How a Complete Revamping of Talent Was Instrumental in Leading to an $871 Million Acquisition by Oracle.

Eloqua is the gold standard of marketing automation. An award-winning system trusted by modern marketers to build customer obsessed cultures, create and manage ideal customers, and power revenue performance. They wrote the book on how to influence the way organizations of all kinds market themselves to the public.

The short version: they were masters at understanding “digital body language.”

However, this wasn’t always the case.

When Martyn and his team started working with Eloqua in 2004, they were a $3M company with an exceptional product, the drive to succeed and $13M in venture capital funding. They were our favourite kind of client because of the type of blueprint they had created.

Martyn and his firm are awesome at hiring salespeople and sales leaders. He pretty much staffed up our entire sales team at Eloqua. We benchmarked him against the best, even local recruiting firms and we found that Martyn could bring on better people, with less yield loss, from Toronto.

– Mark Organ, Co-Founder & CEO, Influitive

Our work for Eloqua started with a single search for a Senior Account Executive. It was a position that called for experience selling enterprise software and the ability to meet a 1.3M quota.

The process intensified because this role was critical to the company’s growth. By the time the placement was made, Eloqua had received an additional $8M in funding citing the importance of filling out the roster with top-tier players.

Not long after, Martyn was tasked with expanding their sales team to the United States with reps from New York to Los Angeles. Operating from Toronto to fill positions across the United States was an initial obstacle, but he was able to tap into his extensive network and ultimately placed 19 high-performing Account Executives to help fuel Eloqua’s growth.

Top Search Challenges

  • Finding a candidate that had built a high-performing sales team on a budget
  • Attracting a true entrepreneur who was willing to accept equity-heavy compensation
  • Identifying top-performing candidates across the United States

Eloqua Results

The Senior Account Executive Martyn placed hit 300% of his quota in the first year. Martyn filled 25 additional positions within Eloqua that were key to growing their revenue by 1000%, cementing their position as the industry leader in marketing automation.

It was an instrumental process that helped solidify their place in the competitive marketplace that resulted in a massive buyout by Oracle for $871M at the end of 2012. An acquisition that meant an even greater reach into the Fortune 500 space.

When hiring our first CPO, we were looking to branch out beyond our network. The Martyn Bassett Associates team was able to source candidates that we were wanting, but unable to get on our own. We were presented with a wide range of fantastic candidates.

Robert Chen
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Almi

What I love about working with this team is they’re there to help. I have weird requests, they jump on the phone and we figure it out. I need someone in a hurry, they hustle. I maybe need someone ages from now, they keep an eye out. I have a question about a salary, or am unsure about how to approach something – they know. We’ve used them for a few years, and we’ve had nothing but great experience working together. Wish I had found them a few years sooner.

Alan Smith
Co-Founder/CEO, Strategyzer

We were impressed with both the speed and the high-calibre of candidates we had to choose from. Martyn Bassett Associates really listen to what you’re looking for and the entire process is very smooth and stress-free.

Roger Barlow
CEO & Co-Founder, Diversys

The entire Martyn Bassett team was easy to work with and we were able to quickly develop an open and transparent partnership. Leveraging their strong expertise and extensive talent network, they helped us find the technology sales leaders and management services experts we needed.

Erin McLean
SVP, Marketing & Human Resources, Herjavec Group

A true value-adding partner in identifying talent. The team at Martyn Bassett Associates were quick to zero-in on our requirements and rigorous in pre-qualifying candidates for consideration. They are focused and fast! Their expertise and experience added value throughout the process and resulted in an outstanding final outcome for Roadpost. This is a team that will strive to exceed expectations.

Kim Layne
VP Marketing, Roadpost