Revenue and/or Profitability Issues?

An Interim Business Development Leader May Be a Solution

“If your company is not generating new name business,

then you are going out of business!”

In today’s market place no business can afford to stand still. In fact, it is impossible. One is either moving forward or going backward. And hopefully going forward with profitable new name revenues. A company cannot survive just on its installed client base because companies lose clients on their own, as well as the competition, takes some away. An interim business development professional (Interim) can assist you and your team for future profitable growth. And certainly now as the “new normal” is evolving. Don’t get left behind.

IS YOUR SALES MANAGEMENT TEAM STRETCHED TO ITS LIMITS AND/OR UNDERPERFORMING?

An Interim professional offers a new way for you to turnaround corporate performance, provide temporary leadership for special projects, or assisting with periods of executive transition. 

UNLIKE CONSULTANTS, INTERIMS DO THE WORK AND ARE ACCOUNTABLE DIRECTLY TO SENIOR MANAGEMENT, THE BOARD OR SHAREHOLDERS.

Over the years Interims have faced numerous managerial challenges in core functions including operations, finance, technology, HR, and sales and marketing; business challenges including layoffs, budget reductions, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, rapid growth, and expansion. Interims are able to successfully meet or exceed expectations for these significant business process and technology changes because their only goal is for the success of the team and organization; no political or other motives.

INTERIM EXPERT ONLY WHEN YO NEED IT:

• Needing a resource due to reorganization, illness, or resignation

• Supplementing your management team with inter-specialized skills

• Planning, managing, and executing strategic sales and marketing initiatives

• Re-engineering business processes to achieve best-practice standards

• Building new business units or lines of business

• Completing post-merger and acquisition integration

• Divesting business units or assets

• Operating business units that have unique challenges and/or strategies

• Coaching, mentoring, and development of senior executives and key management teams

INTERIM PROVIDES:

• Immediate impact on day 1 of experience, expertise, and excellence – Results.

• Sustained high-quality work environment with new or essential skills.

• Confident and capable leadership having lead multiple projects.

• Objective, best-practice advice - They’re not encumbered by company politics for their gain. They’re results-oriented who implement change to a satisfactory conclusion; then provide knowledge transfer such that the company can proceed without them.

• Functional and technical expertise in diverse markets and multiple vertical industries.

The value that an Interim can bring to a company dependents on obtaining the best fit Interim candidate for the company requirements (skills, budget, availability, and cultural fit). The Interim profile indicates that the company is gaining an experienced veteran that is “sensibly overqualified” for their position. There is little or no learning curve with an Interim so that positive results are achieved quickly. The experienced Interim brings a fresh and new perspective to a company’s processes and procedures.

INTERIMS ARE LESS EXPENSIVE.

Cost-Effective, lower expense than FTE. One of the best documents that address Interims is “The Interim Executive: Gaining a Competitive Business Edge through Interim Executive Management” by Dr. Katherine Jones of the Human Capital Institute. Her article, published in April of 2008 is even more relevant today. The following is an excerpt from the article which addresses the value of an Interim from a cost perspective.

“Expense management is aided with interim employees at all levels. Particularly in times of fiscal or economic uncertainly, the ability to readily add and subtract both staff and executive management represents a return on a capital strategy that impacts the bottom line. As assignment based employees, interim executives provide a cost-effective, short-term solution to fill business-critical gaps or drive major initiatives such as mitigating or overcoming crisis situations such as financial shortfalls, takeovers, turnarounds, or family conflicts.

Companies can avoid unnecessarily tying up capital in human capital: They can avoid a permanent hire they do not need for things that should run by themselves if set up correctly (GAAP compliance in accounting, e.g.) or for initiatives that have an identifiable conclusion—such as a recruiting initiative that, once complete, does not require the long-term employ of a professional recruiter. In addition, companies can avoid the cost of a bad hire, hired quickly, and with insufficient evaluation. Often if a new hire proves a mistake, it takes months or years to undo the damage and refill the position. Plus, hiring the wrong person is expensive. You suffer recruitment costs (for the misfit and for a replacement), lost productivity, lost business opportunities, severance pay, unemployment compensation, and maybe even legal fees.

Many experts agree that, added up, hiring the wrong person will cost your company three times the person’s annual salary. In addition to the monetary cost, a bad hiring decision adversely affects the morale of other employees. Hiring the wrong person, especially in a management role, can actually result in the loss of good workers.”

 The Interim is more cost-effective than an FTE even if the FTE works out. The chart below documents the percentage of cost savings for an Interim over an FTE during Year One.  

The cost-benefit analysis is for a one year period with annualized costs:

• Interim – Total Year One Cost $384,000; compensation only ($200/hr. for 1,920 hrs.)

• FTE:

o   Total Compensation      $250,000         Base plus Bonus

o   R/F/T/LT                        $158,333          Recruiting, Finders, Training, Lost Time

o   Benefits                          $  62,550         Standard Inclusive

o   Other Costs                   $  15,000         Perks and IT Costs

           Total Cost       $485,833

The Interim is $101,833 less expensive than the FTE; a savings of 21% over 12 months. The savings percentage increases for shorter project durations. The soft costs for an FTE were not included. If they were, an additional $40,833 would be added to the FTE cost, making the savings even greater. The references for the chart and statistics were:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employer Costs for Employee Compensation

• Leadership of Demand: How Smart CEO’s Tap Interim Management to Drive Revenue by Charles Besondy, Paul Travis and Theresa Heath

• The Proliferation of the Interim Professional by David Wire Sept 2017