Interim Management Executive: Sheri Osborn

My background has been many years working for blue ribbon technology companies- hardware, software, internet technologies. The value I bring to organizations is helping the company see new markets that they haven’t seen before and reach new customers that they haven’t been able to reach before, using research methods, data analysis and market analysis. Also, finding the drivers in a market, I’m able to help them find opportunities that they may not have uncovered before and rally the teams to help the teams really reach these new opportunities.

Sheri Osborn is an interim management executive at OneAccord and a recognized leader in bringing emerging products and services to market and reviving waning products. Most recently she is focused on leading the industry in pushing Social Media and Web 2.0 technology to its limit delivering strategically impactful web experiences for organizations. These web experiences not only increase revenues and market position for enterprises but also transfer the brand value to end users and provide user perspective to the organization.

Interim Management Executive: Casey Leaman

I help companies define and execute their sales strategy and structure and implement a sustainable sales execution framework. I have extensive experience in high tech and international expansion. As a OneAccord partner I can fill a position as the Interim VP of sales or business development for a company with $5-100 million in sales or I can come along side the leadership on a project basis to develop a sales strategy international expansion plan.

The power of OneAccord is the depth and breadth of our sales and marketing expertise as a team combined with our collaborative culture. What this ensures for the client is that the OneAccord resource working with them will be the best fit to drive their revenue growth.

Casey Leaman
Interim Management Executive, OneAccord
casey.leaman@oneaccordpartners.com
512.772.1806

When to Hire Interim Management

There are specific situations that arise in organizations in which hiring interim management is most valuable to the organization. The book Leadership on Demand by Chuck Besondy and Paul Travis describes 7 scenarios when an interim manager can make a significant impact on the bottom line.

1. Significant revenue or marketing event is in jeopardy

A significant revenue event could include an upcoming valuation, fiscal year-end, or a pending merger. Bringing in an experienced interim executive can give the organization a “shot in the arm” to help meet revenue goals when they carry additional significance.

2. Totally new strategies or programs must be implemented or tested

According to David Altounian, CEO of iTaggit.com, “I’ve learned that interim leaders in marketing are particulary useful when we’re implementing a type of marketing strategy or tactic that is completely new to us”. When an organization is implementing a new marketing or sales strategy but lack expertise, hiring an interim manager with specific experience in this area can help successful implementation of the new strategy.

3. A gap exists in a key position

When a sales or marketing executive leaves your company, an interim executive can fill the position and maintain momentum until a permanent replacement is found. Since there can be great opportunity cost to leaving the position vacant for months, hiring an interim executive can be an ideal solution to fill the gap.

4. A specific skill set is needed, but not permanently

If you recognize that your organization needs a particular skill set, but the skill does not exist within the organization, an interim manager can be a great source for that skill.

5. Additional bandwidth needed, but not permanently

If your company faces a temporary need for additional bandwidth at the executive level, such as during a product launch or formulation of a new strategy, tapping an interim executive can be a successful method for temporarily increasing bandwidth.

6. Objectivity in a leadership position would be beneficial, especially during strategic planning

An objective and outside perspective can help an organization make decisions that are less affected by internal pressures, politics, and myopic thinking.

7. Hands-on coaching and training is required to elevate skill and process knowledge of existing staff

Bringing in an experienced interim executive can provide existing staff with beneficial executive coaching and training. Interim executives often have 20+ years of experience, and they can transfer their knowledge and advice to current executives.

Photo by barunpatro

How Interim Management Works

How does interim management work?
Interim management is the temporary hiring of an executive to provide management resources for an organization, often during times of transition or change. One scenario where interim management would be very valuable to an organization is when a marketing or sales executive leaves a company. Instead of leaving the position vacant while a permanent replacement is found, which could take months, they can hire an interim manager to maintain or grow marketing or sales productivity. There are several other useful applications of interim management such as bringing in an experienced executive to develop a strategy to overcome flat revenues and get the company growing again, or to provide the specific expertise to tackle a specific problem in sales or marketing.

How to Find a Interim Management Executive
Experienced marketing and sales executives with a proven track record are difficult to attain, even in a recession. You could tap into your network and find an executive that is currently out of work and who is willing to take on an interim role, pay a headhunter, or post the opportunity on a job board. But the best way to find an interim management executive is probably to contact an interim management company. These companies have a diverse network of experienced professionals with specific skill sets or experience to fit the specific needs of your company. They are also accustomed to working on interim engagements and are not just looking for a paycheck until they land their next job.

