Ben Watkins

Intrinsic Executive Search

Co-founded Intrinsic in 2006, to support B2B SaaS and tech firms by finding them new senior leaders and Senior Sales executives who drive growth. 

→ Assisting Hiring Managers in sourcing exceptional commercial talent, particularly in regions where they may have a limited network or need confidential replacements. 

→ Providing high-quality candidate shortlists within 3-4 weeks

→ Supporting clients who have tried advertising or contingency searches without success.

→ Closed more than 1,000 placements across 10+ European countries with a network of over 30,000 tech executives, in regions like the UKI, Germany/DACH, Nordics, Benelux, Spain and France.

→ Become a go-to headhunting partner for startups, scale-ups, turnaround, and corporates.

→ Expertise covers B2B software areas from Customer Experience, Business Analytics, Big Data, Compliance, ESG, Retail/CPG Software to Market Research, Open Source, Fraud/AML, and more.

SaaS Executive Recruiter

Salt - Previously Enigma Resources International

Hired to sell retained searches across new territories like Germany, France and  Benelux. 

→ Sourced and placed VP and Senior level Executives for B2B Tech firms.

→ Clients including FAST (Microsoft), Spotfire TIBCO, Human Inference, Lycos Europe, MicroStrategy, Watchfire, Vitria, Truition, FICO & Skype.

→ Grew revenue in mainland Europe from zero to 1 Million Euro +

Executive Recruiter Europe

eBay

FairMarket, Boston (NASDAQ - FAIM) Selling B2B and B2B2C, SaaS based Pricing Software into Travel, Telco, High-Tech and Manufacturing market spaces.   Acquired by eBay in 2003.

→ New Logos included: Mitel Networks, De Vere Hotels and Starwood Group Inc.

Senior Sales Executive

HALL KINION & ASSOCIATES INC

(NASDAQ - HAKI) Senior Recruiter, UK / Germany, France, Benelux, Nordics

→ Hall Kinion were one of the largest High-Tech Recruitment companies with 56 offices worldwide and a turnover of approximately $400 million.

→ Qualified for 3 x Club Trips, Won the Largest Company Deal and Top Recruiter in Europe Awards

→ Customers included: BroadVision, ATG, Commerceone, Ariba, Zygon, Interwoven, OpenMarket, JCP, Intershop, Misys

Headhunter, Enterprise Software

SaaS Recruiter / Helping SaaS firms hire senior talent from a network of 30k+ SaaS Execs

Are you struggling to hire great SaaS talent in Europe? Let’s change that.
► UK - Germany - Nordics - Benelux - France.
► A-Players from £90k to £250k base salaries.   
► CEO, CRO, COO, VP Sales, Director, Senior Sales, Marketing, Customer Success.
► Retained Executive Search.

FOR JOB SEEKERS:

► Receive CV feedback and a high-quality CV and LinkedIn Profile.  
► Check out my offers >>> bit.ly/executivesupport

SaaS Sales Executive Recruitment business.

We help SaaS firms attract and hire the Best Senior Commercial Talent into their businesses!  

UKI, DACH, NORDICS, BENELUX, FRANCE, USA

Intrinsic is a leading Global Boutique Enterprise Software Headhunting company which helps scale emerging High Growth Software / SaaS firms.

We cover Software areas such as Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Business Analytics, Big Data, Retail / CPG Software, Market Research, Surveys, Procurement, Open source, Fraud/AML, Integration, Trade & Risk Management, Content Management, Business Process Management and eCommerce market places

This VP Sales resigned.

No drama.

No negotiation.

Just a clear, calm email to the CEO:

“My decision is final.”

They tried 2 counter-offers.

Both rejected instantly.

And she explained why.

✅  People don’t leave just for money.
A counter-offer rarely fixes anything. Money motivates… but only to a point.

✅ You can’t suddenly “appreciate” someone once they resign.
If you wait they resign to show value, it's too late.

✅ Emotional resignation happens months before the real one.
By the time someone resigns, the hope has already disappeared.

✅ Careers must move forward.
Top performers need to see a path, and  progression, or they’ll find it elsewhere.

✅ Trust is everything.
Built slowly, lost instantly. 

Once it’s gone, the relationship is over.


The truth?

Great people leave quietly.

Average people stay loudly.

Top performers always have options.

Companies talk a lot about “talent being their biggest asset”…
…but only a few actually treat it that way.


