An interim VP of sales is an experienced sales executive who takes full ownership of your revenue number for a fixed period, usually a few months, while you fix what is broken or find the permanent leader. The role works when the person owns the number and the team. It fails when they only advise from the sidelines. This guide covers what the role does, how long it runs, what drives the fee, how it differs from a contract SDR manager, and how to decide whether you need one.
TL;DR
- An interim VP of sales owns the plan, the pipeline and the team for a defined window, typically three to nine months, then hands off to a permanent hire.
- Hire one when a leader leaves or underperforms and your search for a great permanent VP is taking longer than your revenue can wait.
- Fees vary with hours, seniority, scope and whether the person also recruits. Treat any quote that does not name deliverables as incomplete.
- If your real gap is outbound pipeline, a contract SDR or BDR manager is often the better fit than a full VP.
- Put 30, 60 and 90 day deliverables in writing before day one.
Table of Contents
- What an interim VP of sales actually does
- When a company needs interim sales leadership
- How long an interim engagement lasts
- What an interim VP of sales costs
- Interim VP of sales vs. contract SDR manager
- How to choose the right interim leader
- Our perspective
- Working with Chad in Colorado
- Your first 90 days: a simple checklist
- FAQ
- Sources
What an interim VP of sales actually does
The job is the same as a permanent VP's, compressed. Dover's sales-hiring guidance frames the VP of sales as someone who accelerates an existing sales motion: building scalable process, hiring, and coordinating go-to-market work, not simply the person who prospects and closes every day. An interim does that with a clock running.
SaaStr's guidance is useful on scope. A strong interim VP should focus the organization on the sales plan, upgrade one or two important process areas, hire one or two strong reps, and help identify the permanent VP. Notice how short that list is. The point is not to rebuild everything. It is to change the few things most likely to move the plan.
In practice, the first weeks look like this:
- Diagnose. Read the pipeline honestly: coverage, stage conversion, win rates, ramp times, and which reps are carrying the number.
- Reset the plan. Agree on the quota, the forecast method and the weekly operating cadence with the CEO.
- Fix one or two process areas. Common choices are lead qualification, handoffs between SDRs and account executives, or forecast discipline.
- Make the hard talent calls. Coach, reassign or replace, and hire one or two people who raise the bar.
- Prepare the handoff. Write the playbook, define the profile for the permanent VP, and help interview candidates.
Interim, fractional, or consultant
The three get confused, and the difference is accountability. A consultant recommends. A fractional leader gives you part of a week. An interim leader sits in the seat, carries the number and manages the people. If you are weighing the part-time option, our guide to fractional sales leadership walks through the tradeoffs. If the gap is at the CRO level, see our piece on the interim CRO role.
You will also see the same role called interim head of sales or interim sales leadership. Titles vary by company size. What matters is whether the person has authority over hiring, quota and process.
When a company needs interim sales leadership
SaaStr's view is that an interim VP makes sense when you need experienced ownership of sales for three, six or nine months because you are struggling to find a good or great permanent VP. That points to the clearest triggers:
- A VP leaves or is let go mid-year and the quarter cannot wait for a six-month search.
- The founder has been running sales and revenue has outgrown what one person can manage alongside everything else.
- The search is stalling. Candidates are not right, and hiring the wrong person would cost more than waiting.
- A reorganization or new market push needs someone who has done it before.
- Private equity or board pressure demands a credible owner of the forecast now.
It is a poor fit in a few cases. If you have no product-market fit, a VP of sales cannot manufacture it. If you have no budget for reps, leadership alone will not produce pipeline. And if the real need is a hands-on first seller, Dover's point applies: a VP accelerates a motion that exists. It does not replace the person who creates one.
Own the number, stay narrow
Jason Lemkin of SaaStr argues that interim leadership works when the person owns the number rather than merely advising, and that the engagement should stay deliberately focused on the few process and talent changes most likely to affect the plan. We agree with both halves. Ownership gives the team someone to follow. Narrow focus keeps the engagement from turning into a vague transformation project that outlasts its usefulness.
