EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP · INTERIM COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
An Interim Commercial Director with authority over price and terms.
CE Interim appoints proven Interim Commercial Directors when volume is holding and margin is not, when a key account is at risk, or when the commercial organisation has lost the leadership that held its customer relationships together.
Zaupno od prvega stika. Preverjen vodstveni kadrovski kandidat, ki ustreza zahtevam naročila in je pripravljen začeti delati v 72 urah po prejemu popolnega opisa naročila.
Hierarhična podrejenost
CEO · MANAGING DIRECTOR · BOARD
INTERIM COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR
SALES · KEY ACCOUNTS · PRICING · MARKETING
1,500+
Število izvedenih naročil na leto v okviru zveze
90+
Poslovni partnerji po vsem svetu
30+
Zajete države
95%
Čezmejna pooblastila
72 ur
Od prejemu navodil do začetka misije
Opredelitev
What is an Interim Commercial Director?
An Interim Commercial Director is an experienced executive appointed for a defined period to take control of the commercial position: revenue, margin, pricing, key accounts and the commercial organisation. The mandate covers the decisions that determine profitability, not only the activity that produces volume.
The distinction from a Sales Director matters. Where the commercial model is complex, with several revenue streams, channel partners, or major accounts alongside transactional business, a Commercial Director is the appropriate appointment. Where the model is a single, execution-focused sales motion, a Sales Director may be sufficient and the wider mandate more than the situation needs.
Volume can be bought with discount. Margin cannot. This appointment exists because someone has to be accountable for both at once when commercial decisions are fragmented across the organisation.
Sprožilci dogovora
When businesses appoint an Interim Commercial Director
01
A key account is at risk and nobody senior owns the relationship
A major customer is reviewing, escalating or tendering. The relationship was held by one person, and that person has left or is no longer credible with the customer.
02
Input costs have risen and prices have not
Material, energy or freight costs have moved and the contracts have not. Volume looks healthy, margin is eroding quietly, and nobody has had the conversation with customers that would fix it.
03
Discounting has become the answer to everything
Deals are closing because the price came down. Discount authority has spread through the organisation, the waterfall from list price to realised price is not visible, and the business is buying its own volume.
04
The order book is falling and the forecast is not believed
Revenue is declining, the pipeline shows something different, and the board has stopped treating the commercial forecast as information it can plan against.
05
The commercial leader has gone and taken the relationships
Departure at director level. In CE Interim’s experience, a permanent appointment at this level can take two to three months, and the appointee may then have notice to serve before meeting a customer. Pipeline momentum, relationships and commercial discipline decay throughout.
06
Two sales organisations are calling the same customers
After an acquisition, overlapping coverage, inconsistent pricing to the same buyer, and no agreed account ownership. The customer notices before the business does.
07
A growth case was underwritten and nobody owns it
Commercial due diligence promised a revenue or pricing improvement. The deal closed, the plan exists, and no one in the business has been made accountable for delivering it.
08
Entering a market with no commercial leadership on the ground
A new country or segment is being opened with no senior commercial presence locally, and the customers being targeted expect to deal with someone who is actually there.
Ali je to pravi sedež?
Does the situation require an Interim Commercial Director?
The determining question is whether the commercial position itself is the problem, or whether the commercial numbers are reporting a problem that lives elsewhere.
Appoint an Interim Commercial Director when:
- Margin is deteriorating while volume holds.
- Pricing, discount authority and contract terms need to be brought under control.
- A major customer relationship has to be rebuilt at senior level.
- The commercial organisation needs restructuring rather than motivating.
- The forecast has to become something the board can plan against.
Pravilo za odločanje
When revenue and margin are both in question and the decisions that resolve them are commercial, this is the appropriate appointment.
Ko je prava ravno druga vloga
Where customers are leaving because of delivery performance or quality rather than price or relationship, a commercial appointment treats the symptom: an Interim Plant Manager or Interim Quality Director addresses what the customers are actually reacting to.
Where the whole business lacks direction, an Interim CEO is the appointment.
Where the model is a single sales motion and the requirement is to lead a team executing it, a Sales Director carries the mandate and this appointment is more than the situation needs.
CE Interim najprej opredeli mandat, šele nato pa priporoči vlogo.
