Commercial director job requirements. Commercial director is the most expensive person

Without delving into the essence of the work, one might think that commercial department completely follows the line-staff principle. The commercial department is not a single whole: its functions and sales are divided into autonomous components, but at the same time they have the same value and are equivalent for the work of the entire department. Their only common goal is to force the buyer to purchase a particular product. The fact that each component works independently in the commercial department should not negatively affect the work; each side of the activity makes its own small contribution to the activities of the entire enterprise.

What does the commercial department do in a company?

The distinctive features of any activity are the presence of its direction and the organization of tasks to achieve the desired peaks. The purpose of the commercial department is the acquisition by individuals or legal entities of goods and services offered on the market, or their exchange for other goods for mutual benefit. Interestingly, the elements operated by marketing are also operated by the commercial department. The organization of the commercial department is complex, but at the same time allows it to perform many tasks.

The main goal of the commercial department is to create a specific system of measures aimed at regulating the processes of purchase and sale, meeting demand and making a profit.

All processes regulated by the commercial department of the enterprise are divided into two types: technological and commercial.

Technological processes are related to logistics. This concept means all operations performed during the transportation of cargo (transportation, unloading, storage, packaging, packing). These operations are a continuation of the production process and the direct movement of transport.

Commercial transactions represent all processes related in one way or another to buying and selling. This list also includes organizational and economic processes. It cannot be said that they are directly related to buying and selling, but these processes definitely affect the systematization of trade flow.

Commercial operations are also functions of the commercial department:

study of demand for a product, its forecast. Research of consumer demand for certain groups of goods;
search and identification of suppliers;
all actions related to the formation of a product range;
assortment management;
economic justification for choosing a particular supplier;
organizing relationships with suppliers;
organization of service;
conclusion and termination of contracts, all work with documentation;
selection of marketing techniques for selling goods;
the use of marketing in social networks, advertising on the Internet, etc.
assessment and study of one's own activities.

Examples of standards for the commercial department

The basis for the use of any techniques and actions in commercial activities should be the conditions currently prevailing in the market.

Correct and productive work of the commercial department of an enterprise will only develop if all personnel fully understand what the tasks of the commercial department are:

implementation;
sales forecast;
implementation policy – sales and service;
studying the market situation;
advertising, marketing, trade development;
setting prices for the entire range of goods;
packaging and distribution;
commercial staff.

Responsibilities of the commercial department

Many firms still outsource advertising responsibilities to specialized agencies. The management of the enterprise determines only the policy for conducting advertising campaigns. But it’s time to understand that advertising largely determines the policy of the company itself; the perception of the company by clients directly depends on it. The best solution in this case would be to introduce the position of commercial department administrator.

This person is needed to ensure that advertising reinforces company policy, but does not establish it. Good advertising is one of the important conditions for selling and purchasing goods. The company needs to time its efforts according to sales, production and distribution capabilities.

Market research

It does not matter where the information about the current state of the market was obtained from (application to advertising agencies, personal observations, use of general information as a source), it is the most important component for carrying out marketing campaigns. Responsibility for information retrieval placed on top management will render any knowledge acquired useless and unnecessary. It would be much better to assign it to the “working layer”, then any information received will become a powerful planning tool for you. This market research technique helps organize the activities of all layers of employees in the commercial department, and also forecasts sales. Market research is not yet so widely used in the work of enterprises.

Planning the product range and setting prices

Setting prices in commercial departments by administrators has not yet taken root in domestic companies. The fact that prices should be set in the commercial departments is considered heresy. But the fact that employees of the commercial department should have influence on the range of goods is clear to everyone. The compromise to get out of this situation will be the creation of a new price setting headquarters, which will be supervised by commercial administrators.

Forecasting and planning of income and salaries

The planning of future sales volumes and income depends on the planned profit. This responsibility is usually assigned to all levels of management. However, in order to calculate the planned profit, you need to create a sales forecast. This is what the commercial department does, where the current market situation and past sales are studied. This is the only way to get the most accurate forecast.

Sales organization in general commercial activities

One of the advantages of this concept is the ability to coordinate the work of personnel services of the commercial department. Another undoubted advantage is that the use of this concept implies the coordination of commercial operations with other components of the work (production, administrative work and finance). But the most significant contribution made by this concept is that sales becomes closely linked with other types of business activities. Thus, the department head receives greater freedom of action and a lot of new means of managing the commercial department. The department head establishes relationships with management in advertising, research, planning, and operations development. Through joint efforts, guided by the general policy of the company, they achieve their goals.

What does the structure of the commercial department of an enterprise look like?

When a new organization emerges, the commercial department appears by itself, it develops spontaneously, its work is not coordinated. The commercial department in such companies does not have clearly defined boundaries of responsibility, and levels of subordination are established using the organizational structure. However, this does not prevent the department from continuing its work.

Typically, the blame for unproductive department performance is placed on salespeople. But the responsibility also lies with the entire commercial department. Every mistake of the subject affects the entire sales system as a whole.

Many different types of structures have been created, each of which is designed to perform certain tasks and achieve set goals. It is extremely important that the commercial structure and distribution policy of the company correspond; this is the only way it will be possible to effectively implement strategic objectives for business development.

Among the many sales departments, the following principles for organizing the work of the commercial department are most often used.

Geographical. To use this type of organization, it is necessary to locate a sales unit in each region in the form of an official representative or branch.

Grocery. It implies competition between teams, each of which is responsible for selling a specific product, in the same markets.

Client. This type of organization divides departments into categories that specialize in a specific customer level. Typically, departments are divided into a corporate customer service department and a retail sales department. But there are commercial service departments with a large number of divisions.

Functional. The case when the sales process consists of the sequential implementation of the following stages:

search and selection of a client base;
discussion of working conditions and trial sales;
follow-up cooperation and service;

This type of specialization considers the division of departments into sales stages. A division is often used into commercial department specialists working with the customer base and direct sales, and back specialists involved in subsequent sales and service provision.

Matrix. It is most advantageously used by organizations that sell complex goods, both intellectual and technical. Sales of such companies are formed in the form of projects. Typically, such enterprises recruit leading specialists in each of the areas used in production, and all of them take turns working with the client. A good example of companies using this structure would be consulting agencies, IT companies, etc.