How to Set up the Interim Engagement
After you have found the right individual to take on the interim role at your company, you will need to establish the scope, goals, and compensation. Define clearly what the pain or opportunity you want addressed. Describe what a successful outcome of the interim engagement would look like. Discuss specifics such as expectations, limits of authority, and time they will be on site. You should also agree on the details of the compensation, whether it will be based on time or based on results such as sales growth over the next year.

To learn more about interim management, you can visit OneAccord’s website or email us at info(at)oneaccordpartners.com.

Photo by woodsy

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

Why OneAccord Interim Management Exists

OneAccord was started for a number of reasons, one was the market needs, we saw that there were a ton of experienced people in the market that could be consultants but didn’t traditionally consider themselves as a consultant that growing demographic of baby boomers brought a wealth of experience with them but they weren’t used to delivering consulting in a classic consulting model, which was the senior person brings on the MBAs and the MBAs do all the work, it’s like the kid model if you will. So the gap that we saw in the market was to take advantage of all this experience, but also leverage that into both project and interim, and permanent roles. The average VP of sales is in a role 26-28 months so the opportunity to manage multiple projects or to work on an interim time frame to help a company get to a particular milestone was a particularly good opportunity for OneAccord.

Dave Parker is an interim executive with 20 years experience in marketing and sales who specializes in catalyzing change in startup and growth companies as well as turnaround leadership. He has served on the board of a number of companies and organizations, including Classmates.com and Guidant Financial. He has been recognized by the World Technology Network for Innovation in the Software Industry, Forbes best of the Web and the Puget Sounds 40 under 40.

Mr. Parker welcomes your questions at Dave.Parker@oneaccordpartners.com or 206.812.9419
Skype: DWParker1

Jim Fisher Discusses Utilizing Areas of Expertise of OneAccord Interim Executives

My background is multi-unit retail chain marketing with a lot of brand building mixed in. I think the benefit [of OneAccord], for instance, the first proposal I worked on was really a manufacturing company and I’ve had no experience with manufacturing in a direct way. I’ve been more with companies like Pizza Hut or Cracker Barrel, etc. With the manufacturing company I worked with Greg Wilk in Dallas and he has a strong sales background. So between the two of us we created a 4 phase consulting plan that we could work through with the company and build the brand, build the strategy, build the business plan, which I’m strong on and with Greg’s experience in sales, we could really build that. It was a great combination between the two of us.

The other aspect, I’m working with a major 11 billion dollar software company. We’re not working with them now but we’re having preliminary discussions. Frankly I know nothing about high tech but
I can rely on other partners within OneAccord to fill that void. I can go in, I can talk to them about what their needs are, what their pain points are, what their challenges and opportunities are, and I can help build that strategy and respond to it and deal with the marketing issues but I can also bring in very relevant OneAccord partners who know about high tech who know about buzz marketing, things like that, that they’re really looking for.

Jim Fisher, is an enterprising senior marketing executive with a record of designing innovative programs that result in significant revenue growth and a strong market presence. He has held executive marketing positions at Pizza Hut and Cracker Barrel. Mr. Fisher can be reached at 781.449.4333 or boston(at)oneaccordpartners.com.

Interim Management Executive Dale Hintz Discusses Developing Company Culture

Too many organizations have limitations put on themselves by themselves, by their culture. We have a process, we have an integrated program, that we work with organizations to develop their culture so they can reach their potential. Let me give you an example. One of our clients has a union management situation that has developed over years and years. Didn’t get along. They really looked at how they could limit each other, not let someone get the advantage. In our program, we come in, we address the culture, we work at the individual level, we work at the senior leader level and we get folks not to limit, but what’s the potential they can reach, what can they do beyond themselves to take their company to new heights they haven’t reached in the past. That’s exciting because that’s what really takes revenues forward, not in small increments but in very big increments. It’s also what transforms organizations so they go forward in a lasting and meaningful way.

Dale Hintz, is a highly organized, strategic and creative executive with expertise in product research/development, price optimization, market segmentation and mapping brand strategies. He can be reached at 972.824.6923 or dallas(at)oneaccordpartners.com

Dave Parker Discusses Using Interim Management for M&A

I think the biggest trend that aligns with the product strategy is the M&A activity we currently see in the market. For companies that are considering going into an M&A, they need interim help and project help to ramp their numbers. But for companies on the back end of the deal, they likely need additional strategic help to help them grow the business. The same people who got you where you are may not be the same people get you to the next step of the business.

How Can Interim Management Increase Revenues?

Interim management can be an effective tool for increasing revenue growth at a company. Can you give an example of when you have been hired in an interim marketing or sales management role in which you helped a company increase revenues?