Primerjava vlog
Katero delovno mesto potrebuje podjetje?
Pomaknite tabelo vstran →
| Začasni komercialni direktor | Interim Sales Director | Začasni izvršni direktor | Commercial consultancy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V lasti | Revenue, margin, pricing, key accounts | Sales execution and the team | Celotna zadeva | The analysis |
| Model it suits | Multiple streams, channels, major accounts | A single sales motion | Any, when direction is the issue | Any |
| Sprejme sklep | Price, terms, account strategy, structure | Territory, targets, activity | What the business does | Recommends only |
| Imenovan, ko | Margin and revenue are both in question | The team needs leading | Direction is unresolved | The position needs mapping |
| Customer-facing | At senior and board level | At buyer level | Where it matters most | Ne |
| Čas za začetek | V 72 urah od prejema navodil | V 72 urah od prejema navodil | V 72 urah od prejema navodil | Depends on scope and engagement |
Začasni komercialni direktor
Interim Sales Director
Začasni izvršni direktor
Commercial consultancy
Načini okvare
Zakaj ti imenovanja spodletijo
A sales problem is diagnosed and a margin problem is left running.
Activity increases, the pipeline fills and volume recovers, on terms that were never fixed. The business is now busier and no more profitable, and the discount precedents set during the recovery are the ones the next negotiation starts from.
Commercial leadership is appointed to a delivery problem.
Customers are leaving because the business missed delivery dates or shipped quality problems, and a commercial executive is appointed to win them back. The relationships improve briefly and the customers leave anyway, because nothing they complained about has changed
Relationships are held by people rather than by the company.
The commercial recovery depends entirely on one person’s contacts. It works while they are there. The mandate ends, the relationships leave with them, and the business is back where it started having paid for the interval.
Discount authority is never actually withdrawn.
A pricing discipline is announced and the exceptions continue, because withdrawing authority from a team under target pressure requires a decision nobody wants to own. Pricing recovery can fail politically as readily as it fails analytically.
Obseg pooblastil
What an Interim Commercial Director mandate should include
Določena hierarhična linija poročanja, dogovorjena pred začetkom.
Whether the executive reports to the Managing Director, the CEO or the board determines what can be committed in a customer negotiation. Customers establish the executive’s decision authority quickly, so the mandate should define what can be committed in the room and what requires referral before negotiations begin.
Pricing and discount authority.
The right to set price, terms and discount limits, and to withdraw discretion from people who currently have it. The mandate should make this authority explicit rather than leave it ambiguous.
Ownership of major customer relationships.
The mandate to be the senior counterparty to key accounts, not to accompany someone else. Where a relationship has to be rebuilt, the executive needs standing rather than introduction.
Contract and terms authority.
The ability to renegotiate payment terms, volume commitments, indexation and escalation clauses within defined limits, which is where much of the recoverable margin actually sits.
Authority over the commercial organisation.
The ability to restructure coverage, reassign accounts and address capability gaps, rather than to recommend those changes for later.
Ownership of the forecast.
Accountability for a commercial forecast the board can plan against, including the authority to change how it is produced and by whom.
Opomba o avtorstvu
Authority must be proportional to the decisions the mandate requires in its first thirty days. In a pricing recovery, an executive without the authority to say no to a discount has no mandate at all.
Zakonita odgovornost, obseg in kritje
Zakonita odgovornost.
Where the mandate requires it, the executive may receive defined authority over price, terms and contract signature, delegated statutory duties or, where formally appointed and permitted by the local corporate structure, a statutory position. The scope is agreed before the start rather than assumed.
Obseg dela se dogovori, preden izvajalec začne z delom.
Naročnik, podjetje CE Interim in izvršni direktor pisno opredelijo naloge, pristojnosti in omejitve glede podpisovanja.
Zavarovanje se sklene za vsak mandat posebej.
Vodstveni delavci imajo sklenjeno lastno zavarovanje poklicne odgovornosti ter zavarovanje za člane upravnega odbora in vodstvene delavce. Pri nekaterih naročilih to zavarovanje zagotovi ali k njemu prispeva naročnik. Tudi podjetje CE Interim in vsak član Valtus Alliance ima sklenjeno lastno zavarovanje.