Principles of organization	Advantages	Flaws
Geographical	Simple structure and proximity to customers. Low cost of sales and relatively low administrative costs.	The benefits of specialization are lost. Limited managerial control over the allocation of sales force. It is difficult to work with a wide interchangeable assortment. The performance of a region greatly depends on the representative.
By product	It is easier to transfer specialized knowledge across product types. Easier to plan deliveries to customers. In the case of competing departments, high territory coverage.	Duplication of efforts: one client - several sellers. Large administrative costs. A high degree of work coordination is required.
By clients	Allows you to better take into account the interests and needs of clients. High degree of control over the distribution of sales efforts.	There is a danger of “missing out” on a potentially interesting client niche.
Functional	Low dependence of customers on a specific seller. Specializing in sales allows salespeople to focus on what they do best. Strong salespeople can be offloaded with less expensive staff.	A high degree of work coordination is required (especially for departments with different functions). It is necessary to motivate several independent departments for a common result in working with the client.
Matrix (design)	Rapid concentration of heterogeneous resources for different periods. High degree of control over the work of salespeople and the project team.	High sales and administration costs. Difficulties with motivation and cost accounting. Conflicts of interest of participants.

Key principles of productive work of the organizational structure of the commercial department:

Full compliance of the structure with the goals and priorities of the enterprise.
Building a structure around certain functions.
Fixing rights, responsibilities, and powers in the structure.
Establish the degree of control depending on sales volumes and the independence of sellers during transactions.
Develop structure flexibility. It must adapt to market conditions, the availability of certain products, and price fluctuations.
The structure must be balanced and take into account the interests of other departments: supply department, financial department, marketing department.

A well-developed structure is one of the most necessary aspects of a company’s development, but not all enterprises can boast of having a commercial department. Most consider it a formality, but the absence of these components leads to widespread disorder. While more experienced employees fully understand the “hierarchy” of the enterprise, this may be a problem for newcomers. Creating a certain structure will help them adapt faster. Systems without structure are beneficial for middle managers, in such situations they try to gain undeserved authority.

Each company remains unique, so it cannot be said that the processes in them are the same. The structure created for a large company may be very different from the structure created for a small office. In order to draw up the correct structure, it is necessary to draw up a diagram of possible departments of commercial activity.

Characteristics of the key structural elements of the commercial department

Composition of the commercial department

In some commercial companies, a Board of Directors meets to solve important problems. This is the name given to a meeting of leading specialists from the commercial department. Open discussions help them jointly achieve their goals, find the best options for solving production and commercial problems, and avoid fragmentation of departmental interests.

The following option for constructing an organizational structure is also possible. The Marketing Director becomes the direct supervisor of the Commercial Director or indirectly manages him.

Another option for developing the organizational structure is to introduce the position of executive (commercial) director of departments. This scheme will be useful to those enterprises that need to reduce the number of responsibilities of the general director and give him the opportunity to deal with more urgent and important tasks. For example, he may spend his time establishing business relationships with companies or suppliers. The executive director may also take over the security or commercial department.

Sales department

Not only the sales department, but also other components of production are responsible for commercial success. However, this department brings the main profit to the enterprise. The sales department system must be clearly debugged, and the employees must be motivated, only then the enterprise’s income will be as high as possible.

For convenience, the heads of each division are called senior managers of the commercial department. In simple words, each department has its own head, who completely controls its work. Various variations of the names of these positions are possible, but the essence does not change.

The statement that the sales department is the heart of the company is confirmed by the numerous flows of finance and information connecting it and other departments.

Name	From whom/to (department, service)
INCOME STREAM
Sales policy - sales concept, assortment, prices, etc.	Commercial Director. Marketing
Methodological support for organizing and managing sales	Head of Sales Department. Commercial Director
Product: availability for current sales, planned stock, scheduled deliveries	Product distribution (warehouse)
Delivery of goods to customers: exactly to the address, on time, without compromising consumer qualities	Product distribution (distribution)
Information on the availability and movement of goods	Goods distribution (warehouse). Procurement. Logistics. DB
Cash	Accounting, financial department
Material support (workplace equipment - telephones, computers, etc.)	Office Manager
Information support, results of analytical calculations	Database, marketing analytics
	Marketing
Analytics based on sales results	Marketing
Results of claims work	Marketing
Results of marketing research: counter sales plan by clients, segments and regions, new forms of working with clients, etc.	Marketing
Data on economic efficiency of sales by product	Finance department. DB
Customer accounts receivable data	Accounting. DB
Personnel that decides everything	Personnel service
Resolving disputes with clients	Legal service. Security Service
OUTGOING STREAM
Money in the bank/cash, concluded transactions, contracts, orders	Accounting, financial department
Sales budget (sales plan)	Finance department. Marketing
Assortment plan-order for goods	Production. Procurement. Product distribution. Logistics. Marketing
Cost budget	Finance department
Information on customer feedback about the quality of the company’s goods and services	Marketing
Information about the state of the target market, collected on behalf of the marketing service	Marketing
Proposals for the company's sales policy	Commercial Director. Marketing
Databases of current and potential clients. Operational reporting of sales managers. Final reporting of the sales department on the results of work for the period	Commercial Director. Finance department. Marketing

Operational commercial groups

Operational groups are divided according to certain criteria and their number depends on market segmentation, but there are other factors that influence this. If the range and volume of goods supplied is small, commercial groups are divided according to region. Otherwise, commercial groups are divided into groups of goods supplied to the regions concerned. It is more profitable for organizations that sell or receive goods from a wholesale company to form groups in relation to these counterparties. The same scheme is used for sales organizations to other enterprises.

Such a group consists of 2-4 people, there is no specific leader, and all decisions are made collectively. Accordingly, the entire team bears responsibility for the mistake of one participant. This method of organization leads to faster work processes, full dedication of each employee, increased efficiency and quality of work in general, simplified training of new employees and creates a certain competition between groups. The group also carries out some analysis of the commercial department.

Work in the commercial department is productive if these immutable rules are observed:

It is forbidden to miss phone calls during the working day.
Each employee must be “savvy” in the area where his group works and cannot afford to have knowledge gaps.
If the group is not competent in the client's issue, he is redirected for service to a group that has the necessary knowledge.
Group members must choose their own lunch hours, and also substitute for each other while one of the employees is on vacation. If the issue cannot be resolved peacefully, it is referred to senior management for consideration.

The ideal placement of commercial groups looks like this: all groups are in one room, separated by screens. Each employee has his own telephone and personal monitor connected to a common network.

Coordination and Procurement Department

The organization of commercial activities depends almost entirely on the work of this department. He works closely with both other specialized departments and commercial teams.