🔥 Most learn the lesson only after the resignation hits their inbox.

Talks about #saas, #hiring, #germany, #cvwriting, and #recruiting

SaaS Recruiter / Helping SaaS firms fill tough commercial roles across Europe from a network of 40k+

"I can't hire him."  (Chief Revenue Officer)

"Why not?"  (Me)

"I asked him to introduce himself… 
he then talked AT me for 20 minutes!

He went on and on and on and on!

Telling me his whole life-story..

I couldn't get a word in!"


This happens a lot:

- A strong CV
- Great experience
- Amazing logos on the CV

But the candidate talks themselves out of a job in the interview.


Hiring managers want sharp, direct, not long, rambling answers.

With outcomes and value statements.



Here's what I tell candidates every day:

- Telling isn't selling
- Keep the conversation 2-way
- On video? Stand up, it boosts your energy
- Your intro pitch should be under 2 minutes
- Always finish your answer with a question back


And most important:

🔥 Good interviews feel like a conversation, not a lecture.

I’m honestly astounded.

I spoke with a brilliant female candidate last week.

A VP of Sales.

Smart. Experienced. Great track record.

But she was worried about adding a career break to her CV.

Why?

Because she had a child.

She asked me:

 “Should I hide it?”
 “Should I disguise it?”
 “Should I create a fake consulting role to fill the gap?”

And honestly… this mindset needs to stop.

A career break to have a baby isn’t a weakness.

It’s not a red flag.

It’s not something to be ashamed of.

It’s life.

Here’s the truth:

No hiring manager worth working for cares that you took time off to raise a child.

Nobody decent penalises it.

And the ones who do?

That’s your sign to run,  fast.

- Stop rewriting history.
- Stop masking gaps.
- Stop feeling the need to justify something completely normal.


🔥 Women have kids.  Get over it.

Yesterday I was in agony.

Tooth absolutely killing me. 

So I called the dentist surgery for an emergency appointment.

To find a dentist who could help me.

They first offered me dentist John, 55 years old.

With 30 years’ experience.

I declined. 

John had too much experience. 

I didn’t want someone who actually knows what they’re doing… right?

So they offered me Jane, a senior dentist. 

She also does tooth extractions.

I said no, she sounded overqualified for my needs.

I wouldn’t want a real expert touching my tooth…


Ridiculous?

Of course it is.

But this is exactly how some companies still treat job applicants.

- Too experienced.
- Overqualified.


Maybe we should stop rejecting the Johns and Janes of the world, 
because when you’re in pain, you want the best.

And the same goes for hiring doesn't it?

This week I spoke to a Sales Director who’d applied for 50 roles online.

Guess how many interviews he got?

None.

Zero.

Not a single one.

He was stressed, confused, and blaming the usual villains:

❌ ATS filters
❌ Algorithms
❌ Recruiters ignoring him
❌ “ChatGPT-optimised” CVs and cover letters

But the truth was simpler.

His CV and LinkedIn weren’t strong enough to survive a manual review…

And his approach to job-hunting was exactly what everyone else is doing.

So here’s what I told him 👇

✅ 1. Improve your CV and LinkedIn 

- They're the the FIRST impression
- Hiring managers check your LinkedIn. Then your CV.
- If those don’t hit hard in 10 seconds, nothing else matters.

We rebuilt the CV, metrics, clarity, narrative, impact.

Suddenly the profile looked like a SALES LEADER, not “just another applicant”.

✅ 2. Stop relying on online job adverts

Roughly 75% of roles are NOT filled through online job boards.

Most are filled through:

- networks
- referrals
- targeted outreach
- direct conversations
- headhunters

So I told him to ditch the 50 random applications…

And instead build a high-quality target list:

🎯 50–100 companies
🎯 5–10 cold or warm connections in each
🎯 Past customers, partners, competitors, VCs, private equity contacts

✅ 3. Don’t “apply”. Get noticed.

Instead of blasting out a CV to strangers, do this:

Send a short, sharp note to a real human:
“Hi X, I’ve been following your growth in Y.
If you ever look for someone who’s delivered A, B, C, happy to share more.


Not asking for a job. Just opening the door.”

That’s how candidates are getting:

✔ Replies
✔ Referrals
✔ Interviews
✔ Conversations
✔ Job offers

While everyone else is sitting in the online queue… quietly disappearing.


