by Interim Sales Executive, Charles Besondy

With my conservative-realist hat squarely placed upon my shaved head I ask you to consider that the economic environment we are seeing today (August 2009), specifically the unemployment rate, is what we’re going to see for many, many months to come.

I’m not going to be misled by politicians telling me just prior to 2010 elections that the days of milk and honey have returned. I know that the shaking we feel beneath our feet isn’t an earthquake; it is the vibration from countless business plans going through the shredder. There is fear and uncertainty in the land, but we must move forward even if on a different path with a different view of our business model.

Our economic world has changed–big time. I’m not an economist so I can’t and won’t talk about what the change means. I just know the business environment in which I need to succeed and help my clients succeed is very different from the one I was operating in prior to 2009.

What does this mean if you are a CEO or a marketing executive?

I believe that companies are going to be more and more reluctant to hire permanent marketers. Instead, companies will look to fill their needs on demand. They’ll augment skeleton marketing departments with interim and contract talent as they need it.

There is too much uncertainty in the land to confidently invest in a strong and capable marketing department. There is too much volatility in the marketing programs budget to justify a fully staffed marketing department. Better to keep fixed labor costs to a minimum and bring in the rock star interims for a few months as needed. No long-term commitments, no health insurance concerns, just the perfect skills and knowledge applied to the opportunity or problem for a season.

In past years, in a different economic climate, a high percentage of executives in the U.S. would scoff at the idea of relying on interim talent in marketing. Those same executives have no choice now but to seriously consider the interim option. They can’t stop marketing or else their companies will fall prey to the competition. However, they should think twice before burdening the operating budget with a fully-staffed, permanent marketing department.

Here are two sobering stats from The Financial Forecast Center.

They forecast the U-3 unemployment rate in the U.S. to be 11% in February 2010. (A group of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal estimated the unemployment rate for December 2010 will be 9.5%.) We’re looking at 10% unemployment for at least the next 16 months, if you wish to belief these sources.

The other sobering forecast is the GDP. The Financial Forecast Center shows the GDP improving from -3.8% in June 2009 to zero GDP growth in February 2010. I like seeing the numbers heading north, but we can’t expect much, if any, growth for the foreseeable future.

Low growth GDP and 10% unemployment is the new business environment for the U.S.

Those who adapt to the new reality will succeed. Those who manage with an eye in the rearview mirror will stumble.

Let me know directly if you’d like to discuss what an interim marketing solution might look like for your organization. To learn more about interim management within the marketing and sales function check out my book, “Leadership On Demand: How Smart CEO’s Tap Interim Management to Drive Revenue.” It’s also available through Amazon and other online book resellers in paperback and eBook formats.

This post has been republished from Charles Besondy’s blog on interim management, One Riot, One Ranger.

From Wikipedia comes a great definition that concisely explains what interim management is about:

“Interim management is the temporary provision of 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 an organization. In this situation, a permanent role may be unnecessary or impossible to find on short notice. Additionally, there may be nobody internally who is suitable for, or available to take up, the position in question.”

The book Leadership on Demand, adds that interim management, while often utilized at the executive level, can also be successfully applied at the group-level position as well.

In essence, interim management is the utilization of an experienced manager to temporarily fill a gap in an organization.

The most common need for interim management occurs when an executive leaves a position for whatever reason, and the firm seeks an immediate replacement, while they search for an ideal permanent replacement.

However, an interim manager often does more than keep the seat warm. A good interim manager will add tremendous value to the organization by applying their experience and skill set to move the organization closer to achieving their goals.

Every large organization should have conversations with an interim management company like OneAccord (which specializes in marketing and sales interim management) or Tatum (which focuses on finance), so that they can tap the vast pool of experience and skills that OneAccord can provide when the need inevitably arises.

Here are the top 12 reasons your company needs an interim marketing executive:

1. You can’t afford to lose ground to the competition while you search for a new executive for 3-6 months
2. You can’t afford to hire a full-time experienced senior executive
3. You need to boost sales this year
4. Your marketing and sales are misaligned
5. You want to take your company to the next level in sales
6. You need the expertise to enter a new market
7. A significant revenue or marketing event is in jeopardy
8. Totally new strategies or programs must be implemented or tested
9. A specific skill set is needed, but not permanently
10. Additional bandwidth needed, but not permanently
11. Objectivity in a leadership position would be beneficial, especially during strategic planning
12. Hands-on coaching and training is required to elevate skill and process knowledge of existing staff

Listen to The Executive Marketing and Sales Podcast: Episode 1 here.

Interview with Paul Travis.

How does interim management work?

