Behind the scenes of Nova’s Sales Team
Hey, we are Ramón Rodrigáñez and Andrea Marino, Co-Founders at Nova, the Global Top Talent Network.
Welcome to Talent First, our newsletter where those who believe that talent is the most important resource in the economy get together.
Every week, we cover a new topic related to attracting, hiring, developing, and retaining talent, as well as the learnings from our journey building Nova.
This week, we have an outstanding guest who is taking over this edition: our Head of Sales, Alejandro Rodriguez Sanchez .
Summary
Hi 👋
I’m Alejandro Rodríguez, Head of Sales at Nova. I don’t usually crash this newsletter, especially not on a Friday (a sacred day for many of us in Sales), but today I wanted to share a story about a pretty big shift we’ve been navigating at Nova, and one we are incredibly excited about.
Over the past few months, we’ve been right in the middle of one of the boldest (and most rewarding) transitions in our journey: moving from selling headhunting services to building and selling software. And as with any real transformation, there’s been some chaos, a few wake-up calls, and lots of learning.
But here’s the kicker:
We’re not just launching a product. We’re launching a whole new way of solving hiring.
From talent selection to hiring solutions
Nova was known, and loved, for something very specific: helping companies access a curated network of top talent. Our secret sauce was our selection process, our members-first approach and our hands-on team making those intros happen.
But over time, we hit a ceiling. Not in the value we delivered, but in how far we could scale it.
That’s when it clicked:
🔁 If we wanted to grow our impact, we couldn’t rely just on people. We needed product.
And so we started building Nova Recruiter: our new SaaS platform designed to help internal recruitment teams source, engage, and hire high-potential talent more efficiently.
We’re almost there.
Nova Recruiter is about to hit the market, and it’s going to change the way talent teams operate.
But as exciting as the product is, the real story is what happened inside our sales org while building it.
Because launching a product is one thing.
Becoming a company that sells software? That’s a whole other beast.
What really changes when you go from services to SaaS?
Let’s start with the obvious: we didn’t just launch a new product. We had to rebuild our entire go-to-market engine: mindset, people, processes, even culture.
Here’s what that looked like from the inside.
1. New product = new kind of seller
The seller role has been evolving lately, and sometimes it can seem that sellers are buried on the different skills they need to master. This is why is very important to identify what kind of profile do your organisation need. Selling a service like headhunting? That’s all about relationships. Deep listening, good timing, and knowing how to read a room.
But with software, the game changes.
Suddenly, your top rep isn’t the smooth talker. It’s the one who can run a sharp business case, ask the tough questions, understand how the client’s tech stack works, and connect features to actual business outcomes.
We had to redefine what "great sales" looked like, and start hiring and training for that version.
2. The process had to grow up
Our service sales process was flexible: tailored proposals, long timelines, a lot of intuition.
With SaaS, structure wins.
We started using qualification frameworks. Business cases became non-negotiable. Metrics like MRR and trial-to-paid conversion now influence how we sell from day one, not just after the contract is signed.
It’s not necessarily harder, just… different. And it took conscious effort to rewire how we sell.
3. The pitch? Totally different
Before, we sold a clear outcome: “We’ll find the right talent for you.”
Now? It’s more like: “We’ll help your team do it better, faster, with the right tools and data.”
It sounds clean, but getting there took work. We had to sharpen our messaging, connect features to pain (especially the emotional kind). It’s not “we save you time,” it’s “you’ll stop chasing referrals and finally fill roles with confidence.”
That kind of message lands, but only if you really understand your buyer.
4. Tools and habits matter (a lot more)
In our service days, a lot of info lived in people’s heads. CRM discipline? Optional.
Not anymore.
Now we track everything: velocity, forecast accuracy, pipeline conversion, win/loss insights, outbound performance. And we iterate constantly.
It’s made us sharper, but also way more accountable. If something’s not working, it shows fast. And that’s actually been a gift.
5. Culture is the real unlock
The biggest shift? How we work as a team.
In the headhunting world, lone wolves could thrive.
Saas rewards teams that move fast together.
Success now depends on tight feedback loops with Tech & Product, Customer Success, and Marketing teams. We had to create a culture where sharing, failing fast, and learning together became the norm.
That’s why every Friday, we do a no-ego session where we share what we’ve won, lost, and learned. It’s simple, but it’s probably the single most powerful thing we’ve done.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re in HR, you might be feeling a similar shift. From service-led to tech-enabled, from external support to internal capability building.
In many ways, Nova’s sales org just went through the same evolution your talent team is facing.
And just like you, we’re learning how to be better partners, not just vendors.
The product changed. So did we. And while we’re still iterating, one thing has become crystal clear:
🧠 The mindset shift wasn’t a side effect of building Nova Recruiter. It was the whole point.
5 things we’ll never forget from the shift
So… what’s next?
We’re in the final stretch. Nova Recruiter is almost here, and we believe it’s going to change the way companies build world-class teams.
If you’ve ever thought, “There has to be a better way to hire,” you’re absolutely right — and it’s coming.
👉 Sign up here for our Beta and be one of the first to experience Nova Recruiter.
And if you’re a seller, builder, or someone who’s fired up by what you just read…
🎯 Come join the team that’s rewriting how recruitment gets done.
We’re hiring across Sales, Tech, and Talent Teams. Take a look and join the crew!
Thanks for reading, and if your team is going through a similar shift (sales or otherwise), I’d love to hear how you’re tackling it.
Let’s build the future of hiring. 🚀 Rock’n’roll!
AR
Head of Sales @ Nova
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