Mandatni lok
How an Interim Commercial Director mandate unfolds
Every mandate is different. The sequence below describes a common pattern of restoring commercial control.
01
Days 0 to 21
Meet the customers, then look at the numbers
Visit the major accounts personally and early, because what customers say about the business is more reliable than what the pipeline says. Establish the real price waterfall from list to realised. Identify which volume is profitable and which is not.
02
Days 22 to 90
Take the pricing decisions
Set price, terms and discount limits, and withdraw the authority that has spread. Open the contract conversations where input costs have moved and prices have not. Rebuild the relationships that depend on someone senior being present rather than on history.
03
Od 91. dne naprej
Restructure and hand the discipline over
Realign coverage and account ownership so relationships sit with the business rather than with individuals. Rebuild the forecast so the board can plan against it. Establish the commercial governance that will hold after the mandate.
COMMERCIAL MANDATE · 9 TO 12 MONTHS
Pricing decisions can be taken inside ninety days. In CE Interim’s experience, three months is the minimum period in which a price position genuinely changes rather than simply being announced. Margin follows the contract renewal cycle, which in many industrial businesses is annual, so the mandate runs long enough to see decisions through to realised price rather than agreed price.
ZAMENJAVA ODPADLEGA DELOVNEGA MESTA · DO STALNE ZAPOSLITVE
Where the mandate holds key accounts through a leadership gap, the priority is that relationships transfer to the business rather than leave with the departure. The mandate runs to the permanent appointment. Where price recovery is also included, the duration may extend through the relevant contract-renewal cycle.
Pogovorite se s partnerjem o mandatu, preden ga za vas določi situacija.
Rezultati in predaja
What effective interim commercial leadership should achieve
Margin, not only volume
The business knows which revenue is profitable and prices accordingly.
Pricing under control
Discount authority sits where it was intended to, and the waterfall from list to realised price is visible.
Relationships owned by the company
Key accounts are held by the business through defined ownership, not by one person’s contacts.
A forecast that survives contact
The board can plan against the commercial number because it has stopped being an aspiration.
Terms that reflect current costs
Contracts carry indexation and escalation appropriate to the cost base rather than to the year they were signed.
Predaja
Pricing discipline, account ownership and commercial governance transfer to named people inside the business. Continuity without dependency is the objective, and a mandate whose gains leave with the executive has not succeeded.
Koga pošiljamo
The Interim Commercial Directors we appoint
Has recovered price, not only grown volume.
Has gone back to customers where the commercial position no longer reflected the cost base, renegotiated it and retained the relationship.
Has been received in a customer’s boardroom, not introduced.
Major-account recovery requires enough seniority and authority to negotiate directly with the customer’s decision-makers.
Has withdrawn discount authority from a team under target pressure.
Pricing recovery requires both the analysis and the authority to change behaviour when commercial pressure encourages exceptions.
Has renegotiated terms, not just prices.
Indexation, escalation clauses, volume commitments and payment terms can materially affect realised margin and should be considered alongside headline price.
Knows what the business can deliver.
Commercial promises that operations cannot meet can damage margin, customer confidence and delivery performance. Executives who understand the operational side of that trade-off price differently.
CE Interim works through more than 90 operating partners across the Valtus Alliance, in over 30 countries. That reach is what makes it possible to match sector, customer type and commercial situation within 72 hours.
Model imenovanja
Od zaupnega poročanja do imenovanja na vodstveno mesto
01
Poročilo o stanju
A Partner conversation under NDA. Where the commercial position stands, which relationships are at risk, what margin has been lost and what authority can be delegated.
02
Opredelitev mandata in ocena glede na posamezne izzive
CE Interim defines the scope, the reporting line and the pricing authority, then interviews each executive for this commercial situation and this customer base rather than against a generic sales profile.
03
Predstavitev, imenovanje in upravljanje
Prejmete majhno število resnično ustreznih vodstvenih kadrov, ne pa le seznama življenjepisov. Odločitev o imenovanju je vaša, partner za začasno vodenje pa ostane vključen v proces vse do izvedbe.