Well you know your question is so simple yet it’s indicative of much larger things that are going on. There is so much change in today’s business world. It’s very different from how things used to be thirty years or forty years ago. For example, when someone was talking about getting a new car he/she was referring to purchase – where money might have been owed but the ownership was still under the person’s name. Now in the last couple of decades, the institution of car leasing came about and therefore now you have the flexibility. Well I used this as an example because of the mechanism of employment is starting to change. Interim management is a manner or is a means of bringing in talents to accomplish specific objectives and solve specific challenges within companies. But its more like a rental, more like a lease, than it is acquiring a new asset or bringing on somebody who is going to be a long term employee. Instead of spending 3 to 12 months searching for the perfect candidate and putting them through the recruiting process, a hiring company brings in an interim manager very quickly, usually weeks instead of months and that person’s assignment is limited by definition so the interim manager seeks to complete the mission. This is really in contrast to the dynamic where a W2 executive might come aboard and then start to look for things within the organization that naturally align with what they are doing and so they sort of justify their position. In fact those individuals typically expand their division and they want to make themselves important within the company. They hire staff and all the new responsibilities that they have created, then go about filling those positions. But it’s a different thing than interim management.

What would you say are the main benefits of a company using intern management?

Well as I was just alluding to, the speed of being able to bring on talent and to solve problems is a great one. There’s also the philosophical issue of executing real work rather than keeping a chair warm. And then there’s other benefits both tangible and intangible that are pointed out in the book Leadership on Demand. For example objectivity: bringing in somebody who who can assess challenges with a much broader scope in mind. There are times to market, bringing somebody in who can focus and get new products out, being responsive to competitive changes as opposed to the way things have always been done. There’s also the ability to change a corporate focus, by bringing somebody new in, for example an interim CMO marking officer might focus on how to get a product positioned. And then after 6 months they might bring in another CMO who really focuses on going to market. So it’s no longer about positioning. There are other great benefits, for example compliance with publicly held companies. Changing out a W2 vice president is considered by the SEC is a material event and has to be disclosed. Where as interim manager is not.

Great, what size companies would you say typically use interim management?

Well since interim management is a mindset and paradigm change rather than a specific answer to a given problem. It’s useful by companies of all sizes. There are chapters in Leadership on Demand dedicated to the specific benefits in case studies for early stage companies. There’s another chapter which covers interim management in large establishment companies.

And what differentiates what you do for a company compared to a consulting company?

That’s a great question, in particular because one of my non-profit roles is as president of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Institution of management consultants. I am very well versed in consulting as well as in interim management. In general, consultants operate externally to the organization as much as they’re customers are within the organization and they go in to understand what the challenges are. At the end of the day they have no real authority to see that their recommendations are implemented. They don’t have hiring and firing authority. I really can’t tell you how many CEO’s I’ve spoken with over the past decade who have brought in consultants whom write a great report on the solution to a problem. Then I’ve seen someone turn away from their desk and pull out a great leather binder with a report on it and they tell me they had consultants come in and assess their problems, but nobody actually spearheaded the implementation of that solution or it was given over to employees to implement from an internal mindset. Einstein said, it was hard to solve problems from the same manner of thinking that they were created. So interim executives go inside the organization and have a reporting authority, the change happens because they drive it. And to be honest, if they stay too long after three, six, nine, twelve sometimes eighteen months they end up facing the risk of becoming part of the problem. They lose their objectivity.

What would you say are the biggest challenges companies face when trying to grow revenues?

This is a great way for me to use the classic consultant response which is: it depends. For large companies their revenue challenges tend to be centered around their own success and all of their momentum they have gained. The process of becoming a large company has created systems, that processes, procedures, customer channels and product lines. So if they see the opportunity it’s really like changing the direction of a battle ship. They are very slow to take advantage of new revenue opportunities. My experience personally is more in smaller-mid markets companies where the challenges are at the other end of spectrum and tend to be scale. So they just don’t have the talent to pull off big ideas or sometimes they don’t have enough mind share with dealers to be able to launch new programs. Or maybe they are trying to do so many different things with limited resources that a better outcome could be obtained by focusing on one major initiative and hitting a home run.

And how does interim management help companies grow the revenues?

Well you know every situation is different but in a prescriptive manner I would say that the president or CEO should ask those direct questions to the interim management candidate. Does this person knows what they are doing and will the interim management executive execute? Because that is the whole point of this. On that topic there is something I would caution against because it has happened to me numerous times and that is, don’t ask for a references until you’re ready to make a buying decision. As I’m with clients day after day, I think about it from their perspective. After you have a problem solved would you want a call on a weekly basis to discuss how something has gone. No you want to read a reference letter or a case study and only check in with them if you’re ready to buy. And you just need somebody who can serve as a human validation point.

