Interim Sales Director · Interim CSO

When sales
stops delivering.

A vacant sales leadership role, flat revenue, a team without direction. I take over sales leadership on an interim basis – in regulated, explanation-intensive markets, with full accountability for the number.

✓Available within days
✓Full accountability for results
✓Medtech · Dental · Pharma

Or call directly: +41 76 537 53 33 (CH) · +49 171 199 55 33 (DE)

3–12 months
typical mandate
Interim CSOSales DirectorBusiness Development

Interim sales leadership

What interim sales leadership actually changes

A sales organisation that stops delivering rarely has a motivation problem. It has a steering problem. Targets without follow-up, territories without potential assessment, quotes without a chase process, a CRM that gets maintained rather than used.

As an interim sales director or interim CSO I take over that steering – not as advice from outside, but in the line. I lead the team, talk to your customers, sit in the deal conversations and carry the number.

First 30 days: pipeline review, one-to-one with every field representative, analysis of the past twelve months by customer, product and territory. By day 90: a new target system, a revised territory structure, a follow-up process that actually happens. After that: deliver.

Where I come from

Sales leadership in regulated markets

My first ten years of sales responsibility were in the pharmaceutical industry, ending in 1993. Sales Director Germany, leading ten people across prescription and hospital business, and before that Regional Sales Manager Rx in North Rhine-Westphalia, leading fifteen.

What followed were more than thirty years of leadership in medical technology, dental and plastics – industries with the same logic: regulatory approval as a precondition, the hospital as a customer, products that need explaining, long decision cycles, and a purchasing function that is not the user.

If you are looking for a pharma specialist with current reimbursement and market-access practice, I am not your candidate. If you need someone to lead, structure and turn around a sales organisation, let us talk.

Typical situations

When interim sales leadership makes sense

  • The sales director has left at short notice and recruitment will take months.
  • Revenue has been flat for several quarters without a market explanation.
  • The sales team has grown, the steering has not.
  • A new product or market needs a sales structure that does not exist yet.
  • A private equity investor expects growth the current organisation is not producing.

Reference: At a mid-sized injection moulding company I realigned and restructured the sales organisation as Interim Senior Sales Manager. I also developed market analysis, marketing and sales strategy for a Berlin-based endodontics startup entering the DACH, EU and US markets.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about interim sales leadership

An interim sales director takes over operational leadership of the sales organisation for a defined period – target setting, territory steering, pipeline management, people leadership and customer conversations. They carry revenue responsibility like a permanent sales director but are operational within days.
Usually within a few days. An experienced interim manager needs no ramp-up on the role itself – the first weeks go into understanding product, customers and team, not into learning how to lead.
The interim CSO owns the entire commercial side including strategy, marketing and business development and sits on the management board. The interim sales director leads the sales organisation operationally. Which role fits depends on company size and starting position.
Yes, for leading the sales organisation. My own pharmaceutical years as sales director and regional manager ended in 1993 – so I bring leadership experience from the industry, not current regulatory practice. Where up-to-date market access or reimbursement expertise is required, you should look for a specialist.
Typically three to twelve months. Shorter when bridging to a permanent hire, longer when the sales organisation is being restructured.

Contact

Enquiry: Interim Sales Director

✓ Thank you! Your message has been sent successfully.
✗ Error sending message. Please email us directly.
More Topics

← Back to Home Interim CEO Medtech Market Entry DACH Leadership Vacancy Interim Sales Director About Dietmar Heer