Čezmejna napetost
Why cross-border commercial mandates are harder to govern
Kaj potrebuje sedež
- A group price position that actually holds in each market
- To know what is really being conceded locally, and when
- A forecast it can plan against rather than hope for
What each market needs
- Terms that reflect what competitors are doing locally
- A negotiator the customer takes seriously, present rather than remote
- Authority to settle in the room instead of referring upward
A group price list that ignores local competitive conditions can produce either lost volume or local discounting that headquarters cannot see. The Interim Commercial Director therefore needs enough local presence and authority to understand what is being conceded and to negotiate directly where the customer relationship requires it.
Področja, na katerih najpogosteje delamo
Moduli za obravnavo situacij
Typical Interim Commercial Director mandates
Operativni preobrat
Margin is eroding while volume holds, and a key account is under review. The mandate is to recover price, rebuild the relationship at senior level and make the profitable volume visible.
Upravljanje, preglednost in nadzor
Discount authority has spread and the forecast is not believed. The mandate is to bring pricing under control and produce a commercial number the board can plan against.
Integracija po združitvi in izločitev poslovanja
Two sales organisations are calling the same customers with different prices. The mandate is to agree coverage and account ownership before the customer exploits the gap.
Ključna prosta delovna mesta na vodstvenih položajih
The commercial leader has gone and the relationships are exposed. The mandate is to hold the key accounts through the gap and transfer ownership to the business.
Okolja po sektorjih
Where CE Interim appoints Interim Commercial Directors
Primarni sektorji
Prav tako se streže
Lastniška razmerja
Pomembno je razumevanje sektorja. Odločilno merilo za izbor je primerljiva vodstvena odgovornost v primerljivi situaciji ter v primerljivem lastniškem okolju.
Dokazi v zadevi
Kje velja ta mandat
Italian mid-market manufacturer · Intervention across Bulgarian and Romanian markets · Distributor channel
Market development through a distributor network, Southern and South-Eastern Europe
Položaj
An owner-managed manufacturer was building its position in two South-Eastern European markets through an established distributor network.
Mandat
Commercial strategy and execution, working directly with the owner. Mandates of this kind turn on channel management and on being present enough in the market to know what distributors are actually doing, rather than on headcount or activity.
Rezultati
The mandate was designed to move distributor management from passive oversight to active market execution: clearer visibility of partner performance, more frequent in-market engagement, and a stronger basis for growing sales through the existing channel network.
Stroški in trajanje
What an Interim Commercial Director mandate costs and how long it runs
Cena naročila se določi kot dnevna tarifa, odvisna od obsega dela, pooblastil in trajanja. Ne gre za odstotek plače, provizijo za posredovanje niti za vnaprejšnjo naložbo. Plačate za delovne dni v okviru dogovorjenega naročila, tarifa pa se potrdi, preden vodstveni kadrovski član začne z delom.
Okvirna dnevna cena
1.000 – 3.000 evrov
Višja, kadar mandat vključuje zakonsko določeno funkcijo ali čezmejno zapletenost.
Trajanje in mejniki
Commercial mandate
Od devet do dvanajst mesecev
Nadomeščanje odsotnih zaposlenih
Na stalno delovno mesto
Pricing authority and commercial cadence established
V tridesetih dneh
Izvršni direktor na kraju samem
V 72 urah po predložitvi končnega poročila
Kaj vpliva na to številko.
The complexity of the commercial model and the number of markets and channels. Whether major account recovery sits inside the mandate. Whether pricing authority extends to contract terms as well as price. The language senior customer negotiation is conducted in. Every mandate is delivered on site.
Glede na kaj naj bi se merilo.
Ne gre za stroške mandata, temveč za stroške, ki nastanejo, če se razmere nadaljujejo brez odgovorne izvršilne oblasti, medtem ko se odločitve odlagajo.
Koliko boste dejansko plačali.
Partner vam v prvem zaupnem pogovoru navede znesek. Brez stroškov, brez obveznosti.
Vprašanja
Questions boards and owners ask
Interim Commercial Director or Interim Sales Director?
Commercial Director where the model is complex, with several revenue streams, channels or major accounts, and where pricing and margin are in scope. Sales Director where the model is a single sales motion and the requirement is to lead the team executing it.
Our revenue is falling. Is this the right appointment?