How can companies that are interested in interim management find you?

They find me on the web or though a recommendation from one of my clients. Almost everywhere these days there is a lot of information known whether you’re buying a car or if your looking up a new appliance or your looking at a new resource for your company. There is a lot you can find out, for example my direct URL is www.meetpaul.us and you can read my bio and I have a blog that is full of the way I think about marketing. It also highlights success stories and also failures and other things which could have been done differently. That blog is at www.marketing-2020.com. And then we can have a conversation about what their specifics are. If I’m the right person, then I’ll structure or suggest a structure that we can go with to the next value of evaluation and if I’m not the right person then iIll bring in a partner of a another company where it would be a better fit for them. So I’m always looking for a way to win.

Paul what blogs and books are you reading at the moment in the marketing field?

I have to say that I have a lot of books on my bookshelf and I’m much more successful when reading things online than carrying books around with me. As I’m focused on bringing social media into the mainstream. I like to watch sites like www.mashable.com and I also like Seth Godin’s work and a lot of forward thinkers on twitter, like Guy Kawasaki.

Great! Thank you Paul for joining us today, how can companies find you or get in touch with you?

If they haven’t remembered the websites that I mentioned before like www.meetpaul.us and www.marketing-2020.com. The great thing these days is that every search engine that I know of of will find me if you type in my name, Paul Travis and marketing. I would be happy to chat with them to see if I’m the right person or where there’s a service organization that I can point them to. You always have to chat with somebody.

The misalignment of sales and marketing can prevent an organization from reaching it’s sales potential. Interim marketing executive Chuck Besondy, explains the top 7 costs of misalignment of sales and marketing.

There’s a lot of talk about aligning sales and marketing. I’ve given speeches on the topic and have written numerous posts. Company executives know it’s an issue, but what are the costs associated with misalignment?

If our car is out of alignment we know that the tires are going to wear out faster; we are more in danger of the car wandering out of our lane into on-coming traffic; the ride isn’t as smooth; and the car is harder to steer. We know the cost of replacing tires and in our mind we can calculate the risk of an accident. That’s pretty easy.

But, what is the cost if a company’s revenue engine is out of alignment? Believe me, it’s costing you more than a set of new tires.

I want to open this discussion up and let the ideas flow. I have a thesis. I think most companies have been driving in a misaligned state for so long they are settling for sub-par results and resigned to trying to solve the problem. Misalignment is the default situation in most B2B companies.

Here is an excellent reason why an outside executive serving in an interim manager capacity at your firm, or as a consultant is best able to get you out of the rut. They bring objectivity and the knowledge that there is indeed gold at the end of the rainbow.

What is the cost of misalignment? If, as business managers, we can’t put a number to the cost we’ll hesitate to invest in a solution, and that is the way it should be.

Here are a few areas in which misalignment is costing your company.

1. Low conversion rates – your proposal to close ratio is static or falling. Research has shown that misaligned companies have a lower conversion rate. What would be the impact if you reduced your cost of customer acquisition by 10% , 20% or more?

2. Missed revenue forecasts – unpleasant budget surprises at quarter end when actual sales are significantly below budget.

3. Lost customers – research has shown that misaligned companies are not as good at keeping and growing profitable customers. What is the lifetime value of a customer? If you lost 10% or 20% fewer customers each year what would than mean to the top line and bottom line?

4. Slow reaction to market dynamics – when marketing and sales have difficulty agreeing on direction and tactics there are delays in action; opportunities are missed. What is the value to you in beating the competition to a market opportunity?

5. Internal strife – It’s not fun or productive to work in a company in which marketing and sales are at odds (or at war). Soon egos and politics rule the decision making rather than a focus on progressing buyers through the sales funnel. The cost here, besides low productivity, is employee turnover. What are your recruitment and training costs in sales and marketing?

6. Do-overs – programs are often created and never implemented because there is disagreement about what should be done and how. What is the cost of programs that never see the light of day, or what is the cost of do-overs?

7. Loss of momentum – the most effective revenue generation plans are those that have coordinated strategies and tactics where sales and marketing are pulling forward together. A dog-sled team is a good metaphor. When the dogs are running out of step or in different directions the sled is not going to progress at optimum speed.

Those areas will give you a start. I’m sure I’ve overlooked a few. Once you’ve identified the cost areas you’re ready to get out your calculator and compute what the chaos is costing you.

