Interim Sales Managers: When Can Hiring an Interim Sales Manager be the Best Option?

At first glance, an interim sales manager may seem like a strange concept. After all, “sales” is a constant, “business as usual” function within any organisation.

However, over recent years, the concept of an interim sales manager has emerged. Specifically interim sales managers are increasingly seen as a flexible and appropriate solution in the following three business situations:

1) Stop Gaps

2) Start-ups

3) Special Projects

This article looks at each of these three situations and explores how an interim sales manager can add immediate value.

Stop Gaps

Many companies can find themselves in positions where they have a short-term requirement to plug a gap in their sales function. Typical scenarios include long-term illness, maternity leave and any type of sudden unplanned crisis.

Whether it’s because the situation does not allow for a permanent resource, or that the time to recruit leaves sales exposed, an interim sales manager can bring immediate resource to bear on the problem.

Almost exclusively, temporary sales people are not catered for in the general recruitment market; this is the domain of professional interim sales managers who specialise in filling immediate interim assignments.

Start-ups

Another common situation where an interim sales manager is a good solution is with start-ups and early stage companies. Typically, these companies have limited resources and find attracting top sales talent a real problem.

Interim sales managers are usually over-qualified, experienced individuals with broad experience across different business stages. As well as bringing additional “hands on” sales resource, an interim sales manager will add value through supporting the start-up management team with strategy and market development.

Interim sales managers are also “heavy hitters” with strong networks, capable of opening doors and bringing in major deals that younger sales hires would struggle with.

Special Projects

Finally, every business has times when they need to focus resource on new areas to drive revenue. Often, these special projects emerge from board-level strategies to sustain profitable growth and retain a competitive edge.

These could include exploring new markets, evaluating current sales channels, or merging sales teams and divisions.

An interim sales manager is an excellent solution for this situation. Crucially, interim sales managers bring a fresh perspective, unencumbered by internal politics and structures.

In addition, while it could be argued that existing sales people could be utilised for these special projects, rather than bringing in an interim sales manager, this seldom works in reality.

Why? Unlike an Interim Sales Manager, existing sales people (if they are good) are best left focused on execution. Indeed, most of their remuneration will come from successfully selling established products to existing markets.

Many a new product launch has been halted by sales teams that are not interested in selling the new product; once they experience resistance, they go back to selling what they know.

In contrast, interim sales managers measure success by their last assignment. Once you have an interim sales manager focused on delivering a successful outcome they have no option but to make it work.

In summary, there are many situations where hiring an interim sales manager is the best option.

From start-ups to multi-national organisations, interim sales managers represent a flexible and results-focused solution short-term sales and business development resourcing.

Explanation of T-account, Debit and Credit, and Double-entry Accounting System

All accountants know several terms that create basis for any accounting system. Such terms are T-account, debit and credit, and double-entry accounting system. Of course, these terms are studied by accounting students all over the world. However, any business person, whether an investment banker or a small business owner, will benefit from knowing them as well. They are easy to grasp and will be helpful in most business situations. Let us take a closer look at these accounting terms.

T-Account

Accounting records about events and transactions are recorded in accounts. An account is an individual record of increases and decreases in a specific asset, liability, or owner’s equity item. Look at accounts as a place for recording numbers related to a certain item or class of transactions. Examples of accounts may be Cash, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Accounts Payable, Accrued Payroll, Sales, Rent Expenses and so on.

An account consists of three parts:

- title of the account

- left side (known as debit)

- right side (known as credit)

Because the alignment of these parts of an account resembles the letter T, it is referred to as a T account. You could draw T accounts on a piece of paper and use it to maintain your accounting records. However, nowadays, instead of having to draw T accounts, accountants use accounting software (i.e., QuickBooks, Microsoft Accounting, Peachtree, JD Edwards, Oracle, and SAP, among others).

Debit, Credit and Account Balance

In account, the term debit means left side, and credit means right side. These are abbreviated as Dr for debit and Cr for credit. Debit and credit indicate on which side of a T account numbers will be recorded.

An account balance is the difference between the debit and credit amounts. For some types of accounts debit means an increase in the account balance, while for others debit means a decrease in the account balance. See below for a list of accounts and what a debit to such account means:

Asset – Increase
Contra Assets – Decrease
Liability – Decrease
Equity – Decrease
Contribution Capital – Decrease
Revenue – Decrease
Expenses – Increase
Distributions – Increase

Credits to the above account types will mean an opposite result.

Double-entry Accounting System

A double-entry accounting system requires that any amount entered into the accounting records is shown at least on two different accounts. For example, when a customer pays cash for your product, an account would show the cash received in the Cash account (as a debit) and in the Sales account (as a credit). All debit amounts equal all credit amounts provided the double-entry accounting was properly followed.

Having a double-entry accounting system has benefits over regular, one-sided systems. One of such benefits is that the double-entry system helps identify recording errors. As I mentioned, if one amount is entered only once in error, then debits and credits won’t balance and the accountant will know that one or more entries were not posted fully. Note, however, that this check will help spot errors, but will not identify all cases of errors. For example, equal debits and credits will not identify an error when an amount was posted twice, but was posted to wrong accounts. Keep this in mind when analyzing causes of errors in accounting records.

 

Terri Albertson, CPA, talks about a career in accounting on CBS-3.
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