Chris Relth is a seasoned professional with 19 years of experience in the talent industry, recognized as a thought leader and an agent of change. He is the Founder and CEO of Artemis, a specialized staffing and executive search organization, where he brings a tenacious approach to concierge-style permanent search and staffing services. Additionally, Chris is a Managing Partner for Artemis United, a DVBE-certified joint venture that works with the state, fed, and clients to help meet their vendor diversity needs. Artemis United only hires military veterans internally to help with their transition to the civilian workforce.

Chris' leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment is critical to the success of his team, and ultimately leads to successful outcomes for his clients. His company is dedicated to the satisfaction of its team members and is committed to contributing to positive, long-lasting impact through the promotion of happier, healthier workforces.

A Bay Area native, Chris holds a degree from Chico State University and has been a resident of Orange County for over a decade, where he currently resides in Ladera Ranch, CA. In his free time, Chris channels his energy into philanthropic pursuits as a partner of Miracles for Kids and sits on various boards. He is also a youth football and baseball coach and is heavily involved in fitness.

Chris Relth

A salesperson said they were a "prospecting machine"
But when I asked about their process...
Crickets.



Last week, I was interviewing candidates for a sales role. I needed a hunter.

One particular salesperson had an impressive resume. 

The right companies and the right numbers.

But when I asked about their approach, they gave generic answers.

Even after digging deeper, asking about their actual process, specific techniques, sequences for outreach, follow-up cadence... still... silence.

When you're hiring for a hunting role, you need to test real methodologies.

Here are the specific questions I've learned to ask:

> What prospecting techniques have you found most successful and why?
> What are the expected pull-through numbers you look at and the ROI?
> How do you research prospects before reaching out?
> Describe your follow-up process when someone doesn't respond
> How do you handle rejection and maintain consistency?

The best hunters can and will walk you through their entire system.

They know their numbers.
They understand timing.
They have a process they follow religiously.

Don't just ask what someone's done in your interview process. Ask them to show you how they do it again and again.

What's the best interview question you use to separate the hunters from the chancers?

At least 30% of promoted top performers 
End up going back to individual contributors 
But why does it happen? 



It’s rarely because they failed.
It’s because the job they loved suddenly became one they didn’t recognize.

As a top rep, you can blow past quotas,
Without even thinking about KPIs, reporting, or corporate bureaucracy.

It’s instinct at that point.

But leadership is an entirely different game.

Suddenly you're dealing with:

> Managing people who can't do what came naturally to you
> Endless reporting and administrative tasks
> Two team members making more money than you (despite your bigger base)

They start to make you question why you ever left the field.

That’s when burnout kicks in, and the best producers quietly ask to go back to selling.

The reality is simple: 

Being great at sales doesn't automatically make you great at leading salespeople.

Here's what I look for when identifying top performers built for leadership:

Do they help others without being asked?
Do they already mentor teammates informally?
Do they have patience for someone who’s still learning what came naturally to them?

If the answer is no, you might be doing them a favor by keeping them in an IC role.
Where they can excel and earn more without the management headaches.

Some of the highest earners I know never moved into management. 
They stayed focused on what they do best.

And you know what?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that path.
Leadership isn’t the only way to grow.

And we should normalize that.

Every client I hire for… 
I ask for their top 5 competitors. 
And they always push back

Every client I hire for, I ask for their top 5 competitors. 

To map the market and spot potential in the wild. The vast majority push back with an objection.

"We'll never get someone from [X]. They pay too well."

"Their people are too loyal."

"It's impossible."

Think about this. The most common response is "we can't do it."

Why?

Because most assume their competitors' top performers are happy. 

Without evidence. Maybe it's branding, PR, or the regard in which they hold the business.

But many of these people are fighting limited growth, outdated products or leadership they can't stand.

Instead, they ask me to search for generic "software sales experience." Like selling enterprise accounting software is the same as selling cybersecurity tools. It’s not.