The tasks of the Coordination and Procurement Department are as follows:

distribution and control of incoming goods;
control over the implementation of tasks by departments;
tracking the efficiency of deliveries and providing guarantees to customers;
maintaining a reserve of in-demand goods in warehouses;
control of the unity of the enterprise policy;
creating proposals to change the range of goods in relation to their demand;
creation of commercial groups to work with suppliers.

Department of Transport and Customs Operations

The department is headed by a commercial director. The main tasks of the transport and customs services department are as follows:

Search for the most profitable methods of transportation.
Control of customs documents, registration of transaction passports.
Organization of product support at the customer's request.
Creation of new warehouses or transshipment areas for justifiable reasons.
Providing transport means, including shipping ones.
Monitoring the timeliness of deliveries and the receipt by the customer of the necessary documents.
Providing cargo with insurance documents.

The Marketing Director manages many departments. Let's take a closer look at the functions and tasks of some of them.

Marketing and Pricing Department

This department is responsible for the continuous study of the buyer market and the enterprise market. The information received gives them the opportunity to offer the marketing director many options for promoting a particular product, among which you can find:

Changes in the range of goods relative to the forecast and the current market situation.
Proposals to replace suppliers with more competitive ones (offering goods cheaper or of better quality than those available).
Improving the sales market.
Entry of the company to more developed levels of the market.

This department keeps records of all materials purchased and sold by competitors, collects all existing information about pricing policies in the market, competing sellers and current indices. At the same time, the department collects data on those companies with which they have ever had contact.

The department's pricing team advises the commercial groups on prices currently existing in the market, reviews the reports they have completed and sends them to the head of the commercial department for review. The price group also issues new proposals to change the range of goods.

Before large-scale meetings, the department justifies the reason for discussing new pricing policies, changes in the market and other important issues within their competence.

Required to perform the following tasks:

Monitoring the effectiveness of advertising for a particular product, as well as the company as a whole, compiling characteristics of the commercial department.
Organization of advertising campaigns and calculation of costs for their implementation, justification of the reasons for their decisions.
Implementation of the approved event plan by concluding deals with advertising companies.
Sending trial or promotional versions of products.
Sending the company's products to participate in various exhibitions and fairs.

Small companies can afford to combine the two above-mentioned departments.

Intermediary department

Engaged in the development of sales schemes. For high-quality work, the department needs the support of other components of the company: the marketing and pricing department, the customs (transport) department, the maintenance organization department, the procurement and sales coordination department. All commercial groups interested in promoting the product being sold are also involved.

Having developed a proposal, the intermediary department submits it for consideration by the board of directors. And after its approval, the proposal turns into a target plan.

Now the department just has to find promising commercial intermediaries, prepare all documents for signature and begin cooperation with them. After signing the contract, the department monitors compliance with the conditions specified in the document, as well as the work of the departments. Negotiations on the conclusion of the contract are conducted by the marketing director.

General Director speaks

Sergey Miroshnichenko, General Director of Srednevolzhskaya Gas Company LLC, Samara

We are among the natural monopolies, we are a service company, so we do not have divisions involved in sales and purchasing in the standard sense. Deputies, heads of branches and structural departments report to the General Director of the company. Each department is a fairly independent structural unit, with financial isolation, a work plan, a procedure for carrying out work and payments. Each purchase is aimed at providing funds for the construction and transformation of networks. The purchase of the main part of the necessary goods is carried out by the Department of Production and Technological Equipment (UPTK), which is part of the parent company; it reports to the Deputy General Director of the commercial department of the enterprise. Over the course of several years of operation, the company has acquired a list of trusted partners, the work structure has been streamlined, and therefore, I consider it inappropriate to form a purchasing department and provide a position for the head of this department.

UPTK employees and employees responsible for tendering (carrying out activities under the leadership of the First Deputy General Director) select a supplier. After which, the bidding department analyzes the correctness of the purchase procedure, the selection of a supplier, either through a request for quotations or through a competition. The final selection takes place in the bidding department, and a protocol is drawn up. As a rule, this process is carried out when signing serious and large contracts. A unique product is usually purchased from a specific supplier, since here attention is primarily paid to quality. The department supplies products to the main warehouse at the request of other departments.

How to organize competent management of a commercial department

The financial component of a company’s activities does not happen on its own; it needs to be managed competently.

The commercial department management system is a complex of components, the relationships between them, as well as the manipulations of the enterprise carrying out commercial activities.

To systematize the management of the commercial department it is necessary:

Prepare goals for implementing commercial activities.
Disperse production and business management functions.
Distribute tasks among sales department employees.
Streamline the interactions of commercial department employees and the sequence of functions they perform.
Acquire a new product manufacturing technology or reconstruct it.
Optimize the incentive system, supply and sales.
Carry out the manufacturing of products and the trade and technological process.

The management structure is based on several subsystems: methodology, process, structure and management technique.

The process of managing a company's commercial department is a component of the management sphere, which includes the development of a communications structure, the creation and implementation of management regulations, and the creation of a management information support structure.

The organization of management of the commercial department is based on the following elements:

Development.
Formation.
Establishing the properties of isolated parts based on tasks.
Creation of a coordination scheme that guarantees the ability to adapt to changing commercial circumstances.
Separation of responsibilities for commercial activities.
Formation of a data provision scheme that will help in decision making.

The goals of the company’s commercial activities are divided into specific tasks, united by the scope of activity:

purchase of goods;
its storage system;
sales routes, etc.

The following principles are considered the basis for creating the organizational structure of the commercial department and its management:

Defining a clear and precise goal for organizing a commercial department.
Formation of an attitude for the commercial department to achieve the overall goals of the organization.
Formation of mutual work among departments.
Formation of a clear apparatus and management system with unified subordination and correct hierarchy in the enterprise. Precise division of responsibilities among different management participants.
Building a versatile approach for management work.
Striving for a minimum number of links in the management chain.
Formation of orientation of the leadership system.
Providing executive information.
Flexibility and adaptability to the fluid environment of market conditions.

Business management is inextricably linked with the management of the entire enterprise. Thus, when creating the structure of a commercial department and when choosing a method for managing it and its activities, you need to remember the relationship of each element that is part of the management system.

Management methods are a means of influencing management and processes associated with the business department. They consist of administrative, organizational, economic and legal. The above leadership methods imply a fruitful combination. Their interaction depends on any operating conditions of the trading organization and the market environment.

Sales department: 4 steps to organizing effective work of managers

Key positions in the commercial department for the effective functioning of the company

To competently manage a commercial service department, you need the participation of people and systematization of work. It is necessary to select specialists from the commercial department and their high-quality training, systematize and manage the activities of commercial departments, and establish fruitful cooperation between departments involved in customer service. We have already found out, referring to the functional communication of the sales department, that most departments are involved in these processes. In this regard, the main task of the organization and sales management is the availability of professional personnel, on whom everything depends.

