Marc Sumner on hiring trends: H1 was a period of leadership reshuffle, H2 will see new changes

The channel recruiter expert reflects on trends in H1 and predicts the dynamics of the second half of 2024

Hiring new sales and marketing teams to revamp channel partner go-to-market will be on the rise in the second half of 2024.

That is according to Marc Sumner (pictured), CEO of IT channel recruitment firm Robertson Sumner, who believes the major leadership changes seen in H1 will now start to shape the direction of those businesses in H2.

So far in 2024 the channel has seen Bytes and Six Degrees shake things up dramatically with new CEOs.

Channel veterans Hayley Mooney and Miriam Murphy both packed in their roles for a return to former businesses.

While the likes of Version1 and Node4 have welcomed new faces.

Reflecting on the first half of the year, Sumner dubbed it a "period of leadership reshuffle."

"There were a lot of CEOs, private equity firms and VCs looking at their current incumbents and trying to get a new CRO in, or a CEO into the business," he tells CRN.

"There were loads and loads of leadership changes. In fact, I placed more leaders in the last six months than I had in the last two years."

Sumner explains this game of leadership musical chairs is down to a difficult 2023, leading companies to try and breathe new life into their businesses.

"And why is that? I see it happening on the back of a tough 2023. The numbers weren't there. Partners looked at their current incumbent and thought, ‘I need to make a change'. That caused a reshuffle within the whole market of people getting new leaders in."

What will happen in H2?

"Now, that's been done, and I think in H2 you will see a reshuffle of sales and marketing people," Sumner states.

"The new leaders that are in place will be bringing over sales managers, account directors, and new marketing people from their old organisations, picking the good people and leaving the bad people."

When new leadership enters a company, they tend to want new people and a new go-to-market, leading to sales and marketing talent as the first they look at to change the dynamic of the organisation, Sumner says.

"They'll look at the current go-to-market and how they're engaging with customers, and they might want to change that.

"And of course, they may look at the existing sales staff, and if they're on a PIP or they're not performing, they might get rid of them and bring their own people in."

This, he says, will lead to a fight between the Top 100 VARs and even distributors of snapping up the best talent from competitors.

"There's going to be lots of new managers and new teams facing change, but I wouldn't call it an expansion. It's a reshuffle.

"There were a lot of leaders culled in H1. What you'll see now is talent in H2 being potentially let go, and loads of new people coming in - new managers, new account directors, new marketeers, etc.

"So I expect we're going to see a merry-go-round of changes until December, and then we'll return to an expansion of future growth either in the backend of H2, or in H1 next year."

People power

After a difficult few quarters, Sumner says resellers are now turning to staff in a bid to return to growth.

"Resellers haven't had great quarters, but there's a real appetite and optimism to invest in talent to drive change.

"Change will only happen if you change people. The Top 100 VARs aren't going to change the services they're offering. They've got to change some of the people and how they go to market. And the only way they can do that is getting new people in."

However, leadership changes can often result in changes to staff turnover. Sumner warns of this double edged sword.

"When leaders go, the people that liked them either leave or follow them.

"But at the same time, when a new leader comes in, the people who are on PIPs are culled.

"It's almost a double edged sword for companies. There's no stability."

The tech talent shortage

But what does all this mean in the context of the tech talent shortage?

In February Sumner stated the industry-wide problem was likely to persist.

However, now the Robertson Sumner CEO has changed his tune.

"It's lightening up.

"What happened was there were more jobs being created than there were applicants.

"I think this churn is good for the industry because there's available talent that wouldn't have been available before."

He adds this churn will be able to benefit smaller partners in particular, who will be able to pick up the talent that's been let go.