Just last month, my client insisted we avoid their main competitor. Three weeks into the search, generic candidates filled the pipeline.

None of the candidates understood the market and training would be too long.

I finally convinced them to let me target their competitor.

Within a week, our headhunters found someone who:

1. Knew their products inside out
2. Been selling to same clients
3. Could hit the ground running, day one.

Fast forward six months. They're the top performer and won their biggest deal of the year.

If you want A-players and immediate impact, think strategically about your top 5 competitors.

That's where your next star salesperson is probably sitting.

“Partnering provides a way for companies to secure needed capabilities fast and effectively while dropping their cost structure... providing access to needed expertise that has already been mastered.”
— W. Chan Kim, Blue Ocean Strategy

I help high-growth companies hire (top 10%) RevOps, GTM, and Business Systems experts the ones who scale revenue functions, modernize CRM stacks (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.), and build scalable cross-department processes without the usual hiring headaches.

As Founder of Blue Ocean Group, I partner directly with CROs, RevOps leaders, BizSys Directors, and hiring managers to source, engage, and place high-impact talent. I focus on passive, proven performers who align with your workflows, culture, and growth stage; delivering lean, fast, high-signal introductions only.

Key roles I specialize in:
• GTM & Sales Leadership: Enterprise/Strategic Account Executives, AE Managers, Sales Directors, GTM Leaders
• Revenue & GTM Systems: Salesforce Admins/Architects, HubSpot/Marketo Ops Specialists
• Strategic Ops: RevOps Managers/Directors, GTM Analysts, Revenue Architects
• Leadership: Business Systems Directors, Salesforce Practice Leads, RevOps Heads/VPs

I work across SaaS, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and beyond wherever strong operations and scalable systems drive success.

My approach: Hands-on, data-driven, relationship-first. No volume resumes just intentional matches, whether full-time, in-house, or remote.

Actively hiring or building a backup plan? Let's talk confidentially.

📨 Email: James@BlueOcean-Group.com
📞 Phone: 657-294-7816

James Hickey

I've placed RevOps and GTM candidates across dozens of companies, I keep seeing the same pattern in the candidates who get the offer and earn executive trust once they're in the seat.

They don't bring problems. They bring decisions.

Every GTM org has the same issues. Broken pipeline visibility. A forecast nobody trusts. Lead routing that misfires. Sales and Marketing using different definitions of everything.

Anyone can walk into a room and say "this is broken."

That's not what gets you hired. And it's not what gets you a seat at the table.

What I see executives respond to every single time is the candidate who says:

"Here's the problem I'm seeing, here's the business impact, I've thought through three ways to solve it, and here's the one I'd recommend and why."

That's the brief. And it's the difference between the people who get passed on and the people who get hired or promoted.

If you're in RevOps or GTM, this is the skill that matters more than your tech stack. More than your Salesforce certifications. More than your years of experience.

Executives don't need more visibility into what's broken.

They need people who help them decide what to do next.

U.S. RevOps, GTM & Business Systems Headhunter | Salesforce

IBM just admitted they were wrong about AI taking jobs.
If you're early in your career, this might be the best news you've heard all year.

In May 2023, IBM's CEO told Bloomberg they were replacing 7,800 jobs with AI. Hiring freezes. Back-office cuts. "30% of non-customer-facing roles will be automated."

Fast forward to February 2026.

IBM just announced they're tripling entry-level hiring. Software engineers. Marketers. HR.

So what changed?

Their CHRO explained it clearly: Junior developers used to spend 30–40 hours a week writing code. Now AI handles the repetitive stuff.
So those entry-level roles didn't disappear. They evolved.

Instead of writing code all day, junior employees now work with clients, support product launches, and drive real business impact.

Here's what companies are quietly learning:

If you cut junior talent today, you won't have mid-level talent in three years. You can't just hire experience from the outside. You have to grow people inside your culture, your systems, your way of thinking. That pipeline doesn't replace itself.

Right now, unemployment for college grads sits at 5.8% the highest in a decade outside the pandemic.

