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

Photo by unlistedsightings

Interim Marketing Executive to the Rescue

What if your company had millions dollars at risk due to a lack of marketing leadership in a key executive role? Whether a marketing executive just left the company or a shift in the business environment presents new opportunities or threats, an interim marketing executive can provide the needed leadership for positive revenue growth. The book Leadership on Demand describes some of the risks of not having a key executive position filled.

The more precisely you pin a cost to the problem, the easier it will be to justify the investment in an interim engagement. Is $2MM in revenue at risk? Is 1% of market share, valued at $15MM, at risk because the test marketing schedule of a new product is in jeopardy? Are you experiencing delays in acquiring $20MM additional financing because you’re spending half your time in the VP Marketing role, rather than 100% of your time in the CEO role? Loss of opportunity and loss of business momentum can have huge ramifications for your organization.

In a competitive environment, companies can not afford to wait months until a key executive position is filled by a permanent hire before taking action. In this time of rapid change in the business environment, companies can not afford to let the competition to pass by due to a lack of bandwidth at the executive level. These are some of the scenarios in which quickly hiring an experienced interim marketing executive can save the day.

Photo credit

What is an Interim Executive? Interview with Interim Management Expert Chuck Besondy

Chuck Besondy is a principal at One Accord Partners and is co-author of Leadership on Demand: How Smart CEO’s Tap Interim Management to Drive Revenue. You can read more about Interim Sales and Marketing Management by Chuck Besondy at his blog One Riot-One Ranger.

Can you give a brief explanation of what an interim executive is and how they can help an organization?

To answer this question properly would require writing a book, which has been done. Visit www.leadership-on-demand.com.

I’ve seen many definitions of interim management. The one I like best is:

“Interim management is the temporary provision of additional management resources and skills. Interim management can be seen as the short-term assignment of a proven heavyweight interim executive manager to manage a period of transition, crisis or change within a company. In this situation, a permanent role may be unnecessary or impossible to find at short notice. Additionally, there may be nobody internally who is suitable for, or available to take up the position in question.”

The way this alternative staffing solution helps organizations is often profound and significant. If we look at the functions of Sales and Marketing, interim executives fill gaps in leadership, fill gaps in skill sets and best practices, fill gaps in bandwidth, and fill gaps in expertise—all for a season—so that higher levels of revenue performance and growth can be achieved. Sometimes the business is in a crisis or turnaround situation, most often however the company simply needs to quickly fill a critical short-term gap in order to maintain momentum and growth.

When should a company consider hiring an interim executive?

One way to look at this question is to realize that most executives and senior managers are in reality employed for an interim period. They just don’t know in advance when their contract ends. The fact is, a company uses a senior manager only for as long as that manager provides value to the organization. That may mean 6 months. That may mean 3 years or more. Consider that the average tenure for a CMO in a large corporation is 27 months and you begin to see the truth in this.

A company should consider hiring an interim executive (in marketing or sales) when any of the following situations exist:

Revenue has flat-lined or is in a state of decline and the existing revenue team is unable to turn the situation around.
Inject interim managers with objective insight, fresh energy and proven best practices into the organization to work side-by-side the existing team for a season.

A leadership gap exists.
If there is going to be a vacancy at a director, VP, or C-level in the marketing and sales organization for more than 2 months the organization will experience a loss of momentum. Put an interim executive in place to provide skilled leadership while a search for a FTE progresses.

A bandwidth gap.
Most companies face this situation at least once a year. Typically, the gap in resource bandwidth is associated with the go-to-market activities for a new product, or a market expansion. In these situation there simply isn’t enough experienced managers to effectively handle the temporary surge in work load. Bring in interims to either drive the new initiative, or to maintain the primary business activities.

A skill-set gap.
Small companies trying to become mid-tier companies; mid-tier companies trying to break through to be large companies frequently face the same problem. The management team lacks some of the experience and skills necessary to take the company to the next level. An interim executive can provide that needed level of expertise for a season, taking the company to that new level, and coaching the existing management team along the way.

Photo by romainguy

Can Interim Management be Cure for Brain Drain?

Chuck Besondy is a principal at One Accord Partners and is co-author of Leadership on Demand: How Smart CEO’s Tap Interim Management to Drive Revenue. You can read more about Interim Sales and Marketing Management by Chuck Besondy at his blog One Riot-One Ranger.

For any company in an economic downturn, after slashing employees to reduce their overhead there follows a sobering moment of clarity. “How is the work going to get done? We just let go the only people that really knew how to do this (whatever “this” is) really well!”

I propose that interim management is an excellent solution, especially when the new gap is in a highly-skilled management role (as opposed to a low-skilled bureaucratic role).

So, the company can’t afford a FTE as head of marketing. Fine. Bring in a perfectly suited interim marketing executive for a couple days a week.

I had coffee with a former client last week. He had just been laid off. The company he had worked for needed to slash overhead due to the rapid economic decline. They let go the head of marketing and the product manager, electing to leave untouched a small department of marketing specialists. Who is managing this group, you might ask? They now report to a director of business development with no marketing experience whatsoever.

Cut backs are agonizing decisions and I’m not second-guessing the decision to swing the axe at the higher salaried managers first. However, what is to become of this very effective marketing group without skilled leadership? Imagine what just two days a week of expert marketing leadership could provide.

Something tells me this story is being repeated again and again all around the world. Interim managers, let us put on our capes and save the day.

Photo by snofla

Chuck Besondy, Principal, OneAccord
512.692.9642
chuck.besondy(at)oneaccordpartners.com

Scott Powell Discusses the Client Value of Interim Marketing Executives

Interim marketing executives can help companies achieve and sustain revenue growth. Scott Powell discusses the value of finding an experienced interim executive for a company looking to grow.