Head of commercial department

At the very first stage of organizing a commercial department, it is necessary to find the responsible head of the commercial department, assign him a position and determine his powers, then orient him to the goals of the work.

The job title is not a formality. Do not take the job title without the necessary responsibility. Behind the position of an employee who works in the commercial department, the essence should be visible: the duties of the employee, his responsibility to the enterprise, capabilities and powers, as well as requirements for him.

The commercial department is, in most cases, headed by a commercial director. Departments related to the circulation of money in the company must carry out manipulations, turning specifically to him. Sometimes, depending on the size of the production, a workplace similar in activity has a different name: sales director, sales and marketing director, or head of the sales department.

Primary tasks of the commercial department and its director. Firstly, he must stimulate and in every possible way monitor the process of sales of goods and its increase. Secondly, improve distribution connections and master the regional network. The head of the enterprise must clearly formulate job responsibilities that the commercial director can understand and perform.

Another form of interaction is possible - the director himself analyzes the organization of the commercial department, finds new ways for their development and the progress of the entire enterprise. At the end of the formation of ideas, an employee of the commercial department puts them forward to the general director or presents them to the board of directors. Only after such events are the main goals set and further prospects formed.

The job description or regulation of the commercial department provides an example of behavior for such cases. It addresses the above-mentioned issues related to determining the goals and objectives of the work of a commercial director, building a production hierarchy, a system of employee interaction, methods of assessing work activities and a list of main tasks.

Business Specialists

Specialists of the commercial department participate in the organization and implementation of processes of logistics and sales of products, sales of services, conduct marketing research and advise on these issues.

Their responsibilities include:

Participation in the planning and organization of logistics, monitoring the fulfillment of contractual obligations, receipt and sale of funds for raw materials, materials, fuel, energy and equipment.
Determining requirements for material resources and finished products and compliance of their quality with standards, technical specifications, contracts and other regulatory documents, drawing up claims for supplied low-quality inventory items and preparing responses to customer complaints.
Conducting a comprehensive study and analysis of markets for goods and services in order to actively influence consumer demand to expand product sales.
Preparation of proposals for planning the production of specific goods (services) and prices for them in accordance with changes in market conditions.
Participation in planning and organizing sales of products (transportation, storage, delivery to consumers).
Participation in planning and organizing services.
Development and participation in promotional events.
Consulting on marketing issues and other aspects of organizing commercial activities.
Perform related duties.
Supervising other employees.

Examples of professions included in this basic group:

Commercial department manager is a specialist directly involved in trade operations: purchasing and sales. The responsibilities of a commercial department manager depend on the specifics and size of a particular enterprise, the niche it occupies in the market, etc.
Marketing specialist (market research and analysis).
Advertising specialist.
Commodity expert.
Economist for contractual and claims work.

General Director speaks

Ilya Mazin, General Director of Office Premier CJSC, Erich Krause group of companies, Moscow

The head of the commercial department is needed to organize the work of the commercial department. If it is necessary to connect two components: obtaining favorable commercial conditions at the input, that is, delivery conditions (either components or finished products), and achieving favorable sales conditions. If one of these functions is absent, there is no need for a head of the commercial department.

Very small and very large companies do not need to manage a commercial department. Small because, most often, it is difficult for them to pay for a large management staff. Usually in such situations, the functions of the head of the commercial department are performed by the owner; if there are several of them, then usually the areas of management are divided between them: someone can deal with administrative and economic issues, someone controls financial turnover and profit (and is essentially a commercial director). In large businesses, on the contrary, the responsibilities of a commercial director are often distributed among line directors.

But for medium-sized businesses this is a key figure. The head of the commercial department is a top manager who ensures the most important thing in the company - the creation of a profitable part.

How to analyze the performance of the commercial and sales departments

It doesn’t matter what your position is in the hierarchy of the enterprise, if your responsibility is to work in the commercial department and strategic planning of its activities, or, let’s put it another way, market and marketing strategy, then you are responsible for the implementation of a certain number of sales and the economic growth of the company.

Often the expected sales turnover is not achieved due to inflated sales prices, high prices for raw materials, insufficient funding for advertising or low employee motivation. If at least one of the listed or similar problems is well known to you, then when organizing the work of the commercial department of the enterprise, you miscalculated in planning. This means that you have not conducted an in-depth study of the previous stages and have not discovered the real factors that influence the increase and decrease in sales.

If it was not possible to make the area of your responsibilities of the commercial department accessible and understandable; If you do not have ways to timely determine the state of the enterprise’s commercial activities, then you should wait for real financial results. But this does not apply to companies that have a competent CEO.

A good CEO will usually be interested not only in how much you aim to sell next year and how many hot clients you have, but he will also be interested in the facts on which your confidence is based. He will not be satisfied with the information that the company has doubled its sales level for several years, and now there is a need to hire more highly paid specialists from the commercial sales department, which requires an 80% increase in income. He will also analyze market growth in the industry, which can be as high as 50%. The conclusion suggests itself, doesn’t it? The answer is obvious: the company has stopped in its development, but exists because of previous successes.
Let's say you're a manufacturing company or a professional services firm, for example. With any chosen method of effective promotion, among the organization’s employees there must be employees whose main responsibilities will be interaction with clients. These methods include active sales, advertising, marketing programs, client recommendations, etc. How deeply did you analyze the commercial department? Have you given an accurate description of the commercial department? Does your analysis system answer the questions: why is our turnover the way it is, what should we do to sell more, and how much sales do we need? The proposed analysis system that we will consider can solve similar problems of the commercial department.

What needs to be analyzed in the activities of your managers?

1. Result of work:

turnover;
the established number of active clients and the percentage of clients recently introduced into the process;
average number of customer purchases;
further prospects in working with the client and our capabilities in working with him;
the number of lost clients among those with whom interactions have already been carried out and those who were only potential clients;
number of clients lost in the past.

By entering this information into an Excel worksheet and calculating the necessary indicators, you can obtain data on the results of the work of each specific manager who works in the commercial department:

turnover will notify you of all the financial profit brought by the manager for the company;
the number of active clients and the number of new active clients will indicate to you how purposeful the employee is in terms of attracting;
the average number of sales per client will indicate the quality of clients with whom the commercial department manager works;
the client’s ability to purchase your product will inform you about how deeply the employee has analyzed the client, in addition, you will receive data for further monitoring of sales;
the remaining data will indicate the development of the manager’s abilities in the field of working with clients.
All individual indicators of managers, individually and in total, are compared with each other; it will be a plus to take into account the average indicator for the entire department, this will help you objectively look at and evaluate the results of the annual financial turnover.

