What we do
End-to-end leadership advisory — from C-suite search to board placement, backed by India's only 12-month candidate guarantee.
Intelligence for the full CXO lifecycle — from silent market discovery to mandate-ready assessment, compensation truth, career forks, and CV depth.
Silent market intelligence and matched opportunities — no public footprint.
Self Assessment PortalMulti-layer psychometrics, archetypes, and mandate-ready fit intelligence.
Compensation IntelligenceP25–P90 benchmarks, negotiation playbooks, and scenario modelling.
Career Progression StudioSimulated paths, peer percentiles, and a 12-month readiness roadmap.
Resume Intelligence12-dimension scoring, JD fit, and AI positioning variants.
War RoomAI-powered scenario training for board meetings, CXO interviews, and high-stakes negotiations.
CXO platform
Whisper, Symphony, Compensation Intelligence, Compass, and Resume Intelligence share context — so your profile, comp view, and market briefings stay aligned.
Sector expertise
We place senior leaders across India's most dynamic sectors — from BFSI and technology to healthcare, manufacturing and beyond.
C-suite expertise
From CEO and CFO to CISO and ESG leader — we cover every C-suite function across India's private, listed and PE-backed organisations.
Gladwin International
& Company
Explore the Ancient Wisdom
Every business, regardless of how great its product or service, is ultimately only as successful as its ability to generate revenue. Business development and sales leadership — the ability to build markets, win customers, and grow revenue consistently — is among the most commercially valuable talent in any organisation. And yet, it is also among the most misunderstood: great sales leaders are not just great salespeople; they are commercial strategists, market architects, and team builders.
Our Business Development & Sales Leadership practice at Gladwin International Leadership Advisors places senior commercial leaders — National Sales Heads, VPs of Business Development, Heads of Enterprise Sales, and Commercial Directors — across industrial, consumer, technology, financial services, and professional services businesses.
We are particularly experienced in placing leaders for complex, high-value B2B sales environments — where the sales cycle is long, the decision-making involves multiple stakeholders, and building deep customer relationships is the core competitive strategy. We also place commercial leaders in consumer businesses managing large channel networks, trade marketing functions, and rural distribution operations.
Sales leadership has been transformed by the availability of data. Modern sales leaders use CRM analytics, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, intent data, and AI-driven lead scoring to make decisions that were previously made by gut instinct alone. The shift to digital-first customer buying journeys in B2B — where buyers have often done 70% of their research before talking to a salesperson — requires commercial leaders who can design content and digital experiences that create preference before the sales conversation begins. And in SaaS and technology, the emergence of Product-Led Growth (PLG) means the product itself is increasingly part of the sales motion — requiring commercial leaders who understand the product experience deeply.
Our 14 years of placing BD & Sales leaders has taught us exactly where searches go wrong. Here is what we watch for.
Guaranteed placement · 12-month candidate guarantee · Affordable pricing for organisations across the value chain.
For BD & Sales Professionals
Built exclusively for senior Business Development & Sales Leadership leaders. Five integrated modules that benchmark your profile, scan the market in silence, and surface the right opportunity — before it becomes public.
Research & Insights
Thought leadership on the Business Development & Sales Leadership role — strategy, skills, and the future of the function in India.
India's most accomplished CROs did not arrive at the role by accident. This is the deliberate career architecture — the experiences, skills, and mindset shifts — that distinguishes those who reach the top of B2B revenue leadership.
By 2030, India's B2B economy will be platform-native, AI-driven, and globally integrated. The revenue leaders who thrive will be those building the capabilities today that the market will demand at decade's end.
Generative AI is transforming every stage of the B2B sales cycle — from ICP identification and prospect research to proposal generation and deal coaching. India's most effective BD leaders are building AI-augmented sales organisations right now.
Common questions about recruiting a Business Development & Sales Leadership in India.
Our Business Development & Sales leadership practice covers VP and C-suite commercial roles across industries — National Sales Directors, Heads of Business Development, Chief Commercial Officers, and revenue team leaders. We combine deep understanding of what drives commercial success in specific industries with a rigorous assessment of candidates' sales leadership track record: quota attainment history, team building and talent development capability, sales process and CRM discipline, and the strategic ability to identify and capture new market opportunities beyond just executing against an established playbook.
We fill: Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), VP Sales, National Sales Director, Head of Business Development, Head of Key Accounts, Head of Channel Partnerships, Head of Enterprise Sales, Head of SMB Sales, Head of International Business, Head of Alliances, Country Manager, and Regional Business Head. We work across technology, BFSI, healthcare, FMCG, manufacturing, industrial services, professional services, and SaaS companies.
Beyond the fundamentals — pipeline management, quota achievement, customer relationship depth — the most effective commercial leaders today demonstrate strong data-driven decision-making (they run sales on metrics, not intuition), sales enablement and team development (they elevate the entire team's performance, not just their own), strategic account management (they grow existing relationships into expanded enterprise partnerships), and cross-functional influence (they align marketing, product, and delivery around the commercial agenda). In B2B technology, deep understanding of value-based selling and ROI articulation to economic buyers is increasingly differentiating.
Yes. One of the most common mandates we receive is the first VP of Sales or Head of Business Development hire for a Series A or B startup transitioning from founder-led sales to a structured commercial organisation. These mandates require a specific profile: someone who has successfully built sales organisations from scratch, is comfortable with ambiguity and resource constraints, and can develop a repeatable sales playbook — not just inherit and execute one. This is meaningfully different from a VP of Sales at a large company, and our assessment is calibrated accordingly.
VP of Sales and commercial leadership compensation is typically structured with a significant variable component — often 30–50% of total compensation — linked to revenue targets. Total VP of Sales compensation at mid-to-large companies in India typically ranges from ₹1.5–3.5 crore inclusive of variable. CCO roles at major companies typically command ₹2.5–6 crore. Startup sales leadership (Series B and above) typically earns ₹1–2.5 crore with meaningful ESOP. We provide detailed commercial compensation benchmarking for every sales leadership search.