And yet IBM says they need entry-level workers more than ever.
So is this the beginning of the end of the AI replacement narrative? Maybe. But here's what I know for certain:

According to LinkedIn, AI literacy is the fastest growing career skill right now. Not AI replacing humans. AI literacy.

If you're early in your career, that's your signal.

Learn to work with AI. Learn to prompt it. Learn to integrate it.
Because AI isn't coming for your job. But the people who know how to use it? They are.

Are junior roles disappearing at your company, or are they just changing shape?

Tech companies are blaming AI for layoffs.
The CEO of OpenAI just said that's partly a cover story.

Block. Amazon. Salesforce. Hundreds of companies cutting thousands of roles and the headline is always the same: "AI is replacing this work."

But Sam Altman told CNBC last month: "there's some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs they would otherwise do."

The guy building ChatGPT is telling you it's a narrative.

Here's what RevOps and GTM leaders actually know:
AI doesn't replace revenue teams. It exposes broken ones.
When AI agents fail inside a sales org, it's almost never an AI problem. It's a data problem.

- CRM nobody trusts 
- Pipeline stages that mean different things to every rep 
- Attribution models built on guesswork 
- Forecasting that's more gut feel than science

AI runs on data quality. And most GTM orgs haven't fixed the plumbing.

The companies winning right now aren't the ones with the best AI demo. 

They're the ones who invested in clean systems, clear process, and a RevOps function that actually owns the revenue engine.

AI doesn't make RevOps less important. It makes RevOps the thing that determines whether AI works at all.

If your GTM systems aren't ready, AI doesn't solve your problem. It amplifies it.

If you're a founder or executive who knows your revenue systems need to be AI-ready before the next phase of growth, let's talk.

I help GTM and RevOps teams build the foundation that makes AI actually work. Drop me a message or comment below.

Short-term Salesforce Marketing Cloud contract opportunity that could be interesting for someone who enjoys greenfield builds.

A client recently purchased Marketing Cloud Engagement and needs a consultant who can help stand up the foundation the right way.

This is not a “come tweak a few journeys” type of role. They need someone who can own the implementation from discovery through delivery.

Scope will likely include things like:
 • Discovery with marketing and business stakeholders
 • Defining the initial data model and contact strategy
 • Setting up core architecture inside Marketing Cloud Engagement
 • Building the first automation and journey framework
 • Advising the team on best practices so they avoid the common mistakes companies make in early implementations

Details:
 $90/hr (some flexibility depending on experience)
 1099 contract
  No C2C and no third parties

Timeline is flexible depending on availability:
 Option 1: ~2.5 months at ~20 hours per week
 Option 2: shorter engagement if someone can commit closer to 40 hours per week

Ideal background:
 • Salesforce Partner or consulting experience
 • SFMC certified
 • Comfortable running discovery and owning delivery
 • Able to translate business requirements into scalable architecture

If you’ve led Marketing Cloud implementations before and enjoy building things from scratch, this could be a good fit.

If it sounds interesting, shoot me a message.

Most companies are still hiring RevOps analysts to fix the reporting. The smart ones are hiring GTM Engineers to fix the revenue.

GTM Engineering is the most important role in revenue right now. And most hiring managers don't know how to find one, evaluate one, or structure the role.

Let me fix that.

What a GTM Engineer actually does Not dashboards. Not strategy docs. Not "alignment." They build the infrastructure that generates pipeline. 

Automated outbound systems. Data enrichment pipelines. AI-powered qualification. Deal desk automation tied to real signals.

RevOps owns the reporting layer. GTM Engineers build the engine underneath it.

Where they sit in the org Still contested and that's a signal the role is maturing fast. 
I'm seeing them report into:
- RevOps at Series B–D scale-ups 
- Growth / Demand Gen at PLG companies 
- Engineering at highly technical orgs 
- Directly to the CRO at high-velocity outbound shops

No standard home yet. Which means if you're building this function, structure matters more than title.

