How Smart Communications Created and Hired a Brand-New Chief Commercial Officer

Smart Communications Chief Commercial Officer Case Study

As Smart Communications evolved its commercial strategy, the business partnered with Oakstone International to design and appoint a brand-new Chief Commercial Officer role. The brief combined responsibility for commercial growth, customer outcomes, retention and long-term value creation into a single executive position. Despite the challenge of defining a new leadership profile and attracting an executive away from an active equity position, Oakstone secured a commercially minded operator with deep expertise across Professional Services and Customer Success, completing the search within 12 weeks and establishing a long-term global partnership.

Company Background

Search Background

The Challenge

Result

Hire Challenges

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Company Background

Smart Communications™ is the only provider of a customer conversation management platform. Built from the cloud up, we help enterprises deliver SMARTER conversations across the entire customer lifecycle – and at scale – and empower them to succeed in today’s digital-focused, customer-driven world while also simplifying processes and operating more efficiently.

• Founded in 1991 by Gary O’Brien

• HQ London, UK. Approx 400 employees

• Cloud-enabled customer communications management services (SaaS)

Search Background

• Hiring manager: CEO

• This was a brand-new role

• Looking for someone to come in and automate their entire customer journey

• Passion for delivering customer outcomes, success, and retention strategies

The Challenge

• As a brand-new role, there was little knowledge of the potential success of the role

• They needed someone who had professional services experience as well as the capability of customer success management at an executive level.

Result

• The successful candidate had first-hand experience in each of the key requirements from Smart Communications

• The hire had executive-level credibility with hands-on experience

• Hire time - 12 weeks

• Exclusive Retained agreement

Hire Challenge

• The successful candidate was in a very senior role at EMC and in the middle of an investment cycle when he was approached by Oakstone. Oakstone had to persuade him to walk away from his stock. Smart Communications were able to offer him a stock incentive when joining.

More about Oakstone and Smart Communications

• How can Oakstone support SaaS companies hiring commercial and customer success executives?

  Oakstone International specialises in executive hiring across revenue, customer success, professional services, and marketing roles, supporting SaaS organisations scaling globally and building retention-led growth models.

• What does a Chief Commercial Officer do in an enterprise SaaS company?

  A Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) is responsible for driving long-term commercial performance across the full customer lifecycle, including revenue growth, customer outcomes, retention, and strategic alignment between sales, services, and customer success.

I’m Hiring

Oakstone International are a specialised SaaS executive search and recruitment firm assisting companies globally. If you are looking for executive search assistance or would like to speak to a Divisional Director about future hiring assistance in EMEA, the US or APAC, contact Oakstone.

I’m Job Seeking

As a SaaS client-driven firm, we work exclusively for clients to find people with a specific set of skills and experience.

However, if you would like to submit your CV, it will be passed on to our divisional directors, and we will consider you for future roles that are appropriate to your background and goals.