Why Use Interim Marketing Management?

Why is using interim executives in key marketing and sales leadership positions beneficial to companies?

As my co-author and I showed through case study after case study [in Leadership on Demand], interim management specifically focused on revenue represents one of the quickest ways to innovate.

Innovation doesn’t have to be in your product line or your technology – it can be in new thinking about how to use your CRM (customer relationship management) system. It can be in going direct where previously you’ve relied on the channel. It can be in looking at your product offering and customer base a new way.

For example, a few years back I helped a software company that had a product line ranging from $295 to $11,995. After spending a couple months with the salespeople and in the trenches with customers, I stratified the product line for efficiency. The low-end products could be freely test-driven on the site and upgraded to paying versions by talking to the support technicians. The high-end products could no longer be obtained via the site, but rather began with a sales conversation to qualify buyers. Prices were no longer published but quoted custom. Within 9 months, the average selling price increased ten-fold and the company got acquired by a publicly traded competitor at an extremely healthy multiple.

Management guru Peter Drucker predated the advent of interim managers but his philosophies support them wholeheartedly, especially: “Marketing and innovation are the two chief functions of business. You get paid for creating a customer, which is marketing. And you get paid for creating a new dimension of performance, which is innovation. Everything else is a cost center.”

Paul Travis is an interim marketing executive at OneAccord. Mr. Travis is based out of Seattle with 25 years of experience in high technology, marketing, and consulting. He can be reached at Paul.Travis(at)oneaccordpartners.com and at 206-910-2222.