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United Kingdom · Country Managers · Heads of Sales · Sales Managers

Sales Recruitment Agency United Kingdom

JN Recruitment is the boutique sales recruitment agency for the UK trusted by machinery, industrial technology and recycling companies. We find the Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Managers who turn the UK from an export line into a home market — people your British customers call first, not last.

  • Technical sales placements from London to Glasgow, Bristol to Leeds
  • 100% technical sales — machinery, industrial technology & recycling
  • Executive search benchmarked against real UK salary and bonus packages
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Our niches
  • Machinery & plant engineering
  • Industrial technology
  • Recycling & environmental technology
2–4 weeks

to your first shortlist of qualified UK candidates

8–12 weeks

from briefing to signed contract — UK notice periods of 1–3 months planned in from day one

100% focus

technical sales roles — no generalist recruiting

30+ markets

European markets covered, the UK among the most requested

Sales headhunter UK

Your sales headhunter for the UK market

For European machinery and industrial technology makers, the UK never stopped being a top export market — Brexit changed the paperwork, not the demand. What it did change is what customers expect: with import formalities, UKCA and CE questions and longer supply chains in play, British plant operators and OEMs now want a competent contact on their side of the Channel. Companies that still sell the UK from Düsseldorf or Milan are losing tenders to those that don’t.

That local presence stands or falls with one hire — and generalist job boards rarely surface the person who can carry it. As a specialised sales headhunter for the UK, we approach proven technical sales professionals directly: people with a live network of plant managers, OEMs and distributors, a track record in long-cycle capital-equipment sales, and the credibility to represent a European manufacturer in front of British buyers. Every candidate is interviewed against your niche, and every shortlist comes with verifiable numbers.

The UK also rewards a service-led approach: a large installed base of ageing machinery needs retrofits, spares and upgrades, and the recycling and energy-from-waste pipeline keeps producing new projects. Whether you need a first Country Manager to build the UK business or a Head of Sales to professionalise an existing British team: our executive search for sales leadership in the UK is built for one outcome — revenue responsibility in the right hands.

Positions we fill

Sales positions we recruit in the UK

From the first commercial hire on British soil to a full national sales organisation — these are the technical sales roles our recruitment agency fills in the UK, each screened for genuine hunter mentality.

Head of Sales UK & Ireland

Leads and professionalises an existing British sales organisation — often with Ireland in scope — from pipeline discipline and key accounts to service and aftermarket revenue.

Sales Manager UK

Hunts new OEM and end-customer business nationwide: trade shows, distributor management and direct sales of machinery and industrial technology.

100+ companies expanded successfully with our placements

Market knowledge

Hiring sales talent in the UK: what employers should know

Recruiting in the UK follows its own rules — from bonus culture to right-to-work checks. The essentials we brief every client on before a UK search starts:

1–3

Months of notice

One month is the standard notice period for UK professional roles, rising to three months for senior sales leadership. Faster than the German three-to-six-month norm — but long enough that we map every shortlisted candidate’s notice before you make an offer.

12

Salary payments — no 13th month

UK salaries are paid in twelve monthly instalments; there is no 13th-month or holiday-pay tradition. The upside sits in the bonus instead: British industrial sales packages lean harder on annual and quarterly incentives than most continental markets, so quote OTE — not just base.

8%

Pension auto-enrolment

Every UK employer must auto-enrol staff into a workplace pension, with minimum contributions of 8% of qualifying earnings — at least 3% from the employer. Competitive industrial employers typically go beyond the minimum, and senior candidates will ask.

£5–7k

Car allowance, not company car

In UK field sales a cash car allowance — typically £5,000–7,000 a year — has largely replaced the company car for tax reasons. And since Brexit, EU citizens no longer have automatic right to work: employers must verify status, which is why UK sales roles are best filled with candidates already based in the country.

