Our sales recruiters worked with Xpofairs, an online space reinventing trade shows, in 2025. Founded just two years prior, they were looking to onboard their first Sales Manager to drive their growth strategy.
With a clear market brief, our recruiters found an excellent hire for the business, who is now leading their growth journey.
Xpofairs is an early-stage startup changing the global trade show industry. The business hosts online trade shows across the UK and USA and have ambitious plans to expand into new industries and geographies each year.
With a focus on creating solutions to the rising financial, personal, and environmental costs of traditional trade shows, Xpofairs needed a founding commercial hire to help drive this growth.
As one of the first hires into the business, the Sales Manager needed to be able to support on both strategy and execution.
The brief required someone capable of building and nurturing relationships with established relationships, while spotting new opportunities in new industries. It was also vital that they could coordinate operational workflows to ensure the smooth delivery of trade shows, acting as the connection between business development, marketing, technology, and customer success.
Beyond the immediate requirements, the challenge also lay in appointing an individual with the ambition and leadership skills to lay the foundations for, and ultimately grow, a commercial sales team that could scale alongside Xpofairs’ rapid expansion.
The brief was broad, but we didn’t shy away from it’s unique requirements. Partnering with Xpofairs, we positioned the opportunity as a unique founding role and not just another sales hire. Together, we defined the hybrid nature of the position, highlighting its strategic and operational scope.
The opportunity to shape the company culture were also central to our approach. Highlighting the successful candidate would join a collaborative and creative office is key when hiring an early team member for a start-up. Above all, the role was marketed as a rare chance to help shape the future of global trade from the ground up.
Xpofairs secured a founding Sales Manager who quickly became a trusted face of the brand, building high-impact relationships across industries and driving growth into new markets. With this appointment, XpoFairs is well positioned to continue expanding its innovative business.
Sam and the team at 3Search were brilliant to work with. They really took the time to understand our business and what we needed in such a critical founding hire. Thanks to their support, we’ve brought in a Sales Manager who’s already making a big impact. It’s been a really positive experience, and we look forward to working with Sam again as we grow.
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