Sometimes. If customers are leaving because of delivery or quality rather than price or relationship, a commercial appointment treats the symptom. A Partner will say so, and will point to the operational appointment that addresses the cause.
How is this different from a commercial consultancy?
A consultancy typically analyses the position and recommends action. An Interim Commercial Director holds delegated executive authority to make pricing, account and commercial-structure decisions and to negotiate directly with customers within the mandate. It is the difference between a recommendation and a decision taken with a team missing target.
Will an outsider damage our customer relationships?
It does not have to. Relationships held by one individual are already a continuity risk. Part of the mandate is transferring them to defined ownership so they survive any departure, including the interim’s.
Kakšna pooblastila ima začasni predstavnik?
Pricing and discount authority, contract and terms authority within defined limits, ownership of major accounts, and authority over commercial structure. Agreed before the executive starts, because a customer establishes what someone can commit to within the first meeting.
Can prices really be recovered without losing the customer?
They can be, where the economics support the change and the relationship can absorb it. The negotiation should reflect the customer’s position, the cost movement, the contract and the value of the account rather than assume every increase can be passed through. Seniority and clear decision authority become particularly important where the account or the negotiation is material to the business.
Kako hitro se lahko nekdo loti dela?
A vetted, mandate-matched executive is ready to start within 72 hours of the completed mandate brief. In CE Interim’s experience, a permanent Commercial Director search can run eight to twelve weeks, with any notice period adding further time, and pipeline and relationships decay throughout it.
Kdo sklene pogodbo z izvajalcem in kaj krije naročnik?
CE dodeljuje mandata za začasno zaposlitev na podlagi poslovnih odnosov med podjetji, pri čemer začasni izvršni direktor ne postane stalni zaposleni pri naročniku. Pogodbena stranka je lokalni subjekt ali regionalno središče, odvisno od države, v kateri poteka posredovanje, izbran izmed več kot tridesetih subjektov v okviru zavezništva Valtus Alliance. Zaposlitveni status, davčne obveznosti, obveznosti v zvezi s socialnim zavarovanjem in druge s tem povezane obveznosti so odvisne od pravne ureditve, pogodbene strukture in okoliščin mandata, zato je sodelovanje prilagojeno državi, v kateri se delo opravlja.
Kdo nosi tveganje, kadar izvršni direktor zaseda uradno funkcijo?
Zavarovanje se sklene za vsak posamezen mandat. Izvršni direktor ima sklenjeno lastno zavarovanje za odgovornost direktorjev in vodstvenih delavcev ter poklicno odgovornost, pri nekaterih mandatih pa ga zagotovi ali k njemu prispeva naročnik. Tudi podjetje CE Interim in vsak član Valtus Alliance imata sklenjeno lastno zavarovanje. Obseg odgovornosti, omejitve in podpisne pravice se pisno dogovorijo med naročnikom, družbo CE Interim in izvršnim direktorjem, preden ta začne opravljati svoje naloge.
Does the executive need to speak the customer’s language?
Not always, but direct language capability can materially improve a senior customer negotiation. CE Interim treats it as a selection criterion where the account relationship, local market or negotiation requires it. Negotiating through an intermediary can concede ground that is difficult to recover.
How long before margin actually moves?
Pricing decisions can be taken inside ninety days. Margin follows the contract renewal cycle, which in many industrial businesses is annual, so the mandate runs nine to twelve months to see the decisions through to realised price rather than agreed price.
Will we lose customers?
Possibly. The mandate should define which accounts and volumes create sustainable value, and what level of customer attrition, if any, the business is prepared to accept. Price recovery is not about preserving every unit of volume regardless of economics.
Kaj se zgodi na koncu?
A deliberate handover. Pricing discipline, account ownership and the commercial governance move to named people inside the business, so the gains do not leave with the executive.
Every discount granted this quarter is the opening position for the next negotiation.
Pogovorite se neposredno z začasnim partnerjem podjetja CE o razmerah na vodstvenem položaju, mandatu in potrebnih pooblastilih. Pogovor je zaupen in vas ne zavezuje k sklenitvi pogodbe.
Partner se odzove v 24 urah. Nujne situacije na vodstvenih položajih imajo prednost.
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