An interim Sales Manager is an experienced sales leader who joins an organisation for a defined period to address a specific business need. An interim sales manager can take over a sales function during a leadership vacancy, improve sales performance, lead a transformation or develop and implement a new sales strategy.
Interim Sales Managers bring senior expertise and leadership from day one. They are typically appointed with a clear mandate and specific objectives, allowing them to focus on improving performance and delivering measurable results within a defined timeframe.
Read more about Interim Management.
A guide to Interim Management.
What does an Interim Sales Manager do?
The role of an interim Sales Manager depends on the organisation’s situation and objectives. They may take responsibility for the entire sales organisation or focus on a specific market, region, product or sales initiative.
Typical responsibilities include:
- Developing and implementing sales strategies
- Leading and developing sales teams
- Improving sales performance and processes
- Setting sales targets, KPIs and performance structures
- Managing key accounts and customer relationships
- Developing go-to-market and commercial strategies
- Strengthening sales forecasting and pipeline management
- Reviewing sales organisation, structures and competencies
- Supporting market expansion and new business development
- Managing sales budgets and profitability
- Leading sales transformation and change
- Implementing CRM and sales technology improvements
An interim Sales Manager combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution. The focus is not only on identifying opportunities for improvement, but on implementing changes and ensuring that the sales organisation delivers results.
Get insights from Interim Managers and clients here.
Read our interview with interim Sales Manager Åsa Svedenheim here.
When should you hire an Interim Sales Manager?
An interim Sales Manager can be particularly valuable when an organisation needs experienced sales leadership quickly. Common situations include:
- A Sales Director or Sales Manager vacancy
- Declining sales performance or profitability
- A need to develop a new sales strategy
- Expansion into new markets or regions
- A merger or acquisition
- A change in business model or go-to-market strategy
- A need to restructure the sales organisation
- Rapid growth that requires stronger sales leadership
- A critical sales transformation or improvement programme
- The launch of a new product or service
An interim sales leader can provide continuity while a permanent executive is being recruited, or take full responsibility for a defined sales challenge.
Benefits of hiring an Interim Sales Manager
One of the key benefits of hiring an interim Sales Manager is speed. An experienced interim can step into a leadership role quickly and begin assessing the situation, setting priorities and taking action.
An interim Sales Manager also brings an objective perspective. Having worked with different organisations and commercial challenges, they can identify performance gaps, challenge established ways of working and introduce proven approaches to sales management.
Other benefits include:
- Immediate access to experienced sales leadership
- Clear focus on measurable business results
- Flexibility without a long-term employment commitment
- Objective assessment of the sales organisation
- Improved sales processes and performance management
- Stronger leadership and development of the sales team
- Continuity during leadership transitions
- Knowledge transfer to the permanent organisation
Interim Sales Manager vs. permanent Sales Manager
An interim Sales Manager is typically appointed to achieve specific objectives within a defined period, whereas a permanent Sales Manager is recruited for a long-term leadership role.
This makes Interim Management particularly useful when the organisation needs to act quickly or when the future structure of the sales organisation is still being defined. An interim can stabilise the function, deliver improvements and help establish what the organisation needs from its future permanent sales leadership.
Finding the right Interim Sales Manager
The right interim Sales Manager depends on the organisation’s specific situation. A company entering a new international market may need an interim with strong experience in international sales and market expansion. A business facing declining margins may instead need a leader with a track record in sales transformation, restructuring and performance improvement.
The most successful interim assignments start with a clear mandate, defined objectives and the right leadership profile. By matching the Interim Sales Manager’s experience to the organisation’s specific challenge, companies can access the expertise they need and accelerate commercial results.
At Nordic Interim, we match organisations with experienced Interim Managers based on their business situation, objectives and required expertise.
Learn more about Interim Managers
If your organisation needs experienced sales leadership to manage change, improve performance or deliver a specific commercial objective, contact us to discuss your requirements.
FAQ about Interim Management
What is Interim Management?
An Interim Manager is a person with long experience of leadership and of driving change in a complex environment. The interim has a background in leading line roles within commercial businesses or government-controlled businesses. The interim has chosen to step down from a permanent role to take on time-limited assignments instead. Interim Management gives the business access to a very experienced leader when their own resources are not sufficient in the event of a challenge, crisis, or vacancy.
Examples of typical assignments:
A CFO has left the company and there is no replacement in place. An interim CFO was hired to bridge the gap while recruiting a permanent CFO. As the interim was overqualified, he immediately reviewed processes and structures and handed over a well-functioning business to the new CFO.
