to keep whether you use us or not.

Candidate Market Map
Complimentary
Business Development Manager
Work modelHybrid, regional
Package£48k + bonus
1A. WhitworthNine years doing this job for the same kind of customer. Opened 14 accounts from cold last year.
2J. FerrisAt a direct competitor. Consultative, long-cycle, used to working without a big brand behind them.
3S. BrackenAlready covers your region. Strong technically, and the only one local to you.
Names released on the call, once we’ve confirmed the brief.
31 mapped

Real people, researched for your role. Where they sit, what they’re on, how movable each one looks — and where your brief is fighting the market.

We build a limited number each month. A few days to research, then fifteen minutes to go through it. No fee, no obligation.