What to look for when hiring one

Technical:
Python or JavaScript
APIs & webhooks
Data pipelines & automation
SQL / data warehouses

GTM Stack:
Salesforce or HubSpot (CRM foundation)
Clay (data enrichment & lead intelligence)
Apollo / Outreach / Instantly (sales engagement)
n8n or Make (workflow orchestration)
Snowflake + dbt (data warehouse & modeling)
Hightouch (reverse ETL — syncing warehouse data back into CRM)
ZoomInfo or Clearbit (intent data & enrichment)
Gong (conversation intelligence)

The best ones think like marketers, build like engineers, and care about pipeline like a rep on quota. That combination is rare. Most candidates are strong in one, weak in two.

There's no degree for this. No standardised interview process. No agreed job spec. The role is so new that most JDs I see are either underselling it or asking for a unicorn with no idea what they'd actually do with one.

The companies getting it right are moving faster than their competitors. The ones getting it wrong are burning time, budget, and good candidates.

If you're a founder, CRO, or RevOps leader building out this function or trying to figure out if you should be DM me.

The asshole tax is real. And it's expensive.
The best RevOps and GTM operators have options. So when they're deciding where to work, they're running a simple calculation:

Is the comp worth the chaos?

I've seen founders hemorrhage money on senior hires overpaying by 30-40% not because the candidate had more leverage, but because word gets around about what it's like inside the org.

There's a scale in every company. Money on one side. Leadership on the other. When leadership is broken, you compensate with cash. Every time.

Flip the org chart. Your job as a CEO isn't to sit at the top it's to sit at the bottom and remove friction for the people actually building pipeline and running your revenue systems.

Do that well, and you stop paying the tax.

The best candidates start finding you.

If they don't call me.

The most expensive VP RevOps hire isn't the one who fails.
It's the one who succeeds at the last job they had.

The Pattern: A founder, CRO, or CFO hires someone with an impressive background. The interviews go well. The references check out. Six months in, something feels off. The function is running, but it's not moving the business.

The hire isn't incompetent. They're just solving the wrong problems.

They built a world-class forecasting model for a high-velocity SMB motion. You're running enterprise with 9-month sales cycles. They optimized territory design and coverage for a team of 80 reps. You have 12. They scaled a PLG rev engine beautifully your business is entirely sales-led.
The resume looked like a match. The experience was real. But the context was completely different.

Why this happens:

The standard VP RevOps interview process is almost perfectly designed to surface past performance, not future fit.

You ask about what they've built. They tell a compelling story. You check that it maps to your stage and size, roughly. You hire.

But "roughly" is where the mis-hire lives.

VP RevOps is one of the most context-dependent roles in the entire GTM org. The right person for a $10M ARR company scaling to $50M looks almost nothing like the right person for a $100M business optimizing for efficiency. The right hire for a product-led motion is a different animal than the right hire for a channel-heavy enterprise sale.

A candidate who can articulate what they've done brilliantly isn't the same as a candidate who can diagnose what you actually need and tell you honestly whether that's them.

What the right hire actually looks like:

They ask better questions than you do in the interview. They push back on your assumptions about where the revenue problem actually lives. They tell you what they won't be good at in your specific context not because they're underselling themselves, but because they understand the role well enough to know the difference.

They've done the work to understand your GTM motion before they walk in. They're not mapping your business to their last one. They're thinking about yours on its own terms.

That candidate exists. They're just rarely the one who shows up loudest in a standard search.

The inconvenient reality:

Most searches for this role optimize for pattern recognition find someone who's done it before at a similar stage. That's not wrong, but it's incomplete. Stage match without motion match, team match, and problem match is how you end up with someone who runs a clean operation that doesn't move your number.

The searches that get it right start with a different question.
Not "who has done this before?" But "what does this company specifically need and who is actually built for that?"

I specialize exclusively in RevOps and GTM hiring. If you're stepping into this search and want a second opinion on what the role should actually look like for your stage and motion let's talk.

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