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.

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

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 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.

The metrics that I find to be most important are those that show ‘incremental’ gains (specifically net revenue and net profit) with an interim manager in place as compared with what would have resulted without him or her in the role. This requires having a clear understanding of the trends prior to the interim manager filling the position verses the results they achieve after they implement their plans.

Scott Philips, Principal, OneAccord
scott.philips@oneaccordpartners.com
(503) 913-2705

Effectiveness is a subjective word – First we must define what Effectiveness means and more importantly what does it mean to those have a stake in the interim manager?

Peter Drucker would say that, “Effectiveness is doing the Right Things.” Below is a list of some of the “Right Things” (in my opinion) that could and should be going on in a business transformation engagement. In every case a baseline measurement could be taken to determine the degree of current compliance to a stated requirement. If no requirements are in place then the interim manager along with the stakeholders would determine which are the “Right Things” to be done within the scope of the engagement. Many of the things listed below would be new for the engaging company and therefore any movement – even the establishment of these right things would most likely become a measure of the Effectiveness of an interim manager.

President

• Strategic plan = do we have a plan and can we execute on it?
• Top line growth = revenue acceleration, how much, by when?
• Bottom line growth = more profit
• Cost control = cutting out the fat, saving time and money
• Organizational alignment – right people right place – right org scheme for sales acceleration
• Cultural improvement based on “Best place to work criteria”
• Leadership training and departmental accountability to goals
• Formal coaching program w/SMART goals and measurements

VP Sales & Marketing

• Spreading the customer base beyond 80/20
• Share of market in key product categories
• Churning deadwood clients
• Targeting and adding new value-added clients/sectors
• Growing existing clients via increase volume/breadth of purchases
• Increasing meaningful touches with A & B accounts
• Automation of touch management – who and how many
• Dollars per sale
• Number of sales
• Profitability
• % of product mix sold to customers
• Close ratio on presentations
• Flash sheet development for daily sales inspection
• Pipeline management re: forecast and actual w/% est close
• Sales training

VP Finance

• Reducing bad debt
• Churning dead-wood accounts
• Reducing average date of accounts receivable
• Reducing cost of sales & marketing
• Cash flow management

Operations

• Maximizing inventory turns
• Reducing inventory
• Moving to JIT and cross docking strategies
• Leaning of the key processes in the organization
• Quality team development and process improvement across the entire organization
• Control of RGA’s tracking
• Error cause removal and charting
• Shipping maximizing as decreasing % of budget

Purchasing

• Maximizing vendor relations and driving down costs
• Partner programs and buying concessions
• Inventory management & stocking programs on key items
• Managing down inventory turns
• Applying in-house quality standards to upstream vendors
• Surveying the emerging market for new products/ programs / partners

Customer service

• Customer service satisfaction baseline and assessment
• Outbound customer service calls
• One touch solution program (implies authority to act)

Eric Fry, Principal
OneAccord
eric.fry@oneaccordpartners.com

2. What metrics are the most important indicator of success?

Here I am looking at a bucket of things, all which can be measured, which is the essence of a metric. The relative importance again is in the hands of the stakeholders.

• Viability of the market = is it in growth, mature, decline, crash
• Unique selling proposition USP – does the customer have a niche?
• Sales volume
• Margin
• Profit
• Cost of sales
• Customer satisfaction rating
• Pipeline
• Quality of product or service
• Brand recognition

Can you quantify the ROI of a past engagement?

Yes – in a hard and soft way.

Hard = The actual lift in sales and profit gained because of the interim manager. This is typically measured beginning at month 7 and forward through the life of the engagement.

• Pipeline $ + or –
• Close ratio improvement
• Increased $ per sale
• Increased breadth of product sold
• Increased margin
• Increased number of customer partner programs of various nature (All vital sales numbers and metrics)

Soft =

• Customer satisfaction rating which will gain more business but cannot be measured directly
• Brand awareness greater or lesser
• USP establishment
• Marketing campaigns
• Touch management programs

Eric Fry, Principal
OneAccord
eric.fry@oneaccordpartners.com

Photo by kozumel

Original post at The Executive Marketing Blog.

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

According to the book Leadership on Demand by Charles Besondy and Paul Travis:

“Large companies believe in having succession plans and management development programs. Typically, a manager will be identified as having potential ‘for upper management’ and that person is groomed and mentored for years. We all know companies who have policies of moving executives from department to department, country to country, in an effort to prepare them for a senior management role. The goal is that senior managers should be well-rounded individuals with broad knowledge of the business.”

While organizations definitely need executives with general knowledge in a lot of areas, organizations also need specialists to be effective. Bringing in an interim sales executive to address a particular issue that they have extensive knowledge and experience in can be an effective way to improve specific areas of your organization’s sales department. One place to find interim sales executives is at an interim executive company like OneAccord, which has 32 sales and marketing executives in 12 states, each with their unique set of skills and areas of expertise (view OneAccord Interim Executive profiles).

Photo by Keith Allison

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

Rich began his career with Lanier Business Products then later, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), tasked to develop and implement sales and marketing plans for several new ventures. During his tenure, Rich managed a staff of 35 sales consultants and achieved a 500% revenue and 27% net income growing revenues in their network integration business from $10 million to $54 million in three years. This business won and managed several complex, multi-million dollar projects with clients like GE, Honeywell and several colleges and institutions. He also was responsible for the implementation of a regional disaster recovery business serving the financial services industry and had several Fortune 500 corporations as clients. He consistently exceeded sales and profitability goals and was rewarded with numerous sale and sales management excellence awards. In the past 10 years, Rich helped start Pro Tech Communications, Inc., a niche market electronics start-up in Florida. As Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Rich developed and implemented a strategic sales and marketing plan creating several new vertical markets and brands for contact centers, consumer electronics and the fast-food industry. The firm opened and retained several direct and OEM relationships with: McDonald’s Corp, 3M, Panasonic Corporation, Tele-Performance and NASA. Later, as President/COO, Rich moved the company to being a public corporation and negotiated a merger with a technology holding company and in return received the exclusive license of ANR sound suppression technology. The company later adopted the NoiseBuster™ business traveler headset.

Rich has a degree in Economics from Boston College and is a member of BC’s technology council. He is a current member of the Association of Corporate Growth (ACG), Florida Venture Forum and a past member of TEC (now Vistage). He also serves several life science communities such as: MASSBIO, Florida Technology incubators and the University of Florida Office of Technology Transfer. He currently resides in Vero Beach Florida with his wife and children.

Rich can be contacted at Rich.Hennessey@OneAccordPartners.com