Salary benchmarks

Sales salaries in the UK: current benchmarks

What does sales talent cost in the UK? Annual gross salaries in GBP for technical sales roles in machinery, industrial technology and recycling — car allowance and pension not included:

Position Base salary OTE (on-target earnings)
Country Manager UK £90,000 – 120,000 £120,000 – 165,000
Head of Sales UK £80,000 – 110,000 £105,000 – 150,000
Sales Manager UK £55,000 – 75,000 £75,000 – 105,000
Business Development Manager £50,000 – 70,000 £65,000 – 95,000
Area / Regional Sales Manager £45,000 – 60,000 £60,000 – 85,000
Technical Sales Engineer £42,000 – 58,000 £52,000 – 75,000

Source: JN Recruitment placement and interview data, industrial B2B sales, United Kingdom. London and the South East price 10–20% above the national range.

UK Q&A

Sales recruitment in the UK: frequently asked questions

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As a boutique sales recruitment agency for the UK, we run the full executive search for technical sales roles: direct approach of proven candidates, structured interviews and reference checks with UK industry contacts, salary and bonus benchmarking against the British market, and support through offer negotiation and signing. Every mandate is handled end-to-end by the consultant who took your briefing — no CV databases, no job-board reposting.

We fill technical sales and sales leadership roles across the UK: Country Manager UK, Head of Sales, Sales Manager, Area Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Business Development Manager and Technical Sales Engineer. Typical mandates are the first or leading commercial hire of a machinery, industrial technology or recycling company building a local presence in the British market.

Exclusively industrial B2B niches: machinery and plant engineering — including the retrofit and service business around the UK’s large installed base — plus packaging and processing technology, automation, industrial components, and recycling, environmental and energy-from-waste technology. This focus means we already know the candidates, salaries and competitors in your UK niche.

The UK has one of Europe’s most crowded recruitment markets, and generalist agencies there cover every function from finance to IT — the technical sales talent you need rarely answers their adverts. A specialised sales recruitment agency for the UK starts every search with an existing network of Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Engineers in your niche, knows the realistic base-plus-bonus package for each role, and can judge a track record in capital-equipment sales rather than just matching keywords on a CV.

Our offices are in Germany, Poland and Cyprus — and that is deliberate. UK searches are worked daily in English by consultants who know the British industrial landscape: direct approach and interviews in English, references checked with UK industry contacts, and candidate meetings by video or at the sector’s British trade shows. You get local-market depth without paying local-agency generalism.

You typically receive a first shortlist within 2–4 weeks, and most UK positions are signed within 8–12 weeks. Notice periods are the variable to plan for: one month is standard, but senior sales leaders are usually on three months. We confirm every candidate’s notice at first interview so your start date is realistic from the beginning — not a surprise after the offer.

A Sales Manager in UK industrial B2B typically earns £55,000–75,000 base and £75,000–105,000 on-target, annual gross. A Country Manager UK reaches £120,000–165,000 OTE, a Technical Sales Engineer £52,000–75,000. British packages are bonus-heavy compared to the continent and usually add a car allowance of £5,000–7,000 plus employer pension contributions — we benchmark every mandate before the search starts.

Two things matter in practice. First, EU citizens no longer have an automatic right to work in the UK, and every employer must run right-to-work checks — so we search among candidates already based and eligible in the country. Second, Brexit made a local salesperson more valuable, not less: British customers dealing with import formalities and UKCA/CE questions strongly prefer a UK-based contact over a visiting export manager. The market stayed; the way you have to serve it changed.

Yes — that is the typical starting point of a market entry. Your first UK hire can be employed through an Employer of Record or a UK payroll provider while your British subsidiary or branch is being established; many clients run the first year this way. We advise on what top candidates in the UK will accept and structure the offer accordingly.

All of them. Most mandates centre on London, Birmingham and the Midlands manufacturing heartland, Manchester and Leeds in the industrial North, Bristol in the engineering South West, and Glasgow and Edinburgh for Scotland’s recycling and renewables projects. British technical sales is largely home-office and territory-based, so we recruit where your customers are — not just where the head offices are.

Across Europe

One sales recruitment playbook, every European market

The same specialised technical sales search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are expanding into.

Hiring in several markets at once?

Hiring at leadership level? Our executive search practice:

Candidate found — and now need a compliant way to employ them?

Fill your key sales roles across Europe — now.

Talk to us — no strings attached. We get back to you within 24 hours.

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Jonas Strambach – Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment
Our mission is simple: placements that open new markets.
Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment
Jonas Strambach – Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment

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