Sales leadership
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In English
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7 min
Mika Sievinen
Interim & fractional commercial leadership · 20+ years
The fractional model doesn't fit every situation. Sometimes you don't need one or three days a week – you need a real, full-time leader who grabs the wheel immediately, but only for a set period. That's an interim sales director.
An interim sales director is an experienced commercial leader who joins your company full-time for a fixed term, typically three to twelve months. They're not a consultant watching from the side, but a leader who owns the result while they're there.
In this article I cover when interim is the right choice, what to demand from it, and how it differs from the fractional model.
Three situations where interim is the right move
A hiring gap. Your sales director left, and finding a good successor takes months. Without a leader, sales drifts exactly when it can't afford to. An interim keeps sales together and moving, and often builds the model the new permanent leader will step into.
A change or turnaround. Sales isn't working, the numbers are falling, and nobody in-house has the experience to turn it around. An interim brings both the expertise and the outside view — and the authority to make the decisions an insider finds hard to make.
A hard growth push or a new market. When you need to scale fast or open a new market (for example entering Finland or Sweden), you briefly need more leadership capacity than you do permanently. An interim brings it without inflating your permanent cost base.
What to demand from an interim sales director
An interim costs more than a fractional because you get the full time. So demand more than "keep it running." A good interim leaves something permanent behind: a documented sales process, a working weekly rhythm, metrics, and ideally a trained successor.
So set a clear goal and end state right at the start: what needs to be in place by the time the interim leaves. Without that, you're paying for a full-time leader but getting no lasting benefit — just an expensive stopgap.
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Thinking about launching or scaling in Finland?
Tell me a little about your situation. I read every message myself and reply within a day.
or email info@detgodalivet.fi · LinkedIn
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Interim vs. fractional — which one for you?
A simple rule of thumb: interim answers the question "who leads sales right now?", fractional answers "who builds and leads sales continuously, but part-time?"
Choose interim when the need is acute and full-time but temporary: a hiring gap, a turnaround, a big change. Choose fractional when the need is ongoing but not full-time. I wrote about the fractional model in more detail.
Many companies also start with an interim and continue with a fractional afterwards: first get things in order full-time, then keep them running with a lighter touch.
What an interim sales director costs
Because it's full-time work for a fixed period, the price is higher than the fractional model, but still a fraction of the risk and commitment a permanent hire brings.
You don't pay for notice periods, for a failed recruitment, or for the months of waiting before a new person becomes productive. You get an experienced leader doing productive work essentially from day one.
How it shows up in real life
I've walked into more than one company where the sales director had just left and there was a bit of quiet panic in the air. The first job usually isn't to sell more: it's to stop the bleeding and create order. Once the reps know who leads, where we're going, and what's expected of them, the energy comes back surprisingly fast.
Another lesson over the years: the fixed term is actually an advantage, not a weakness. When both I and the client know I'm there to get a specific thing done in a specific time, decisions get made faster and nobody builds an empire. The focus stays on what actually moves the numbers.
And the most underrated benefit: an outsider can say out loud what everyone inside the company knows but nobody dares to say. That alone turns a surprising number of situations around.
Frequently asked questions
What is an interim sales director?
An experienced sales leader who works with your company full-time for a fixed period (typically 3–12 months) and owns the leadership and result of sales during that time.
When should you bring in an interim sales director?
For a hiring gap, a sales turnaround or change situation, or a hard growth push or new-market entry — when you need full-time leadership but only temporarily.
What's the difference between an interim and a fractional sales leader?
Interim is full-time but fixed-term; fractional is part-time but ongoing. Interim fits an acute need, fractional an ongoing but lighter one.
START A CONVERSATION
Thinking about launching or scaling in Finland?
Tell me a little about your situation. I read every message myself and reply within a day.
or email info@detgodalivet.fi · LinkedIn