🔥 Moral of the story:

If you want different results, stop blending into the crowd.

Observe what the masses are doing…
And do the opposite.

Stop worrying about AI layoffs.

We’ve been here before.

In 2001, when dot-com burst, many said the tech industry was finished.

But then Salesforce was only just starting up in Europe.

- LinkedIn didn’t exist.
- Twitter didn’t exist.
- TikTok didn’t exist.
- Facebook didn’t exist.
- Instagram didn’t exist.
- YouTube didn’t exist.
- Netflix streaming didn’t exist.
- Spotify didn’t exist.
- Slack didn’t exist.
- The iPhone didn’t exist.

A new generation of tech firms was born:

Datadog, 2010
Stripe, 2010
Zoom, 2011
Miro, 2011
Snowflake, 2012
Canva, 2012
Databricks, 2013
Outreach, 2014
Gong, 2015
OpenAI,  2015
Notion, 2016
Rippling, 2016
Synthesia, 2017
Descript, 2017
Runway, 2018
Stability AI, 2020
Jasper, 2021
Anthropic, 2021

Every downturn sparks the next generation of innovation.

AI isn’t the end.
It’s the start of something bigger.

🌍 The tech world will be very different in 5, 10+ years’ time.

🚀 Many more companies, start-ups, and jobs will be created.


Tech always bounces back.

It’s what it does best.

Is AI helping jobseekers… or making it harder to get hired?

Consider this:

It's never been easier to create a CV.

ChatGPT can rewrite your CV in seconds

Personalse it to any role, and produce a cover letter.

In any language.

And then applying to a job online?

- One click.
- Done.

But here’s the issue…

>> Despite all this tech, so many SaaS leaders and sellers are finding it harder than ever to get interviews.

Dozens of applications.

- Zero traction.
- Silence.

So what’s going on?


My opinion:

- AI can write your CV
- ATS can store your CV 

But neither can get you in front of a human.

The jobseekers who are winning in 2025 are doing something very different:

They prioritise human-to-human time.

- Not blasting applications.
- Not fighting algorithms.
- Not hoping tech magically opens doors.

They’re speaking directly with Founders, CROs, VPs, investors.

They’re building relationships.

They’re creating conversations.


Because in a world overflowing with automation and AI-generated everything…


🔥 Being HUMAN, real, and non-fake is the new superpower.

Looking for a Senior Sales Exec, Nordics.  First person in region.

To join a US scale-up. PE-backed. SaaS solutions for office of the CFO.

AI-enhanced solutions around Expense, Spend Management, Analytics.

750 employees WW.  80 in Europe.

Remote role, open on location in the Nordics.

* To begin, this is an INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR role

Hunting and managing new logo deals.

Must like start-up / scrappy environments. 

This isn't IBM.

The role may get bigger over time as the region scales.

Package open.. six figure fixed (euro) plus commission.


👇 Video job spec in the comments.

Hit me with any names or interest.

Can be located ideally in Sweden, open to other countries.

PS - This would really suit an strong enterprise seller looking to build something in the Nordics.

I can't believe I heard this today.

A Sales Director told me they were advised to delete any experience over 10 years old…

Because it “makes them sound too old.”

Really?

Delete part of your story?

See my example below.

Why would anyone remove their credible Accenture experience?

That’s part of what makes them who they are today.

People aren’t stupid.

If someone really wants to work out your age, they can.
 
But what matters is your journey, where you came from, what you learned, 
how you grew.

Your personal career story.

As a recruiter, I want to see the full story.

That’s how I understand the person behind the CV.

Experience isn’t something to hide, it’s something to own.


What do you think, should people really delete older roles to “sound younger”?


🔥 No one remembers a boring CV, but everyone remembers a story.

Here's the real reason A Player, SaaS sellers switch companies.

Not cash.

Not perks.

Not remote Fridays.


It’s this:

They don’t want to sell old tech.

Simple as that.

SaaS sellers want modern products.

Products that move.

Products buyers actually want.

That’s why so many are jumping into AI and AI-related platforms.
 
Because staying with legacy software feels like standing still.

We saw the same thing around 2000.
 
Everyone ran toward e-commerce.

Old-school companies suddenly looked… outdated.

Same pattern today.
 
New tech attracts top talent.


🔥 Is product relevance now the biggest driver behind SaaS career moves?

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