A start has been made. It is worth noting that when you evaluate results, you will not find the reason why managers' performance is so different from each other. And if you don’t know the reasons, then you cannot properly manage them and correct errors and inaccuracies. In this connection, it is necessary to continue the analysis of the commercial department, going deeper into it.

2. Activity and effort expended.

If you want to find out the complete data of the employees of the commercial department for working with clients and the efforts they expended to achieve success, then you need to first describe the totality of all actions, that is, carry out a description of the indicators of processes in the field of sales.

There are different indicators, it all depends on the characteristics of your business. Usually the real information content comes from the following indicators: calls, meetings, offers. Naturally, they can pursue many different goals, of which there can be many - exchange of information, discussion of a presentation, financial calculations, features of the payment system or its confirmation, etc. Well, if they serve as a step to a new stage of relations with the customer, the ladder of such development looks something like this: getting to know the client, then studying him deeply, based on the data obtained, you need to attract him, then develop these relationships and retain him to complete this transaction with a future perspective cooperation.

The most convenient tool for presenting sales processes and searching for connections between activities and a certain stage of sales is the use of the following sales algorithm.

Each period determines the sales process and stage of sales at which the customer is located. If you compile statistics on current customers, you will be able to find the average duration of the transaction process, which will provide initial information for building a sales forecast for “hot” customers. By applying these tactics to failed clients, you will discover the stage at which the client decides to abstain from dealing with your company, so you can learn how interesting your proposals look. The sales algorithm should look like this:

Request a meeting and determine its subject.
First meeting.
Establishing customer needs and your company's ability to meet them.
Sending minutes of discussions and client expectations questionnaires.
Schedule a new meeting to discuss the proposal.
First presentation.
Sending an “offer”

Of course, when creating this system, you must provide for all options. It is not a fact that the proposal for a meeting will be accepted, even if the client agrees to see each other, he does not always sign the contract, so you need to be prepared for many scenarios. For example, if you are refused to sign an agreement, and a specialist from the commercial department was able to find out the real reason for the refusal (he must be able to do this), the client is not satisfied with the cost. Next, you can send a thank you letter and notify him whenever the price of the product he is interested in changes. With a large base of such customers, you can arrange a sale to increase market share. It is also possible to consider the option of introducing savings cards, which, upon reaching the required number of purchases, will reduce the price to the desired level.

To analyze the commercial department, you must obtain data from the results of the description of sales business processes:

identifying business contacts with the client;
determination of sales stages;
assigning a transaction stage to identified business contacts.

Assessing the performance of your managers.

To achieve this, you first need to familiarize your sales team with the rules for successful interactions with customers. You must convey the advantages of dividing the sales process into stages and determine the goals for which you need to record clients. If you can confidently express your thoughts and convince employees of the benefits of your proposals, then the information will be absorbed and adopted.

Your managers' final report should include the following items:

inventory of current customers and determination of their sales stage and source of appearance;
the amount of annual profit, data for each client: date of start of work and last contact, their result;
when refusing, you must indicate the reason and the stage at which the client decided to refuse.

Be prepared that, unfortunately, you may receive an incomplete report. Sometimes this is not part of the responsibilities of a commercial department manager. If you insist on recording the history of work with clients, despite everything, you risk receiving misleading information. We advise you to introduce this practice when working with new clients.

For large companies with a huge customer base, it seems logical to focus on key customers, usually about a quarter of the total number of customers.

After reporting on current clients, the manager needs to indicate the number of active manipulations towards each client, this can include calls, meetings, special offers, etc. By dividing clients into groups: “buying”, “new buying” and “never bought”, it will be easier for you to calculate the indicators that determine the success of your managers:

calls, meetings, offers of everything;
calls, meetings, offers to new clients;
calls, meetings, offers to old clients;
calls, meetings, offers to new purchasing clients;
calls, meetings, offers to old buying clients;
calls, meetings, offers to non-buying clients.

By combining the information received about the manager’s activities, his activity and the resources spent into a table, you will find out the answers to the following questions:

What is the amount of effort expended by the sales department manager on working with clients?
Is each manager focused on large, medium or small clients?
Which clients bring the most profit?
How much effort (calls/meetings/offers) does an employee need to spend in order to receive an order?
Does the manager work with new or old clients?
What is the proportion of purchasing customers in the entire database?
After passing what stage does a manager get closer to signing a contract?
At what stage does a client usually refuse a manager?
What are the main reasons for refusal?
Does the manager have a deep or superficial attitude towards working with the client, does he reveal his full potential for interaction with your company?
What is the percentage of lost customers?

By making a comparison between KPIs and financial results, you can calculate the average number of calls, meetings or proposals for signing one contract and its average price.

Data statistics will say something like this: a specialist monthly calls about 80 clients, makes appointments with half of them, and receives 20 offers; as a result, 10 customers begin to cooperate with a contract amount of about $5,000. With reverse calculations, you will be able to notice the required degree of expenditure of professional effort by the manager to obtain a profit in the desired amount. By developing a percentage remuneration system, you will be able to control the activity of employees thanks to financial incentives and bonuses.

The resulting data will provide you with objective information about the capabilities of the commercial department manager, you will be able to identify areas of his growth and assist in the development of the required capabilities in order to increase his productivity. For example, if a manager conducts a sufficient number of meetings per working month, but only a small part ends with the signing of an agreement, and the department’s usual indicator clearly exceeds its success, then you need to establish the reason for the failures and help your employee to function successfully and increase income. If you notice that an employee spends quite a lot of effort working with new partners, but they are ineffective, study the list of his clients. It often turns out that the manager worked in a non-target segment. If an employee is busy with an outdated client base without attracting a fresh stream, you should stimulate the employee's interest in a different approach, even if the manager's performance is above average. A system for introducing bonuses for new partners can help you.

At the moment, commercial service departments give preference to finding opportunities to reduce organizational costs in favor of their own benefit, which depends on meeting the client’s needs. So, in modern market relations, the economic principle of “consumer benefit calculation” is at the very center of attention of departments that control the organization’s finances.

First of all, the commercial director is responsible for all issues related to clients and the main profit of the company. But there is always confusion about job responsibilities of a commercial director.