The client is a network security consulting firm, needing to transform its sales structure and culture from a product focused approach to a service based revenue stream.

Founded in the 1990’s, the market around the internet, hosting/outsourcing, security, along with the move from product to services was rapidly developing, with few standards. The client desired to build a significant regional presence, associated revenue stream, business processes & resulting
strong business valuation, with the intent to be acquired. The sales team was made up of 15-20 direct sales reps with little leadership, structure, or defined metrics.

The OneAccord Solution
OneAccord guided the organization through the design and implementation of a comprehensive sales and re-engineered organizational, created new roles, position definitions, metrics and recommendations for new compensation structures. OneAccord helped to define authority and accountability to revenue generation, define a sales strategy and assisted team members and management in execution.

Engagement Highlights

• Development of a comprehensive Revenue Generation Structure

• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

• Defined accountability to results

• Tools for measuring critical activity

• Field tested manual

• Internal sales training process

• Creation of an inside sales team partnered with a direct enterprise level group

• Channel Partnerships developed

• Improved revenue generation

Results
Over the 3 year project, moving from project based work to Interim Sales Leadership, there was a significant increase in the critical sales activities, including cold calls, building industry relationships, channel partnerships, and targeted account acquisition.

Jeff Rogers is founder of OneAccord, an interim executive company, that provides best in class interim sales and marketing leadership for companies all across the country.

In 2008 I was Interim VP of Sales for a Midwest company in the Gift Industry. I was brought in while they conducted a nationwide search for a permanent VP of Sales. The company ended 2007 down in sales and was starting 2008 in the same downward direction. As Interim VP of Sales I focused my efforts on reversing this trend. I identified several critical processes and procedures to implement to reverse the negative sales trend. By the end of March, 2008 their sales were +9.5% over the same period in 2007. The engagement was extended through the fall of 2008 as OneAccord focused on several other revenue generating opportunities after the permanent VP of Sales was hired.

Interim management executive, Richard Brune, is a sales and marketing professional with over 25 years of experience in building and managing some of America’s most recognizable consumer brands including Stanley Tools, Hartmann Luggage, REI Inc., Swiss Army Brands and licensed products with Eddie Bauer and Disney.

SITUATION:
Truck and Commercial Vehicle Product Category had very negative quality reputation in marketplace and significantly lagged market share of automotive products. Internally low existing sales and persistent quality issues resulted in defeatist attitude about potential to improve. Sales people creatively avoided selling this segment of the product line – as they did not want to stake their personal reputation on a poor quality offering.

ACTION:
Research competitive products to bench mark key features that drive customer preference and product performance. Direct engineering activities to develop distinctive products that fit within manufacturing capabilities. Create internal business plan for increased sales and lower warranty costs would offset increased piece cost. Develop Training materials and Sales Support materials including brochures and magazine advertisements. Coordinate launch product through sales force and customer base. Built on momentum by communicating both internal and external success stories.

RESULT:
First year unit sales increase of 20%. Eliminate poor quality reputation in the marketplace on this visible product category. Field evidence and acceptance of superior quality occurred within 6 months of launch. Re-energized sales force to aggressively pursue sales opportunities with existing accounts and more importantly new accounts who were not open to prior discussions due to previous persistent quality issues.

Interim management executive, Dale Hintz, is a highly organized, strategic and creative executive with expertise in product research/development, price optimization, market segmentation and mapping brand strategies. He can be reached at 972.824.6923 or dallas(at)oneaccordpartners.com

Last year after speaking with a CEO of a company doing 8 figures per year, he realized I had been VP Marketing for a competitor of a company he had received news of an auction on — and engaged me for a few days in order to help him determine the potential value and an appropriate bit amount. So for under ten grand, he got serious “feet on the street” with eyes that had different “focal range” than his.

When that particular acquisition opportunity didn’t manifest, he expressed his appreciation for adding value without ramp-up time and said he wanted to launch a SERVICE business to complement his SOFTWARE offering. Unfortunately, given economic conditions, his management team was up to their eyeballs in alligators — so this new business opportunity would ALSO have been unable to contribute any revenue or profit to the corporate coffers.

He thus engaged me as an Interim VP New Business Development to explore the business and create it if indeed the opportunity were real. In a four-month timeframe, I:

• Scoped customer pain and tested the value proposition and price elasticity

• Created a brand with input from the legacy marketing department

• Developed interoperability arrangements with a JV partner to ramp fast

• Built a financial model demonstrating the opportunity to DOUBLING REVENUE

• Returned the business, packaged in a box, such that the existing team could run with it

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.

Next Page »