HVAC Recruitment Agency in Belgium

Archetype recruits sales, marketing and leadership profiles for HVAC manufacturers and distributors in Belgium: heating, ventilation, air conditioning, heat pumps and building controls. Our core business is sales, marketing and management profiles, which account for over 90% of our assignments. We work in French, Dutch and English, on a retainer, with an average of 12 weeks to hire and a 6-month replacement guarantee. Archetype has been recruiting since 1993.

An HVAC sales engineer and an installer next to heat pump units at a technical wholesaler — Since February 2019, Statbel has counted more permits for renovating residential buildings than for new residential buildings.

Why HVAC sales hires are hard to make in Belgium

HVAC sells much like other construction products, through specifiers, contractors and merchants, but the volume sits elsewhere. According to Statbel building permit statistics, permits for the renovation of residential buildings have again outnumbered permits for new residential buildings since February 2019. A large part of the market is likely to be replacement work in existing buildings, where the installer and the owner often choose the system and the architect may not be involved at all.

The people who can sell this are in short supply. Le Forem, the Walloon public employment service, lists the technical sales representative on its 2026 shortage list, with a level of tension it describes as low, citing a lack of product knowledge and experience, and notes that at least a third of people in the role are over 50.

What an HVAC salesperson has to master

An HVAC sales engineer works several channels at once. Installers want availability, training and quick answers on site. Wholesalers want stock that turns and margin they can defend. Consulting engineers want technical data and compliance with EPB rules before they write a product into a specification. Facility managers and large end users want lifetime cost and a service contract.

Hiring grid

HVAC sales channel, what the buyer looks at, profile to hire and KOAN competencies to check first

Channel	What the buyer looks at	Profile	KOAN priorities
Installers	Availability, training, support on site	Area Sales Manager	Responsiveness, Customer Orientation
Wholesalers	Stock rotation, margin, promotions	Key Account Manager	Results-Orientated Approach, Influencing Strategies
Consulting engineers, architects	Technical data, EPB compliance	Specification sales engineer	Methods, Communicating and Networking
Facility managers, large end users	Lifetime cost, service contracts	Business Developer	Perseverance, Influencing Strategies

Competencies taken from the ten in the KOAN Sales model, which we include in every candidate file.

We’re specialists: Sales, Marketing, Management. Not generalists. When a generalist agency recruits a Sales Director, they read the CV. We know the actual job: the real trade-offs between prospecting and farming, what it means to lead a distributed trilingual team across the Benelux, how to build a commercial strategy that holds in complex B2B. That field-level understanding is what separates a placement that lasts from one that breaks at 18 months.
The Archetype method, since 1993

Roles we fill

HVAC sales engineers and technical sales representatives
Area Sales Managers for installer networks, Key Account Managers for wholesale
Sales Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Directors
Marketing and Product Managers, Managing Directors and Country Managers

Installer networks run in Dutch in Flanders and French in Wallonia, so the language of the territory is part of the brief from day one.

Method, timing and fees

The first call fixes which channel the hire must win. You get a written proposal within 48 to 72 hours. We then run a five-step process: briefing, sourcing strategy, structured screening, detailed candidate presentation with scorecard, interview transcripts and a KOAN test, and follow-up before, during and after the hire. Allow 12 weeks on average from signed assignment to signed candidate. Fees are set before the assignment starts, in a written proposal, on a retainer basis: never a success fee. 6-month replacement guarantee.

About Archetype

Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 by Marc Diamant and now co-managed with Davy Diamant and Steve Diamant. A member of Federgon, it won Talent Business Innovation of the Year 2025 for its ethical and structured use of AI.

HVAC recruitment: common questions

How much does an HVAC sales hire cost?

Fees are set before the assignment starts, in a written proposal, on a retainer basis: never a success fee. 6-month replacement guarantee.

How long does it take to hire an HVAC sales engineer?

12 weeks on average, from signing the assignment to the candidate signing.

Do you recruit HVAC technicians, installers or design engineers?

No. We recruit sales, marketing and leadership roles only. For technical and installation roles, a technical recruitment specialist or a temporary staffing agency is the better choice.

Which languages do you recruit in?

French, Dutch and English: our recruitment team is trilingual.

What is the difference between an HVAC sales engineer and an area sales manager?

A sales engineer usually works upstream with consulting engineers and on technical projects. An area sales manager covers a territory of installers and merchants and is judged on volume.