A subsidiary performed poorly and showed red numbers. It was not known where the problem lay. The CEO was let go the same day. An interim CEO was engaged to analyse the company and provided clear and transparent information to the board. A turnaround was conducted.
Do you want to know more about what interim means, or are you interested in becoming an Interim Manager, or if it can be a solution for your company?
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What is the difference between an Interim Manager and a Management Consultant?
Executive Interim Management has one foot in the headhunting industry and the other foot in management consulting. We have listed the main differences below:
| Interim Manager | Management Consultant |
|---|---|
| Principal Focus | |
| To execute and drive change to achieve operating results | Analysis, advice, transfer of best practice, solution design, and/or driving programme/project management |
| Skills Base | |
| Basing execution primarily upon long-standing operating experience, leadership and industry/functional experience. In certain cases with some years of prior work as a consultant | Basing execution primarily upon methods, processes and analysis combined with industrial/functional best practices collected from the consulting company |
| Execution Mode | |
| Acts as a part of your organisation, often with budget and/or responsibility for P/L | Acts outside the organisational framework (often in programme/ project form) |
| Age | |
| 40+ depending on the industry and functional background | Often 25-35 years old |
| Loyalty | |
| Completely loyal to you as a client and to your goals. Reports to you like an employee. No incentive to sell you more Interim Managers | Loyal to you as a client but also to his/her consulting company |
When is Interim Management a good solution?
When you urgently need an experienced manager or specialist within a specific area. When a recruitment process takes too long and/or when classic Management Consulting does not give you the hands-on implementation you need. It can be anything from filling a critical gap, reorganising a business, leading a digital transformation, expansion, establishing a foreign company, to divesting companies. The basic need that you want to solve is to get help from one or more active leaders who operationally make things happen.
Read more about the benefits of hiring an Interim Manager here.
What services can an Interim Manager perform?
Examples of services that an Interim Manager can perform are turnarounds, IPOs, build an HR organisation, set structures and processes, lead one or several business-critical projects, set the strategy for, and implement a company’s CSR program, lead a digitalization project for a function, a company or a group, lead an M&A project, or move production to another country including the closing of the old site and building the new production organisation.
Read about our services here.
What roles can Interim Management fill?
Our main focus is to solve challenges in company management positions or major initiatives/projects governed by the company management. Over the years, we have also developed networks in certain specialist branches, as well as with people with Management Consultant background and who have extensive experience of running larger complex programs/projects. Examples of roles are: CEO, CFO, Head of Business Control, Project Manager, or Supply Chain Manager. See more examples of roles here.
Read more about Interim Managers here.
Does Nordic Interim’s processes differ from other suppliers’ processes?
Yes. We know that our clients need to find a solution quickly, and – perhaps more importantly – they do not want to have endless interviews or evaluate CVs themselves to find the right skills and person. We are not content with merely matching suitable and available candidates, we work intensively for about 1-2 weeks to hand-pick people in our networks in Sweden and internationally. In this way, after a very short time, we can propose 2-3 people with exactly the right relevant background for the assignment.
Read more about our processes here.
How long does a recruitment process take?
The process takes 2-4 weeks and includes interviews with us and with the client and references.
Read more about how we work here.
How do you handle sensitive information?
Confidentiality is a matter of honour, both towards our clients and Interim Managers. At the beginning of each collaboration, we agree with the customer on the desired level of confidentiality, and we often use an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before talking to the candidates. In our experience, this benefits all parties.
Do I have any guarantees if I engage you?
If an assignment should not develop as expected (which happens extremely rarely), we have termination clauses. These are assignment-specific, but the majority have one month’s notice. Of course, we help our client to find a replacement with equally strong qualifications. Nordic Interim has liability insurance for all our consultants, and all our interims at a leading level must take out a debit register certificate. We can also have a complete background check done.
Can I hire the interim after a completed interim assignment?
In our agreements, transitional fees for direct employment of an Interim Manager are regulated. We have a great understanding that this can be a win-win situation for our customers and Interim Professionals.
How long is an assignment?
Most of our assignments are directly linked to a major initiative, and often the assignment extends over 6–12 months, in some cases significantly longer. It is common for the assignments to be extended.
Do I need to pay a start-up fee?
Yes, we charge a small fee at the start-up of an assignment.
What does an interim solution cost?
The cost of hiring an Interim Professional via Nordic Interim depends entirely on the role, situation and length and scope of the assignment. Briefly, it is considerably cheaper than hiring a Management Consultant. Together, we go through the challenges and the assignment, and calculate an approximate range of the fee level to be able to attract and engage the right person with the right calibre.