Role search
Get an Interim Chief Sales & Marketing Officer who can own revenue stack P&L accountability.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You choose from a short list of people who have done this before.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you engage someone we present.
Interim Headhunters starts with the work behind this request: Your organization misses targets because marketing and sales operate as isolated silos. Marketing generates leads that sales rejects, while sales struggles with prospects that do not fit the established value proposition.
This is what we do all day: place interim executives, interim managers and contract professionals.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
- No upfront fee
- 2 to 3 vetted consultants per assignment
- Matched to your industry
- You choose
- Interim plus permanent search
- Interim Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
The judgment call
What this hire really comes down to
Your organization misses targets because marketing and sales operate as isolated silos. Marketing generates leads that sales rejects, while sales struggles with prospects that do not fit the established value proposition. You need an interim leader who removes these boundaries.
Success requires moving away from gut-based decisions toward hard pipeline integrity. This leader audits your tech stack to eliminate vanity metrics that obscure actual performance. They hold themselves accountable to the top-line number, not just campaign activity or social reach. We look for individuals who have built frameworks that identify why leads fail at specific stages. They implement the exact logic required to clean your CRM, adjust lead scoring, and ensure your team focuses on prospects with the highest probability of contract signature.
What we check
What we check before you see anyone
- We verify candidates have managed the entire revenue stack as a single P&L responsibility. They must demonstrate they understand the friction points where marketing handoffs collapse into sales inefficiency and how to repair those structural breaks permanently.
- We audit their history with compensation plan architecture. They must show they designed incentive structures that drive specific behaviors, such as closing high-margin deals or prioritizing multi-year contracts, rather than simply rewarding high-volume but low-value activity.
- We require evidence of direct experience with CRM configuration and forecast hygiene. They must prove they can build processes that force salespeople to input data accurately, ensuring that projections presented to the board reflect reality instead of optimistic guessing.
- We examine their specific methodology for territory modeling and account penetration. They must show they have built systems that scale with growth, ensuring that as you add headcount, the administrative burden on your top performers remains manageable and focused on actual selling time.
Sourcing
Where we find them
We target revenue leaders within private equity firms and hyper-growth mid-market organizations where operational efficiency is the standard for survival. These candidates already thrive in environments where board members demand absolute accuracy and fast progress. They possess the direct experience of forcing alignment between departments that historically resisted each other. They know exactly which configurations in a sales or marketing tech stack cause adoption failure and how to keep processes simple enough for the team to use every day.
These executives seek interim roles because they want the authority to force change without the stagnation of long-term bureaucratic approval cycles. They have already established successful careers, so they value the ability to drop into a situation, identify the primary cause of revenue leakage, and implement the necessary fixes immediately. They move to your firm because they want to deploy proven, high-impact strategies in a fresh environment that is ready for significant structural improvement.
Where searches go wrong
Mistakes we see
- Hiring a generalist who lacks deep knowledge of the specific marketing automation or sales software you use. A leader who cannot audit the actual system configuration will fail to drive meaningful adoption or process improvement.
- Prioritizing candidates who excel only at high-level strategy without having actually built a sales commission model or fixed a broken lead routing process themselves. You need an operator who knows how to configure a field in a CRM, not just someone who draws the strategy on a whiteboard.
- Accepting a candidate who does not have experience managing the friction between marketing and sales. They often fail to address the underlying data culture issues, allowing the same information silos that caused your past performance struggles to persist under new management.
The search
How the Interim Chief Sales & Marketing Officer search runs
- First, we define the technical requirements based on your specific sales motion and current software environment. We confirm whether you need a candidate who has built an inbound-heavy funnel or someone who mastered high-touch enterprise outbound prospecting. This ensures the leader we present matches your actual business model.
- Next, we conduct deep-dive interviews to confirm their recent experience with the specific revenue hurdles you face. We ask them to detail exactly how they cleaned a lead database, adjusted a failing commission plan, or resolved a conflict between sales and marketing teams. We discard anyone who speaks only in generalities or theories.
- Finally, we connect you with candidates who provide a clear, actionable plan for their first sixty days. They must explain how they will evaluate your current pipeline integrity and which specific operational changes they will prioritize to show you immediate results before they move to long-term scaling.
Questions
How does this role differ from a standard Chief Marketing Officer or VP of Sales?
A standard marketing leader focuses on lead generation volume, while a sales leader focuses on closing deals. This interim leader owns both, ensuring the quality of leads meets the requirements of the sales team to ensure predictable revenue.
What is the primary indicator that I need this specific executive?
You need this role when your marketing and sales teams cannot agree on the quality of the pipeline or the validity of the data. When the teams operate in silos that prevent clear visibility, this leader bridges the gap.
Do I need to pay for the recruitment search upfront?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
What happens if our existing CRM data is a mess?
This is a standard part of their work. They identify the cause of the poor data hygiene and implement strict processes to ensure the system becomes a reliable source of truth.
What replacement terms apply?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
How are recruiting fees agreed?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you engage someone we present. We scope the assignment before quoting; the fee page explains our model.
How soon can we see options?
Availability depends on the assignment and the people who fit it. We qualify interest and commitments rather than promising a shortlist date before the search is scoped.
What if the scope grows?
Discuss new responsibilities before adding them to the engagement. Agree the priorities and record any change to the brief and terms.
Can we extend an engagement?
Discuss what remains unfinished and whether the same responsibility is still needed. Extensions depend on the person's commitments and the agreed engagement terms.
Can the appointment become permanent?
A permanent move can be discussed if both sides want it. Review the future role and the applicable agreement instead of assuming that temporary coverage automatically converts.
How is a confidential search handled?
Tell us what can be disclosed and whom we must not contact. We agree those boundaries before approaching people; do not send sensitive records with an initial brief.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What do you not do?
We do not sell job-board reposting as a search or bill hourly for recruiting work. We do not take a retainer unless expressly agreed, and an introduction does not authorize an engagement.
Tell us the seat
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. Share the title, the situation and the timing. A person reads it.
Interim Chief Sales & Marketing Officer by industry and related roles
Need the team under this role?
All industries
- Private Equity & Portfolio Companies
- Distribution, Logistics & Supply Chain
- Technology, SaaS & Software
- Consumer, Retail & E-commerce
- Professional & Business Services
- Family-Owned & Owner-Led Businesses
- Venture-Backed & High-Growth Companies
More Sales, Marketing & Revenue roles
The Six-Step Search
What do you get at each step of the search?
We agree what the person must own before contacting anyone. You see how the search is scoped and which backgrounds we pursue. We speak with candidates about the work before presenting them. The Six-Step Search gives you useful written notes and support through interviews, rather than a pile of applications.
- 01
Scope call
We talk through the seat, the business and what has to change.
You get: A one-page role brief you approve before we search.
- 02
Market map
We work out where people who have done this job actually sit.
You get: A short note on the pool and how we plan to reach it.
- 03
Direct outreach
We approach people who are not looking at job boards.
You get: Progress updates so you are never chasing us.
- 04
Screening
We interview every candidate on the work, not the resume.
You get: Written notes on fit, availability and terms for each person.
- 05
Shortlist and interviews
You meet a short list. We handle the scheduling.
You get: Several vetted options and a debrief after each interview.
- 06
Offer and start
You choose. We help settle terms and the start date.
You get: Confirmed terms, a start date and check-ins after day one.
Tell us who you need.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you engage someone we present.
Send us the seat. We will take it from there.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you engage someone we present.