Give it a shot. Bring out the calculator, look at your current financial statements and budget. Don’t be shocked if the total cost is 5% or more of your total sales and marketing budget.

Think small if you like. What would a 5% improvement in any area look like? Think big. What would a 20% improvement in any area look like? What would a 5% improvement in all areas look like?

I look forward to reading your comments and sharing more on this topic soon.

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 The Sales Funnel Fanatic.

Photo by woodsy

Interim marketing executive, Chuck Besondy, explains how to take advantage of the opportunity of leads that leak from the sales funnel pipeline. This simple sales funnel step can significantly improve sales.

I was speaking with an executive the other day who repeated the concerns of her management team that their existing market was too small to sustain their growth.

Expanding into new markets may look enticing, but there are large risks and costs associated with this strategy. As it turned out in this case I was able to show the company that their market was large enough to provide growth opportunities for the next 3 years.

A little back of the envelope math indicated a bleak picture at first. Considering the size of their available market and their current conversion metrics for demand generation they simply couldn’t reach their revenue target. They were burning through too many prospective buyers and before long every prospective customer in the market will have been contacted and perhaps even placed into their sales funnel.

Their conversion rates were respectable, too. Only incremental improvement could be expected. It was when I asked about buyer recycling (lead recycling) that the answer started to emerge.

Many marketers and salespeople put all their energies into generating leads and working to progress these buyers through the funnel. But, a percentage of buyers always leak from the funnel at every stage. If your conversion rate at one stage in the funnel is 40%, this means 60% have leaked–they haven’t progressed. For whatever reason they weren’t willing or able to move to the next stage in the funnel at that time. Later a portion of these leaked buyers will be ready to re-engage with you (if you let them).

Sadly these buyers who leak for whatever reason are frequently forgotten by marketing and sales.

The company I was speaking to wasn’t actually ignoring their leaked buyers, but had a procedure in place to follow up with leaked buyers every 6 months. Ah-ha!

Using a sales funnel calculator from MathMarketing (click for lite version of this calculator) I was able to show the company that by recycling their leaked buyers at every stage after 4 weeks rather and after 24 weeks they’d need 7,000 fewer fresh names over a three year period.

This meant the market was large enough if they could execute effective marketing and sales strategies for recycling the leaked buyers back into the funnel–certainly a much easier and less risky proposition than expanding into new markets.

This article can also be viewed at Chuck Besondy’s blog, The Sales Funnel Fanatic.

Photo by steved

I help transform companies and sales process and methodology and help with sales metrics and profit and loss. I have over 25 years of experience building and managing consumer brands and products selling to all retail channels: department stores, mass merchants, clubs, specialty stores internet and broadcast media. As a OneAccord partner I can fill a position for an emerging or SMB company as interim VP of sales or I can come along side the leadership on a project to develop the sales and revenue generating growth of an organization. The value that OneAccord brings is that we have the experience having walked in the shoes of the client. We’ve held the executive leadership positions and are willing to come into your organization to not only strategize but execute the deliverables. We are scaled nationwide so we have the resources and expertise that is needed and can work collaboratively providing our clients with a wide range of revenue focused expertise. In addition OneAccord partners tell the truth about where a company is and where it needs to go.

Richard Brune is a interim sales and marketing VP for OneAccord with a strong track record managing some of America’s most recognizable consumer brands. Mr. Brune has an unbroken record of substantial sales and market share increases with such brands as Stanley Tools, Hartmann Luggage, REI Inc., Swiss Army Brands and licensed products with Eddie Bauer and Disney. Richard has a proven ability to develop new markets and expand existing ones. He is an effective leader with the ability to build highly productive and motivated sales teams. A bottom line executive with the ability to reduce operating expenses while continuing to enjoy growth and profitability.

Richard Brune can be contacted at richard.brune@oneaccordpartners.com

What is the purpose and meaning of the phrase, “Pragmatism of Vision to Transform Culture”?

The purpose of this phrase is to encourage the transference of ideals and the underlying reason(s) for the operation of an organization.

The truth is that a lot of people in business try to fly high with a vision without executing the necessary tasks needed to succeed. Understanding and implementing the meaning of this phrase creates a balance of a company vision (operating with ideals or values in mind) and pragmatism (performing the necessary revenue or business building tasks). The result of applying this balance is that an organization can continue to operate for the same purpose over time (allowing for smooth generational transference) while executing the tasks necessary to succeed. This balance is the secret to sustainability in the workplace. That is, sustainability of the product quality, and the sustainability of the company or organization’s purpose over the long term.

How does this combine and build upon ideas from your previously published works?

