Personal branding · C-suite and senior leaders
The leaders you headhunt yourself are the ones who look you up first.
For a CHRO this is your own standing, separate from the company's careers page: what a senior candidate you are courting, a director asking about attrition and a search consultant building a longlist find when they look you up.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
For a CHRO this is your own standing, separate from the company's careers page: what a senior candidate you are courting, a director asking about attrition and a search consultant building a longlist find when they look you up. GullySales builds it from an interview with you, in your words.
Also written for
CHRO, Chief people officer, Chief human resources officer, People head.
Where this sits
For CHROs and HR leaders
Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.
“The hires that matter most are never advertised”
A vice president worth taking is not reading job posts. You call them, and before they return the call they read you, because you are the reason they would leave somewhere comfortable. There is no careers page for a role that was never posted.
“The board asks about attrition before it asks about your plan”
Directors and investors want to know who is leaving, who is irreplaceable and what the succession list looks like. A CHRO who has never explained that kind of thing in writing does it for the first time in the meeting itself.
“You are asked to fix employer brand with no voice of your own”
The brief lands on your desk every year. Meanwhile the function's credibility rests on a person whose own profile says nothing beyond a job title and a joining date.
“The HR circle is small and it moves by reputation”
Heads of HR across one city and one industry know each other, compare notes and pass roles along. Being in that conversation is what makes your next move a phone call rather than an application.
What we do
What we deliver for CHROs and HR leaders.
Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.
A profile that reads as an operator
The headcount and locations you cover, the systems you have implemented, the restructures you have run. Written so it never sounds like a coordinator's job description.
Result: A candidate or a peer understands the weight of your role without asking.
One interview, usually between hiring cycles
An hour on a policy you reversed, a role you could not fill for eight months, or what the last appraisal round taught you.
Result: Writing about how work really happens in your company rather than what the handbook says.
Something for the person you are about to call
What a senior candidate wants before returning the call: how decisions actually get taken here, what happened to the last person in that seat, and the one thing you will not promise them. Written once, sent by you.
Result: The second conversation starts at the offer rather than at the reassurance.
Kept current where executive search looks
Search consultants build longlists from what they can find and from who other heads of HR name. Your profile, your record and the roles you are open to hearing about stay accurate, including in the years you are not moving.
Result: The call about the next role comes to you rather than about you.
A clear line between you and the company's employer brand
This work covers your presence. The careers page, the job posts and what current employees say are a separate programme, and we will tell you which one your problem actually is.
Result: Money goes where the gap is instead of where the job title suggests.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries that name you or came through your profile
- Searches for your name, from Search Console
- Profile views and connection requests from your industry
- Speaking invitations, press enquiries and podcast requests
- Posts published against posts planned, and what held up the rest
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the work runs for CHROs and HR leaders
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Work out whether this is even your bottleneck
The first conversation covers how enquiries reach you today. If the company's own site is the weaker link, that comes first, and we say so.
- 2
Search your own name with you
We look at what a buyer sees today: every profile, old listing and photograph. Some of it you will want taken down, and some of it only you can take down.
- 3
Agree what you will and will not say
The subjects you know cold, the ones that belong to your clients, and the lines your regulator or association draws. Written down before anything is published.
- 4
Rebuild the profiles
The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.
- 5
The routine
Interview, drafts, your approval, publication. The interview is the only part that needs you, and it is the part that cannot be skipped.
- 6
Hand it over
The subject list, the drafting notes and the calendar are yours. If you would rather keep it running yourself, that is a fair outcome.
Before you hire anyone
The first thing to do yourself.
It costs nothing, and it shows what a buyer sees before they ever call you.
- Search your own name and your practice or business name in a private browser window, and list the first ten results.
- Open your profile on each major platform and check that the name, photo, description and contact details agree.
- Ask two people who recently chose you what they looked up first, and write down their answers.
Judge any provider
What to ask any agency or ghost-writer.
Useful whoever you choose, including us.
- Who writes my words, and do I approve everything before it goes out?
- Which of my own details and claims will you need to check with me before publishing?
- What will you not write because of the rules my profession follows?
- Whose account do the profiles and the content sit in, and what happens to them if we stop?
- What do you count as a result, and what will you not promise?
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Do you recruit? We need people more than we need posts.
The CEO is the public face here. Should I be visible at all?
I sit in interviews all day. When would this happen?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
C-suite and senior leaders
Personal branding for the rest of the c-suite and senior leaders.
- Board members and independent directors
- Business heads, country heads and regional heads
- CEOs and managing directors
- CFOs and finance heads
- Chief product officers and product leaders
- Chief revenue officers and sales heads
- Chief strategy officers
- CIOs and IT leaders
- CMOs and marketing heads
- COOs and operations heads
- CTOs and engineering leaders
- Defence veterans and retired officers
- Retired senior government and public-sector officers
- Vice presidents and senior vice presidents
Or start from personal branding.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.