The fact is that in different companies, commercial directors perform different functions. Also, two different positions are very often confused - commercial director and sales director. The maximum segment where a commercial director can work is the simultaneous management of sales, logistics, purchasing and marketing services. It is also often thought that the responsibilities of a commercial director only include managing the sales department.

Where the skills of a commercial director may be required

Today, there are a lot of available vacancies for this position, but the requirements for a commercial director are not small. The specificity of vacancies for this position is that they have been open for a very long time. This leads to the conclusion that the search itself and further selection of candidates takes a very long time. Also, vacancies are very often vacant due to the fact that new commercial directors cannot stay in their place for long (up to a year of work). All this is due to the complexity of building relationships with the founders of the company.

Most often, the vacancy of a commercial director is open in loosely structured companies in Russia. The reason is that such companies have never had commercial directors until now. The volume of operations within the company is increasing in volume and managing the company using the same methods becomes practically ineffective. As a result, the company's owners are trying to increase the company's efficiency level by attracting experienced managers and commercial directors.

It also happens that during the entire existence of the company, it had only one commercial director, who was one of the founders of the company or an employee who worked from the beginning of the company’s opening, and then was promoted to general director and now a new commercial director is required. In this case, strict requirements will be imposed on the new candidate - management literacy, new methods to achieve the goal.

If we are talking about structured companies, then in this case the mood or personal sympathies will play a lesser role than the level of professionalism. In this situation, the commercial director is a person who performs clearly defined functions in the structure of the company’s business processes.

Most often, only Western companies have any clear requirements for education or skills. As for Russian companies, they just want to find a “wizard”. That is, they need a person who will come and personally solve all the problems and raise the company to a new level.

Main responsibilities of a commercial director

The main responsibilities of this position include the following:

The commercial director must organize the management of the logistics of the enterprise, as well as engage in storage, transportation and further marketing of products.
The director must coordinate the development and draw up long-term plans for logistics and subsequent sales of products.
Manages the development of all regulations and quality standards for manufactured products.
Recommends further development strategies to department managers and financial department specialists. Controls their quality of work.
Responsible for the timely submission of estimate and financial documents, calculations, reports on the implementation of the set plan.
Monitors financial and economic indicators and the expenditure of funds
Responsible for negotiations on behalf of the company with various counterparties of the company on any business or financial activities
Acts on behalf of the company at auctions, exchanges, advertising campaigns and other events

It is also worth noting (as we said above), in some companies the responsibilities of a commercial director may differ. His responsibilities may also include:

Developing a plan to promote a new product or service
Discussion of the budget and its calculation together with the General Director
Control all distribution channels
Creation of a program for material motivation of enterprise employees
Participate in the creation of a new personnel policy for the company
Monitor sales reporting
Conduct negotiations with clients
Develop new pricing policy methods
Make final decisions on advertising campaigns

It is worth noting here that if a person applies for this position in a foreign company, he may be required to:

MBA diploma
Have a good command of English
Have at least five years of experience in a leadership position

Functions of a commercial director

As we have already understood, the main tasks of a commercial director are the organization and direction of the activities of all divisions that are located in his segment. It is worth saying that his responsibilities directly depend on the specifics of the company’s industry and the size of the organization.

In the course of his work, the commercial director interacts with various heads of different departments of the company. This list may include: accounting, marketing department, IT, logical service, financial department. Most often, the main functions of this position are joint strategic planning with different departments, the formation of marketing, pricing, financial, and personnel policies. He is also obliged to control the sale of goods and plan further sales. Its functions include monitoring the competitive environment and the market for goods and services. The commercial director must also expand and control all relationships with suppliers and form the budget for the entire commercial unit.

Personal skills of a commercial director

It’s worth going into more detail here, since personal qualities are one of the key points when choosing a person for this position. The personal qualities of a commercial director should include a special management style, delegation of authority, and skills in interacting with company employees. Naturally, such a position requires a high level of communication skills and the ability to properly manage staff. Any company will be interested in people who have general management skills and the ability to organize forecasting and budgeting.

Despite the above, each company has its own criteria by which the personal qualities of a commercial director are assessed. Everything will directly depend on the current goals of the company and the period of its development. So, it all depends on the life cycle that the organization is currently in. Depending on this, the requirements not only for management positions, but also for all employees of the company change. We will talk about each life cycle of a company, and what personal qualities a commercial director should have in each cycle.

Initial stage of development

The person must have successful experience in building business models for companies from scratch. He must be able to form a new experienced team. Among personal qualities during this period, innovation, creativity, rigidity in decisions, and structure will be valued. At this stage, the commercial director must be able to quickly and efficiently make the necessary decisions. Have an objective point of view to combat competitors.

The rise of the company

During this period, sales are growing, there are already ideas for future periods in general market trends and plans for development in organizational terms. In this case, company owners most often need a person with successful experience in structured companies, who has considerable experience in optimizing all business processes. During this period, the director must be able to quickly and competently delegate authority and have a methodical approach to any problems. Already at this stage, thoroughness and consistency in performing work are more valued. It is necessary to deeply study each problem in order to find the most effective and less expensive solution. At this stage, the director must adhere to normative guidelines and be committed to systematically promoting the goal.

is a person who, through his actions, mobilizes, controls and directs the company’s personnel to achieve maximum profit. Depending on the direction of activity of a production or trade organization, the requirements for the qualities and abilities of a candidate for this position and the functional responsibilities of the commercial director of the enterprise may differ slightly.

The role and main tasks of the commercial director

Despite the importance of this figure in the enterprise management system, his responsibilities and functions are not always clear. Most often, people from the purchasing department apply for this position. Who, if not a sales manager, knows the specifics of communication with clients, has experience in concluding contracts, and understands the peculiarities of his organization.

In general terms, the responsibilities of the commercial director of an LLC are as follows:

long-term and short-term profit planning;
effective management and control over the implementation of current tasks by the sales department;
providing information;
setting tasks for all departments of the enterprise;
control of division directors;
determination of the organization's marketing policy;
communication with key clients;
interaction with shareholders and partners;
control over the fulfillment of obligations and contracts of your enterprise related to business activities;
coordination of the work of departments.

Depending on the area of activity of a particular enterprise, the above list may be supplemented or reduced. In any case, an applicant for this position must have a certain set of qualities.

Characteristic qualities of the candidate

The responsibilities and characteristics of the position occupied in the organization require from a specialist not only the ability to focus on results. The ability to make decisions in a difficult situation, conflict management skills, stress resistance and loyalty, responsibility and honesty, creativity and the ability to defend one’s own opinion must be possessed by a professional department head. These skills are especially needed by top managers of trading companies.