The “Big Idea Series” was published to the OneAccord website and can be found under my biography. The series discusses the idea of the culmination of vision, pragmatism, and leadership into teamwork. It is discussed in a case-by-case basis, for companies such as Pepsi, BMW, and WalMart. Pragmatism of Vision to Transform Culture takes it one step further by making the connection to Interim Management.

How exactly does this idea align with what we do and how we do it at OneAccord?

This can be applied to the way you create a road map of success for your clients. Our underlying vision at OneAccord is to provide absolute truth and absolute compassion through the work that we do. You may be asked to create an updated or new vision casting an ideal meaning for the long-run. When doing this, you must also exhibit pragmatism, a realistic approach to the big tasks and small tasks your client must complete or deal with on a regular basis.

How does this idea align with Interim Revenue Executives helping various companies?

In order to drive revenue, there must be synchronization between an external and internal value proposition. More importantly than providing an immediate boost in revenue, as Interim Executives, we must provide sustainability to our client. Revenue creation is the result of business functions and the corresponding value proposition. By making the necessary functional and value adjustments, you are transforming the culture and moving your client into a promising position for sustainable revenue creation. We should strive for sustainability.

How do you see interim managers being able to refer to this notion in daily interim efforts?

You cannot just go in with a black box (solution to everything) to company XYZ and expect everything an immediate fix. We must constantly keep the whole business in mind. Understanding what needs to be cleared away, to embrace a vision and transform a company in a way that will be sustainable in the future. We must remain pragmatic and evaluate what it will take for this transformation to occur and sustain itself when the engagement ends. We have to leave our clients on stable footing and in the clear.

What experiences did you draw upon in developing this message?

I can draw upon my experience in branding, a process that begins with ideas. Working with companies such as Pepsi and Intel, I was exposed to brands with consistent performance levels, and a well-articulated vision. On the other hand, there were situations when we couldn’t find a consistent vision that could be applied to the work done by a client. It was much more difficult to create a successful campaign. When consistency in vision is developed, the core message is sustainable and can be transferred from generation to generation. For example, Intel is in an industry where the product offering is constantly changing. They have built the brand in a way that encompasses more than the product, so as the products change, the feeling customers have (hopefully a positive one) towards Intel does not.

We are constantly communicating the OneAccord message. Our cultural values are ideal to have in the workplace as well as outside the workplace in our daily lives. Absolute Truth and Absolute Compassion are elements of OneAccord that will always remain. We must expect functional change to occur (such as the use of new social media networks and customer relationship management platforms) but the underlying principals of why we do what we do won’t change

Aside from our cultural values, all else is peripheral, but since we must be functional from day-to-day, there must be a balance. We have to balance our vision and pragmatism (function) to strengthen and sustain the OneAccord message.

Peter Klinge Jr. is a strategic marketing and communications executive with more than 20 years experience with many of the top advertising/marketing services agencies, driving business success for major global brands and early stage companies, in technology and consumer categories.

peter.klinge@oneaccordpartners.com
Tel: 801.755.6820

Photo by Gisela Giardino

What are the most important qualities for senior executives to possess to be effective managers? The Harvard Business Review surveyed executive search consultants to find out what their clients most commonly looked for in a good executive management candidate.

What Companies Look for in Sr. Execs
43% of executive search consultants surveyed in 2008 reported that their client companies considered the number of years of relevant work experience to be one of the top reasons for hiring a particular candidate, whereas only 24% gave similar weight to the ability to collaborate in teams — and an alarmingly small 11% factored in a candidate’s readiness to learn new things.

Source: Harvard Business Review, May 2009

According to Harvard’s study, companies did not think that ability to grow revenue, innovative thinking, or past accomplishments was the most important factor, but rather years of relevant experience.

Another survey by Harvard Business Review found that most candidates for executive positions were not very well vetted by the hiring company.

How Well Vetted Is Your Senior Management?
In 32% of 500 companies surveyed in 2008, candidates for senior executive positions went through only 1 to 5 interviews, while 12% of firms subjected candidates to 21 or more. Shockingly, only half of those recruited for the top three tiers of management were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. And fully half the companies relied primarily on the hiring manager’s gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have “what it took” to be successful in any job.

Source: Harvard Business Review, May 2009

One of the advantages of hiring an interim executive manager, is that you don’t have to rush to hire an executive and your company can spend the time to carefully select the best candidate for an important executive position.

Do you think experience should be the primary factor that companies look for when hiring an executive manager? Are companies not performing due diligence when hiring for important executive management positions? What should be the number one quality companies look for in executives?

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.