Successes—United States Surgical

Sonny Travland—Area Vice President, Western Area

Phoenix, Ariz.

“Our company doesn’t use any recruiter exclusively. HR gives us a long list of approved recruitment firms. We can also call recruiters not on the list. But when I have an opening, I always call David. He brings tremendous value to the hiring process and absolutely will not put a candidate in front of you who is not well-qualified. I simply cannot afford to waste time with candidates who won’t make the grade. Seven of my eight direct reports were DEC candidates—that’s 100 percent of my new hires.

“I’ve worked with a lot of recruiters over the past eight years—first as a hiring manager with Dentsply (International), later here at Autosuture. David and his team know exactly what we look for in a candidate in terms of intellect, skill set, prior tenure. He was a sales manager here in the ‘90s so he knows how challenging it is here, and how competitive the industry is.

“Our customers are surgeons and OR nurses. They can be pretty demanding customers with very high expectations.

“Recruiting quality personnel takes special talent. David Coad has it in abundance. It’s also hard work. Other recruiters leave the ‘grunt work’ to you: scheduling, dealing with HR, etc. Not David. He handles every detail. He earns his fee. I’ve been incredibly impressed. That’s why I use him exclusively, and absolutely recommend him to anyone looking to hire or make a move in this industry.

“I came in through DEC myself. It was clear David understood the company and the changes we’ve gone through. The sales organization has really developed into a talent-based sales operation. It’s not just people moving up from the ranks anymore. We vet everyone to the nth degree and even look outside the industry for talent, as in my case. Other recruiters focus on the checklist and are unable to connect the dots. David is more astute. He understood which of my skills were transferable.

“What impressed me was how brutally honest he was in terms of detailing the sacrifices required. He never sugarcoated the job to get me in and collect a fee.

“His approach is linear, realistic, matter of fact—a refreshing change from other recruiters. He tells it straight. ‘They will really test you,’ he said.

“Back in his day, less than half the new hires made it through training. Of course, they weren’t DEC candidates.”

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