Bring the Perfect Fit Into Your Organization to Cover Your Talent Void

 

 

“To fill a Gap

Insert the Thing that caused it—

Block it up

With Other—and 'twill yawn the more—

You cannot solder an Abyss

With Air.”

by Emily Dickinson

 

After the disruptions caused by the pandemic last year, 2021 will be about an accelerated shift in the workforce. It is driven by both the needs of the businesses, as well as the interest of individuals.

Companies look for talent with just the right skillset, also flexibility and cost control, and speed-to-market. Their workforce on all levels needs to adjust, and that includes the executives.

And those executives are seeking out new roles as well: After ending a full-time position, they want to stay engaged and meet a wide range of exciting businesses; they’re retired or post-exit and want to keep working, just not full-time; they’re looking for advisory opportunities to help others; or they are committed to a more flexible lifestyle.

As an owner, founder, or CEO of a business, you might be wondering how to take advantage of this trend and incorporate the right talent into your existing team. Here is the ultimate checklist.

The terminology used to describe this type of engagement is sometimes confusing:

Contractor, interim, fractional, 1099, gig, on-demand, project-based, outsourced, hired gun, virtual, third-party, as-a-service, SLaaS, shared, temporary, freelance, paid-by-the-drink, try-before-you-buy, free-range, cloud-based, elastic, acting, dynamic, flexible, contract-to-hire, ad-hoc, short-term, for hire, timeshare, rent-a-head, drop-in, portfolio career, staff augmentation, independent, contingent, expertise-as-a-service, mercenary, …

Some terms overlap, others have a distinct meaning.

There are four basic types of contractual executives:

1.     Interim: Someone who is fully dedicated to working with your company and fills a role, but only temporarily (e.g., 6 months as the Interim VP of Sales, you can think of them as filling a gap).

2.     Fractional: Someone who works part-time with your company on a temporary, yet often longer-term basis (e.g., 3 years as a Fractional CFO, they fill a role on a longer-term, part-time basis).

3.     Advisor or Coach: Someone who supports your existing team or specific team member by offering “external” advice, coaching, or mentorship as needed (e.g., a Coach to the CMO, this might be on a short- or longer-term basis).

4.     Project-Based: Someone who is brought on to complete a specific project and works alongside the existing team (e.g., Export Business Development Director, to jump-start your European market entry).

Depending on your business needs, the capability or capacity of your existing team, and your resources overall, contractual or on-demand executives fill the physical void, the skill gap, or add a resource to increase speed. Since they are on-demand, you only engage and pay them when they are needed. And if the need is not full time, you only pay for the time you need their specific skillset.

They are part of your team, not outsiders since they generally take over roles that you could choose to fill with a W2 employee. An on-demand executive becomes a full member of your management team for the duration of the assignment. They will operate as part of your team, rather than as an employee of an external organization.

While every company’s on-demand talent needs will vary, there are patterns or clusters. For starters, it includes all companies that need to manage issues outside their current capacity or their capabilities. Demand for this type of talent is coming from virtually all industries, as it is an opportunity to mitigate the risk of doing too much, too little, not the right, or nothing at all.

On-demand executives also are available for all functional areas of the business. There are on-demand CEOs, COOs, CIOs, CFOs, CMOs, CROs, CSOs, CHROs, to name a few.

Here are a few opportunities when to think about bringing on-demand executives to lead the sales efforts in your business.

·       Companies founded by technology or business experts without experience in structuring and running a successful sales team.

·       Companies or businesses requiring a sales-driven turnaround.

·       Companies looking for a sales leader open to transition Temp-to-Perm. The on-demand executive can fill the role permanently following the end of the assignment.

·       Companies in transition, as a result of a recent or upcoming M&A / Due Diligence / Spin-off activity, a new investor, a defined exit strategy, …

·       Companies in turmoil. On-demand sales leaders bring order to chaos, motivate and enable a team to row in the same direction.

·       Companies needing to complete a project and lacking the capacity or capability.

·       Companies with involuntary turn-over that need to build trust and reliability in and around their sales team.

·       Companies where the current executives take on too much and lack the bandwidth to provide sales leadership.

·       Companies with a sudden surge and the need to expand executive staffing immediately.

·       Companies where the business has outgrown the existing sales leadership talent.

·       Companies aiming to increase their growth rate… quickly.

·       Companies looking to expand internationally and lack in-house expertise.

·       Companies that do not (yet) need or can afford a full-time sales leader, looking for part-time or fractional leadership.

·       Companies that need to fill the role of the sales leader quickly and have no time to wait and undertake a lengthy executive search.

·       Companies experiencing a sudden, unplanned sales leadership void.

·       Companies entering the scale-up phase.

·       Companies and CEO’s looking to provide mentorship or coaching to the current sales leader.

Whatever your specific situation is, talk to us to determine how an interim, fractional, project-based, or coaching sales leader can move the needle in your business.

_______________________________

Photo by Anne Gosewehr