How long an interim engagement lasts
Most interim engagements are framed around a three to nine month window, matching the range SaaStr describes. Where you land depends on three things:
- How fast you can hire the permanent leader. A VP search that is already under way shortens the engagement. Starting it on day one of the interim is smart, and the interim should help run it.
- How deep the problem is. A team with a sound process and a leadership vacancy needs less time than a team with weak pipeline, no playbook and high turnover.
- How much has to be hired. Every rep you add needs ramp time before the results show up in your numbers.
A useful structure is three phases. The first 30 days are for diagnosis and a reset plan. Days 31 to 90 are for the process and talent changes. The remainder is for stabilizing results and a clean handoff. Our post on the interim CRO role covers why 90 day deliverables belong in writing, and the same logic holds one level down.
What the scope should include
A written scope protects both sides. At minimum it should name:
- The revenue or pipeline target the person is accountable for, and how it is measured.
- Decision rights: hiring, firing, compensation changes, tooling spend.
- Reporting line and meeting cadence with the CEO or board.
- The one or two process areas to upgrade first.
- The handoff: documentation, the permanent VP profile, and an overlap period if the new leader is hired.
- Exit terms, including notice and what happens if the permanent hire arrives early.
What an interim VP of sales costs
I will be straight about this one: there is no single price. Published estimates for interim and fractional sales leadership come mostly from firms that sell those services, they span a wide range, and they are not standardized across scopes. Instead of quoting a number that may not match your situation, here is what moves the fee.
| Factor | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|
| Hours per week | Full-time ownership of a team costs far more than a few days a week. |
| Seniority and track record | A leader who has scaled teams at well-known companies charges for that experience. |
| Scope | Owning the number, hiring and process rebuilds costs more than a diagnostic. |
| Team size | Managing 4 reps and managing 25 are different jobs. |
| Engagement length | Longer commitments often lower the effective rate, shorter ones raise it. |
| Recruiting | Whether the person also runs the search for the permanent VP, or you pay a separate search firm. |
| Location and travel | Onsite presence in a market adds time and expense. |
The fair comparison is not the interim's fee against zero. It is against what a vacancy costs you: missed quota, drifting reps, and a bad permanent hire made in a rush. When you ask for quotes, ask each candidate to state the monthly fee, the weekly hours, the deliverables, and what is and is not included. Our headcount model for SDR teams helps you size the budget side if outbound is part of the plan.
We do not publish a price list for leadership engagements. Scope drives the number, so we discuss it directly.
Interim VP of sales vs. contract SDR manager
Many companies searching for an interim VP actually have a narrower problem: the top of the funnel is weak. That calls for a contract SDR manager, not a VP.
SaaStr describes the split clearly. SDR managers coach outreach, messaging and objection handling and focus on pipeline generation, while account executive managers coach deal strategy, negotiation and closing and focus on revenue generation. Dover's guide makes the same line from the rep side: SDRs research, prospect and qualify leads, and account executives handle demos, objections, proposals and closing.
| Interim VP of sales | Contract SDR/BDR manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Owns | Total revenue plan and the whole sales org | Outbound pipeline and the SDR/BDR team |
| Manages | Sales managers, directors, sometimes reps directly | SDRs and BDRs |
| Typical problem solved | Leadership gap, forecast, strategy, hiring | Weak pipeline, poor conversion to meetings, high SDR turnover |
| Time horizon | Months, until a permanent VP is in place | Months, until the SDR engine is stable and a manager is hired |
Lemkin also warns against asking one person to manage both. His argument is that SDRs and AEs need different coaching and priorities, and that when the roles are combined, the SDR team tends to get neglected because immediate revenue pressure pulls attention toward the AEs. If you hire an interim VP, make sure someone still owns SDR coaching day to day.
For more on the SDR side, see what an SDR manager is responsible for, how to structure the SDR org, and the KPIs worth tracking. If you are unsure which outbound role to staff, BDR vs SDR explains the difference.
How to choose the right interim leader
A resume full of big logos is not enough. Screen on these points:
- Have they done this exact job? Ask for examples of building or rebuilding a team at a company of your size and stage.
