How to Find the Right Interim Executive to Fill a Key Interim Role

How does a company find the right interim executive to fill a key interim role in sales or marketing?

There are a variety of elements needed in selecting the right candidates for interim sales or marketing roles. Certainly experience in the industry is a plus and having experience in the specific horizontals is valuable, however what stands out in selecting the right person are the characteristics that make up an ‘ideal’ Sales Executive or Marketing Executive.

We have spent several years and invested lots of money in determining the ideal characteristics of these key executives. Dr. Tami Hoogestraat, Psychologist, and I have modeled the characteristics of the top eight key roles (CEO, CFO, CMO, CSO, COO, CTO, Customer Service & HR) in organizations. We surveyed a large number of CEOs, Presidents and owners of businesses in small, medium and large companies and in a variety of industries. Our findings reveal that the characteristics needed for these roles are highly consistent, regardless of geography, industry or size of organization.

The executive in charge of marketing is somewhat different from the characteristics of the executive in charge of sales. But, frequently the senior executive must incorporate both sets of characteristics. Generally speaking the marketing executive must excel at problem solving and decision making, while the sales executive must excel at social and communication skills. In combination, both of these must be present.

So, following are the characteristics (in order of priority) for each of these important roles:

Marketing Executive:

• Customer Focus

• Formal Presentation

• Resourcefulness

• Creativity

• Persuasiveness

• Passion for Company

• Strategic Planning

Sales Executive:

• Customer Focus

• Persuasiveness

• Formal Presentation

• Boldness

• First Impression

• Extroversion

• Passion for Company

Our 3Sixty Leadership Assessment is the best way to determine if your team has the right characteristics to succeed in today’s difficult environment.

Interim management executive, Scott Philips, is a C-level executive based in Portland with over 30 years of diversified experience in enterprise wide leadership. He is recognized as an action-oriented leader with strengths in strategic management, business assessments, global brand building, business development and enterprise selling. Scott’s experience in analyzing market data, developing solutions and effectively executing plans have resulted in significant revenue growth in a number of companies in a wide variety of industries. He can be reached at 503.913.2705 or scott.philips(at)oneaccordpartners.com

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