Technical Sales & Business Development Recruitment in Spain
Akens\Nordburg supports international companies in the search for commercial profiles for products, solutions and markets where technical or sector understanding carries significant weight.
We work particularly on positions where commercial responsibility requires more than sales experience alone: sector knowledge, the ability to understand technical applications, market development or dialogue with industrial and technical customers.
The commercial role depends on the market that needs to be developed
A Sales Manager, Business Development Manager or Sales Engineer can have very different responsibilities depending on the company's starting point.
Opening a market from the ground up is not the same as developing an existing customer base, working through distributors, managing key accounts or expanding an activity that is already established.
Before defining the target candidate profile, we need to understand what the person actually needs to achieve:
- open new accounts;
- develop a market that has not yet been worked systematically;
- manage and grow existing customers;
- structure a distributor network;
- introduce a new technology or product;
- combine commercial development with technical customer support.
That difference shapes the search far more than the job title used initially.
When selling requires understanding the product
In many industrial and technology environments, commercial credibility depends on the candidate being able to understand the product, application or customer process well enough to have meaningful conversations.
That does not mean every profile needs an engineering background, but it does mean that commercial experience has to be assessed within the technical context of the mandate.
In some searches, previous experience with machinery or industrial solutions will be important. In others, the decisive factors may be knowledge of particular production processes, long sales cycles, distributors, OEMs or technical customers. The objective is to determine which knowledge needs to be present from the beginning and which capabilities can be developed afterwards.
Selected assignments completed successfully
Sales & Business Development Manager — Spain
Search for a German industrial technology company looking to develop its activity in the Spanish market.
The position needed to combine new-business development, customer management, technical understanding of the product and a high level of autonomy. In addition to the immediate commercial responsibility, the profile needed to be able to contribute to the progressive development of the local organisation.
Sales Engineer — Iberia
Search for a European company managed from headquarters in Germany, with commercial responsibility across Spain and Portugal.
The mandate included development of existing business, relationships with customers and distributors and the ability to work with technical solutions within an international environment.
Market development does not always mean the same thing
Business Development positions tend to be defined broadly.
In some projects, the person is expected to create opportunities from zero. In others, the work is mainly about developing existing relationships, opening new segments or building a more structured commercial network. The situation is also very different depending on whether the company already has brand recognition, references, technical support or distributors in the market.
Before starting the search, it is therefore important to clarify which part of the commercial development the person will genuinely own and which resources will be available. This helps avoid profiles that fit the title but whose commercial experience has been developed under conditions very different from those they will encounter in the new project.
When the role represents the company's first commercial capability in Spain, the assignment may also form part of our First Hire & Market Entry work.
First Hire & Market Entry →Accessing profiles that are not actively looking
Commercial profiles with strong knowledge of a specific sector are often well established in their markets and are not always active in recruitment processes.
In highly specific searches, the number of relevant candidates can narrow quickly because of the combination of sector experience, network, technical knowledge, languages, territory and level of responsibility. Before starting the search, it is useful to test whether that combination is realistic in the market and which requirements are reducing the potential candidate pool most significantly.
Through Market Mapping and Direct Search, we identify professionals with experience in comparable markets and assess their fit and interest directly. Early conversations also provide information on compensation, territorial scope, commercial structure and how the opportunity is perceived.
When a role combines commercial responsibility and technical knowledge
Some positions combine a strong technical base with frequent customer interaction. The relevant question is what the principal responsibility of the role actually is.
If the centre of the role is developing business, generating sales or managing a market, the position normally belongs within Technical Sales & Business Development. If the principal responsibility is engineering, technical support, project execution or solving technical problems, it fits better within Engineering & Industrial.
Defining this boundary clearly helps direct the search towards genuinely comparable career paths.
Engineering & Industrial →Do you need to develop a market or strengthen your commercial team?
If you are looking for a Technical Sales or Business Development profile with a specific combination of commercial, sector and technical experience, we can review the mandate and the relevant market.