Ideal Heating
Recruiting BDMs for the UK's leading heating manufacturer across a market where the best candidates rarely apply for jobs.
Client Overview
Ideal Heating is one of the UK's longest-established heating manufacturers, supplying gas boilers, air source heat pumps, hybrid heating systems and smart controls to the domestic and commercial market. Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Hull, their products reach end users through two primary routes — the installer market and the plumbing and heating merchant channel. Both routes require a dedicated field sales force with deep sector relationships, strong technical credibility and the commercial ability to manage complex multi-stakeholder accounts.
The Brief
Sales Recruit UK has worked with Ideal Heating across multiple searches over six years, placing Business Development Managers, a Training Manager and trainers within their installer training programme. The BDM briefs centred on territory coverage roles responsible for managing and growing relationships with the installer community and the plumbing and heating merchant network — the two channels through which Ideal's products reach market.
The Challenge
The plumbing and heating sales market is one of the most closed in the construction products sector. The candidate pool is small, most of the best people have been in their roles for years, and few are actively looking. Attractive candidates do not apply for jobs on the open market. Added complexity came from the dual-market nature of the role — a BDM who is strong with installers but weak at merchant account management is only half the candidate. Cultural fit compounded the challenge further: Ideal is a business with genuine energy and ambition, expanding aggressively into heat pumps and investing heavily in training. Candidates with the right sector experience but the wrong appetite would underperform inside that environment
What Sales Recruit UK Did
Each Ideal search began with a proper commercial brief — not a job specification, but a conversation about the territory, the account mix, the merchant relationships that needed protecting and the installer segments where growth was most achievable. Candidates were identified through direct market mapping within the plumbing and heating sector, drawing on Sales Recruit UK's existing network of contacts at manufacturers, merchants and within the installer-facing sales community. The SRUK Fit Score process evaluated each candidate across six dimensions — sector knowledge, route-to-market alignment, commercial track record, behavioural profile, cultural fit and motivation. For Ideal searches, the route-to-market dimension was weighted heavily.
The Outcome
Sales Recruit UK has placed multiple candidates into Ideal Heating across six years of ongoing work. The majority of those placed have remained with the business for extended periods and progressed their careers within the organisation. Ideal's continued return across multiple searches and multiple role types is the clearest measure of a placement process that works.