The Starting Point

Blue Sense Digital came to us with a Growth Strategist role that wasn't going to be easy. They're an Australia performance agency with a sharp identity: proprietary forecasting and incrementality software (no spreadsheets), no more than 3 to 4 accounts per strategist (7-to-9-figure DTC brands), and a 6-week onboarding that covers everything from financial literacy to data science. The brief was tight: senior enough to hit the ground running on real P&L thinking, hungry enough to keep learning, and based in EMEA or Australia to cover the team's overlap, which is a non-negotiable. Not someone who'd outgrown coaching. Not someone with a fractional itch. The right person was rare.

‍

Our Solution

To attract applicants with the desired qualities, we at Prosana worked closely with our client to come up with selling points, requirements, and skills necessary for this position.

Selling Points

Only 3 to 4 accounts per strategist, with real depth instead of 12-account juggling
6-week onboarding covering financial literacy through to data science
Proprietary forecasting and incrementality software, no patched-together spreadsheets
Direct coaching from agency leaders who are still inside accounts themselves

‍

Requirements

3+ years owning DTC growth at agency or in-house
Hands-on with multi-hundred-K monthly ad spend, not €30-60k accounts
Comfortable with P&L thinking, MER, contribution margin, and incrementality
Based in EMEA or Australia, available from 2pm Melbourne onwards

‍

Skills We Looked For

Real ownership of meaningful spend, with results that survive scrutiny
Financial fluency beyond platform metrics
Builder mentality - operators who'd built their own tools counted double

‍

Our Winning Approach

Filtered for hunger and coachability, not just numbers

BSD's screening included questions like "what's your greatest professional weakness as a growth strategist?" for a reason. We screened candidates the same way. Operators with huge ad spend who only wanted leadership autonomy got cut. Smaller-spend candidates who clearly weren't going to keep learning got cut too. We needed the rare blend: real numbers and real room to grow.

Looked for tool-builders, not tool-users

Both eventual hires had the same tell. One had built an internal AI copywriting tool that was still in use at his old agency. The other had a portfolio of his own scaling stories backed by custom tracking infrastructure. People who build things tend to thrive in a place that values training and ownership over execution-as-a-service.

Key Insights That Helped Us Hire The Perfect Candidate

For agencies with a strong identity, finding alignment matters more than ticking the experience box. We screened candidates the same way the client did, and the shortlist landed exactly where it needed to.
High ad spend alone isn't a signal. We rejected candidates who'd managed huge budgets but couldn't talk contribution margin, or who wanted to run their own show instead of fitting a pod.
When a client tells you they're a training business, take it seriously. Some of the strongest candidates we presented had visible skill gaps that BSD's 6-week onboarding was specifically built to close. The right hire isn't always the most finished candidate.

‍