One of the important qualities is the presence of charisma and leadership abilities. The commercial director, whose responsibilities are specifically stated in the employment contract, must be able to captivate a team of employees and encourage people to work actively. Experienced personnel officers recommend hiring a professionally mature person, over 30 years of age, for this position. Such a specialist, making informed decisions, will be able to guide and train his subordinates and employees of related departments, leading them in the direction necessary for the company.

A candidate for this vacancy must have and understand the company’s own goals and objectives, among which the main one is regular profit making. A person must have a high level of responsibility and breadth of thinking, because his position is associated with coordinating the work of all leading departments and controlling the flow of cash receipts.

And, of course, this specialist simply cannot be not proactive, not communicative, irresponsible and not purposeful.

Responsibility for the finances and economics of the trading company

In many organizations, the responsibilities of the commercial director of an enterprise overlap with the functions of the financial director. Both of these specialists plan, direct and supervise the company's purchasing, marketing and financial activities. Any decisions and actions of a commercial director must have an economic justification and be aimed at making a profit both at the moment and in the future.

Being, in fact, the first deputy of the organization's chief executive, literally his “right hand, eyes and ears,” the head of the procurement department must work closely with management. The commercial director, whose responsibilities may vary slightly from company to company, reports directly to the business owner or general manager. The position of this top manager is relevant for companies that produce and sell any goods in large volumes.

At large-scale enterprises, the commercial director is entrusted with solving global issues related to the constant increase and improvement of financial performance, with the development of measures aimed at this.

Commercial director: responsibilities and functions in a trading company

The main job of this employee in this case is to promote the brand and products of the enterprise on the market in order to make a profit. To achieve these goals, work is organized in several directions:

determination and construction of marketing policy;
control over accounts receivable;
formation of procurement and sales plans, supervision of their implementation;
selection and training of a sales team;
creation of a motivation system and certification of managers;
sales process inspection;
monitoring customer requests.

The responsibilities of the commercial director of a trading company additionally include planning and managing assortment policy, knowledge of logistics and the basics of product distribution, interaction with key clients that are important for the enterprise, and participation in negotiations that are important for the organization.

Analysis of sales across the entire product line, profit and turnover for each position, seasonality and stability of income, functions of a leading merchandiser - all this is in charge of the commercial director. Job responsibilities may vary slightly depending on the specific profile of the company, but the main activity is aimed at consolidating the company’s position in the market and increasing income.

— Director for Development of New Projects at Yandex. Previously, he was involved in regional expansion in Gett taxi and the coupon service Vigoda.ru, and worked as commercial director at the freight transportation company Deliver.

We talked with Artem about what a commercial director is responsible for and what skills he must have in order to form an effective commercial department.

There is a stereotype that a commercial director deals only with sales.

In reality, there are many more responsibilities. A commercial director can be responsible for four areas simultaneously - sales, purchasing, logistics and marketing. But this is an ideal situation.

In practice, everything depends on the scope of activity and the organizational structure of the company. For example, in many companies that provide services, there is basically no logistics department, and in some companies the production department is responsible for purchasing. But it is more effective if these departments are managed by one person.

Deliver is a freight transportation company. In fact, logistics is the main product, so it is not separated into a separate area. Everything related to sales, purchasing and marketing of the company was subordinate to the commercial director.

Initially, at Deliver, the company's founder, shareholder and CEO were responsible for sales. But if a business needs significant growth in some area, they hire a specialist in that area. It was the same with us. When it was necessary to move to a new level, we decided to hire a commercial director.

At Deliver, he was responsible for sales, purchasing and marketing. We have transformed each of these areas.

#1. Changing the sales system

When I joined the company, the sales department was already working. Contracts were signed with the first clients, but:

the approach was unsystematic

the demands placed on managers were unreasonable

the department structure was complex

there was no clear tariff and credit policy

First of all, I rebuilt the department: distributed tasks among employees and systematized work with clients.

We focused on direct sales, but at the same time began testing other channels. We launched agency sales through warehouse complexes, and later partner sales with tender sites and banks, including Sberbank, Otkritie, and Tinkoff Bank.

#2. Regional expansion

In parallel with this, I was engaged in regional expansion. We opened two offices - in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. But in the regions it was difficult to find return loads for our machines. Moscow is a hub that accumulates cargo and distributes it among the regions, but cargo does not arrive from the regions in the same volume; there is mainly intracity and intraregional delivery.

To solve this problem, we decided to grow deeper into the regions. During the work, we tested different groups of clients - from individuals to giant FMCG companies, whose cargo is transported by hundreds of vehicles every day.

#3. Working with clients

Many suppliers of goods and services want giants as their clients. We were no exception. But we encountered difficulties in working with such companies:

long deferred payments
individual document flow
specific product requirements

We focused on large local manufacturers and distributors of local goods - food, building materials. Medium-sized companies have fewer requirements and organize all processes much more simply. The profit margin of business with them is higher.

The transition to customers of a different scale provided growth that allowed Deliver to become a market leader.

#4. Selection of sales channels

We started with direct sales. Then we tested marketing channels, spent huge sums on marketing and PR, participated in conferences and exhibitions, tried agency and affiliate referral programs and loyalty programs.

Having assessed the cost of attracting one client and his life cycle, we realized that direct sales are more profitable than others. And so we focused on them.

Marketing performs a supporting function - it is not an independent department, it helps direct sales. The task was to analyze these channels. We had several teams: one was involved in marketing, another was involved in PR projects, and the third was involved in BTL activity, indirect impact on consumers. Together we analyzed the results and looked for the most effective channels for attracting customers.

Any commercial company aims to make a profit. In fact, the commercial director and his department are the structure that generates this profit. The commercial director communicates with clients, understands the internal processes of the organization and, naturally, influences the financial performance of the company.

I studied the experience of successful commercial directors and managers in global companies and compiled a list of five key qualities and skills of a commercial director.

#1. Leadership

A commercial director is a leader who is able to make quick decisions in a rapidly changing situation and lead people to their goals.

#2. Strategic Thinking

A commercial director must be able to rise above the routine, above the situation and decide in which direction to move. Be able to apply new techniques and generate innovative ideas.

#3. Sales and communication skills

The work of a commercial director is closely related to communication - with clients, employees, suppliers and colleagues. He must be able to negotiate and understand the principles of sales.

#4. Organizational skills

One of the main competencies of a commercial director is the desire and ability to work in a team and organize it. By motivating employees, encouraging and controlling them, the commercial director achieves success in his department.

#5. Personal effectiveness

Like any other leader, a commercial director must have a flexible mind. To do this, it is important to constantly develop, improve yourself, take courses and trainings.