- Can they describe their first 30 days? A strong candidate gives a specific diagnostic plan, not a philosophy.
- Will they hire and fire? An interim who cannot make talent decisions cannot change results.
- Do they know your motion? Outbound-heavy, inbound, channel and enterprise all need different playbooks.
- Are they honest about fit? The best interims tell you when you need an SDR manager, a consultant or a permanent hire instead.
- Is there an exit plan? They should want to make themselves unnecessary and help you hire their replacement.
Check references with the CEO or board member they reported to, not only with peers. Ask what changed in the numbers and what the team looked like when they left.
Our perspective
We see the same mistake repeatedly. A company loses a sales leader, panics, and either promotes whoever is closest or hires the first confident VP who interviews well. Both routes cost more than a deliberate interim.
Our background is 25+ years building and scaling sales and business development teams at companies including Informatica, RingCentral and Cisco-WebEx, and founding both sales organizations and local industry chapters. Across that work, outbound pipeline is where leadership gaps show up first, because SDR and BDR teams need daily coaching, clear metrics and a manager who has run the motion. When that layer is weak, everything downstream looks like a closing problem when it is really a pipeline problem.
So our advice is plain. Decide whether you are buying a VP or an outbound leader. Write down what the person owns and by when. Keep the scope to the few changes that matter. Start the permanent search early. And use AI where it genuinely shortens the work, such as research, prioritization and message testing, but never as a substitute for a leader who coaches people.
— Chad
Working with Chad in Colorado
If you are a CEO, CRO or founder looking for hands-on SDR or BDR leadership, or AI-powered sales consulting, we would like to hear about your situation. We are based in Colorado and work with leadership teams on pipeline growth, outbound structure and team coaching.
If you want your team to learn the playbooks first, we also run speaking and workshop engagements and publish nine books, including AI for Sales 2.0 and Mastering B2B Lead Generation with LinkedIn & AI. You can start with the books or reach us through the main site.
Your first 90 days: a simple checklist
Whether you hire us or someone else, hold any interim leader to a plan like this.
Days 1 to 30
- Pipeline and forecast audit, with a written summary for the CEO.
- One-on-ones with every rep and manager.
- Agreed target, scorecard and weekly cadence.
- Search profile for the permanent VP drafted.
Days 31 to 60
- One or two process upgrades live, for example qualification criteria or SDR to AE handoff.
- Talent decisions made on underperformers.
- First strong hires in the interview process. A one-page onboarding plan helps new SDRs ramp faster.
Days 61 to 90
- Forecast accuracy improving week over week.
- Playbook documented.
- Shortlist for the permanent VP, with the interim in the interviews.
- Handoff timeline agreed.
If extra outbound capacity is part of the answer, a short nearshore SDR pilot is one way to test it without a long commitment.
FAQ
Is an interim VP of sales the same as a fractional VP?
No. An interim VP fills the seat, usually close to full time, for a limited period. A fractional VP gives you a share of their week, often over a longer period. If you need someone accountable for the team every day, choose interim. If you need strategy and oversight at lower cost, fractional may fit.
How long does it take to find a permanent VP of sales?
It varies widely by market, compensation and how well the role is defined. Plan for months, not weeks, and start the search while the interim is in place. A good interim helps by sharpening the profile and joining interviews.
Can an interim VP of sales also manage SDRs?
Yes, but be careful. SDR and AE management need different coaching, and SDRs tend to lose attention when revenue pressure rises. If you do combine them, name a day-to-day SDR manager or set aside protected coaching time.
What should I ask for before signing?
Ask for the monthly fee, weekly hours, written deliverables for 30, 60 and 90 days, decision rights, and exit terms. Also ask who owns the search for the permanent VP. A candidate who cannot answer these clearly is a risk.
Sources
- When It's Worth It To Hire an Interim VP of Sales, SaaStr
- Dear SaaStr: Can I Have My SDR Manager Also Manage My Account Executives, SaaStr
- Your First Sales Hire, Dover