Interview with Pearce Doorley: connecting businesses and sales professionals in Ireland

We are pleased to welcome our own Pearce Doorley back to Dublin after more than six years leading our marketing and sales recruitment services in Australia and Asia.

With over 15 years of recruitment experience, Pearce now leads our marketing, sales, and business development recruitment for Ireland.

We sat down with him to hear more about his career, how he helps businesses and sales professionals in Ireland, why he loves Dublin and what the future looks like for the Irish market.

How do you help businesses in Ireland?

Most organisations sell a product or service. They might do this directly or indirectly, but most rely on a sales team to bring revenue into the organisation. Sales is a complex industry; being able to sell one solution does not necessarily mean you can sell a different one to a new client in a new industry or sector.

Sales recruitment is tough and it’s challenging for companies to find and hire the right talent to represent their organisation. These candidates are the face of the business, so it is important to get it right.

I help businesses in Ireland find the best talent in the market for their organisation. This ranges from Business Development Managers, Account Managers and Sales Directors to Customer Success, Sales Hunters, Farmers, Growth Managers – the list goes on.

Previous industry and sector experience is important for a successful sales hire but it also involves finding someone who can:

• Use the right soft skills
• Fit with/add to the team and company’s culture
• Be the organisation’s face in the market
• Use their networking skills
• Embrace a target-driven approach
• Maintain attention to detail
• Be fearless to go out and win new business or retain existing business

With over 15 years of sales recruitment experience, I help organisations find professionals that combine all of these skills to ultimately grow revenue.

How do you help sales professionals in Ireland?

I believe I have a very strong understanding of salespeople – what motivates them, what core skills they have – and I am able to translate that into finding them the right industry, sector, role and company to build their sales careers.

Sales candidates are generally pretty confident and outgoing individuals. They tend to do well at interview stage but a lot of them end up taking the wrong roles.

They can often be tempted by job titles, big brands, salaries and other benefits. While all of these are important, finding the right product or solution to sell for the right company are the most important aspects of the job search. Sales professionals will be talking about these solutions day in day out, so they need to find them genuinely interesting and avoid being drawn in by the biggest salary.

I work with sales professionals to find them the right role, company, product/solution and team to play to their strengths and progress their careers.

How did you get into recruitment? Why do you enjoy your job?

Before my recruitment career, I was in financial sales. I had some friends who worked in recruitment – they were always telling me about their job. It just sounded interesting!

I took a career break to go travelling and when I returned, I visited some recruitment agencies for financial sales roles and ended up asking them if they were hiring!

Recruitment is the perfect mix for me; it has a sales component, it’s about relationship building and generally what you put in you get out. It’s also target-driven which suits me. But overall it is fun – I spend my days chatting to people about what roles they want and then I help them get those roles!

What makes your services unique from other recruiters?

I’m good at helping organisations get the people they want to hire. Clients keep coming back to me because I understand their business and the type of candidates they want. I don’t waste their time by sending them the wrong people. I only send them people I believe they will hire! From day one of working in recruitment I just understood what type of candidate would do well in different sales roles.

And I love talking to salespeople! I actually enjoy every conversation; they make me laugh every day. I have been doing this a long time, so I have a deep understanding of the different types of roles and which candidates suit these roles.

Why do you love living in Dublin?

Dublin is mad! It’s everything: it’s the culture, the people, the way we do things, the size of it, the pubs and restaurants and just the craic. I spent nearly seven years in Sydney and it was amazing; the weather is great and I lived by the beach, but like many people I came back to Ireland because after a while you realise you miss the culture, the fun and the people in Ireland. I am frozen though!

What are the greatest challenges and opportunities for businesses in Ireland throughout 2025?

I think Ireland will continue to buck the trend in Europe and maintain a strong performing market. The domestic market will continue to grow and we will continue to see Irish companies expand into Europe.

Unfortunately, housing and cost of living are probably still going to be hot topics over the next 12 months – especially housing as this is making it difficult for top talent to relocate to Ireland.

The new Trump administration is very keen to bring jobs back to the US. While I don’t see us losing any roles, there may be a slight slowdown on new hires from US organisations for a short period of time.

Overall, I believe European markets will see increased growth with Irish companies well placed to take advantage of these markets.

And for sales professionals?

Good sales professionals are always in demand!

I would advise anybody who is looking for new opportunities to sit down and have a good think about what interests them, what solutions they want to sell and who they want to sell to.

Being a specialist in a particular field is very important. Organisations are always keen to bring in people who understand their industry and have either sold similar solutions or have sold into similar clients. Being a specialist will showcase their specific talents and ensure they get the package their experience deserves.

Be sure to get in touch today if you’d like to discuss your career or hiring needs.