If sales and distribution is your thing, you might want to pay attention to what's going at
Highland [
[profile].
President
Brad Ross has been on a tear, engineering a
sales turnaround at the beginning of this year, which included
hiring 13 people in July and naming a new
marketing director in October.
Now, we're entering the next stage of Highland's sales blitz.
Ross and his colleagues plan to grow the firm's internal sales desk from its current eight people to around 20 a year from now.
Internal sales desk manager
Justin O'Brien is Ross' point man for growing Highland's internal team.
O'Brien says that Highland had no internal sales desk a year-and-a-half ago. The function then had been outsourced.
"Brad is working on a complete restart of Highland's distribution efforts. It has been a wild ride and exceeded all of our expectations," he said.
Just to find the eight current internals, O'Brien and his staff had to go through roughly 300 resumes and 150 interviews.
"We have devoted a lot of resources towards recruiting. It's been a rigorous recruiting process. We've spent a significant amount towards spreading the word that we have these positions open," he said.
Highland will also bring on by the end of the year two hybrid wholesalers devoted to RIAs. Another two or so people might be brought on next year if demand warrants it, O'Brien said. 
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