In general, creating a commercial department consists of three steps.

Determine the profile of the target client. It is important to describe in as much detail as possible who, why and how will use your product or service.

Select the main sales channels. Based on the client's profile, you determine the main sales channels: direct, through dealers or distributors, with an emphasis on online marketing or agency sales.

Select and train employees. Once you decide who you will sell to and how, assemble a suitable team.

Often the head of the sales, purchasing or logistics department is appointed to the position of commercial director. These employees are more immersed in the production process and the process of generating profit, directly influence it and know some of the tasks. It is easier for them to take on other tasks.

The commercial director also comes into contact with marketing. But the set of tools that he must master directly depends on the industry and the company’s products.

Online tools are heavily used in marketing; it is important to understand them at least at a basic level. A commercial director needs to understand the general principles of work and the basic metrics that measure the effectiveness of campaigns. And you shouldn’t separate marketing and PR - they are interconnected.

The main task of the commercial director is to determine the group of clients who will be targeted by marketing campaigns and test tools, finding the cheapest and most capacious acquisition channels.

The commercial director interacts with stakeholders - interested parties. Internal stakeholders are divided into three types:

founders
investors
staff

Investors And founders companies influence the determination of business strategy, budget approval, products and company profits. From personnel The speed and quality of work on creating a product, the provision of services and, in general, the speed of development of the company depend.

In interaction with managers - top management - in my opinion, the main thing is not to engage in political games. It is important to understand the tasks and goals of other departments and build communication based on the overall goals of the company. If you have the right argument and you say rational things, it’s not difficult to convey to your colleagues the usefulness of your proposal. The main thing is honest and open dialogue.

The commercial director is a key position for any company. He is primarily responsible for customer service and company profits. But there is some confusion about what the responsibilities of a commercial director are. Recruitment consultants at Ankor company P. Shukhman and E. Evstyukhina talk about this.

In different companies, people in this position actually perform different functions. Recently, the positions of commercial director and sales director are also often confused http://professional-education.ru/director-sales.html. The maximum range of what a commercial director can do is simultaneously managing sales, marketing, purchasing, and logistics services. Often the position of a commercial director is perceived only as the head of the sales and marketing service, sometimes only as the head of the sales service. Today, there is a general understanding that this person manages the company's sales.

Where is a commercial director needed?

There are quite a lot of commercial director vacancies on the labor market. It is very difficult to accurately calculate their number, but we can certainly say that there are more than a hundred of them, constantly open. The specificity of most of these vacancies is that they are open for a very long time. This is due, firstly, to the long process of searching and selecting a candidate, and secondly, to the fact that often, having joined the company, new commercial directors leave after working for less than a year, and sometimes less than three months. This situation, in turn, is explained by the complexity of building relationships with founders.

Such vacancies are mainly open in loosely structured Russian companies. The reason for the long search is that the company has never had a commercial director, but the volume of operations is growing and management using previous methods is proving ineffective. The founders are trying to increase the efficiency of the business by attracting a competent manager from outside.

Sometimes a company has had one commercial director in its entire history, and this is either one of the founders or an employee who has worked since the founding of the company. Now this person moves on to other tasks or gets promoted to general and needs a strong replacement. As a rule, in this case, the founders also count heavily on the specialist’s competence and on new management methods that will significantly increase efficiency.

If we are talking about structured business (primarily Western companies), where moods and personal sympathies are less important than professionalism, then the situation here is fundamentally different: a commercial director is a position whose functionality is clearly defined in the structure of the company’s business processes.

Perhaps only Western companies have clear requirements for education and skills. Russian companies very often ask to find a “wizard”. This is a kind of dream about a know-it-all who will come and alone, with virtually no support, will take the business to a high level. In principle, such people exist, but they are usually already owners of their own business. In such cases, I enter into a process of negotiations with the client, often lengthy, the purpose of which is to identify the portrait of the commercial director needed by the company. It happens that a company does not need the declared “know-it-all”, since in fact it requires solving specific local problems, and after that you can think about more.

Basic requirements for a commercial director

This employee must be able to:

develop and supervise the promotion of the company’s products on the market;
discuss the budget together with the financial or general director;
form and control distribution channels;
create, together with the director of personnel services, a system of material motivation for company employees;
participate in the formation of personnel policies for hiring sales department employees and maintain control over this department;
control sales reporting;
personally conduct particularly complex negotiations with large clients;
sign contracts;
participate in the development of pricing policies and discount campaigns;
approve or reject advertising projects, promotion programs, branding.

Note. For Western business, the candidate must:

have an MBA degree,
speak English at least at the level of reading commercial documentation,
have long-term experience in sales management in a Western company (5 years or more).

If a person’s responsibilities include marketing, logistics, or purchasing, then experience in these areas is often required.

Director's portrait

Personal qualities are perhaps the key point when searching for a commercial director. They include management style, delegation of authority, and features of interaction with subordinates. Of course, a commercial director is required to have high communication skills and the ability to manage people. His personality type itself should be determined by the corporate culture of the customer company, if it has been formed, or by the personality type of the founder or founders, if the corporate culture is not expressed in the company. Customers, as a rule, are also interested in general management skills and organizational skills in forecasting, planning, budgeting, etc.

Big salary for chief merchant

The commercial director (sales director) receives one of the most significant remunerations in the company. Average offers start at approximately $5,000 in total monthly income. Over the past year, the maximum I have seen is up to $20,000 in total monthly income in a large Russian company.

Western companies and some Russian ones also offer a social package, which usually includes:

health insurance;
car (or compensation for the use and maintenance of your own car);
nutrition;
mobile phone traffic.

Reliability check

The candidacy of a commercial director must be checked, but each recruiting agency has its own methods. In any case, unfortunately, none of the existing assessment methods provides a 100% guarantee. The only relatively objective assessment is the candidate’s direct work in the employing company, i.e. the probationary period, which for this position is usually six months. If for some reason a person does not pass it, then the recruiting agency makes a one-time free guarantee replacement.

What attracts candidates in the first place?

In order to find the most suitable top manager for your company, formulate the requirements for the position, explain to candidates their future responsibilities and not scare off professionals with unreasonable expectations, you must first of all imagine yourself in the place of the future commercial director and in your imagination live out a typical working day for this manager . Many illusions about how much one person can accomplish in 8 to 10 hours disappear after such an exercise, and a fairly clear description of the position appears.

It is very important that the general director (founder or owner) clearly defines for himself the following parameters, which will be transferred to the commercial director: