Permanent Executive Recruitment · Commercial Director
Permanent Commercial Director Recruitment
A permanent Commercial Director is appointed when a business needs a long-term executive accountable for the terms it trades on: pricing, contracts, partnerships and commercial strategy.
Permanent Commercial Director recruitment is the appointment of a long-term executive accountable for pricing structure, contractual and partnership arrangements, and commercial strategy across the business.
Interpret the executive mandate
A Commercial Director exists to own the terms a business trades on, not the team that sells on those terms. Pricing structure, contract and margin discipline, distributor and partner agreements, licensing, tender strategy and commercial risk sit with this role; leading and managing the sales team sits with a Sales Director or Head of Sales.
The most common confusion in this appointment is treating it as a senior sales title. It is not. A business can have an excellent sales team and still be exposed on pricing discipline, contractual terms or partner agreements — and that exposure is precisely what a Commercial Director is appointed to close.
Before a permanent appointment is defined, the business should be able to say plainly which commercial decisions currently have no clear owner, what authority the role carries over pricing and contracts, and how the role divides responsibility from whoever leads sales.
When a business may need a permanent Commercial Director
These are situations, not qualifying criteria. Several point to a Sales Director or Chief Revenue Officer appointment instead, and we will say so.
Pricing is inconsistent or undisciplined
Discounting, margin and contract terms vary by deal and by salesperson, with no single executive accountable for commercial policy.
Partnerships and distributor agreements are growing complex
The business relies on resellers, distributors or licensees, and the commercial terms governing those relationships need senior, dedicated ownership.
Contract risk has become material
Larger, longer or more complex contracts now carry commercial risk — liability, payment terms, exclusivity — that the business has previously negotiated on an ad hoc basis.
Commercial strategy needs separating from sales execution
The business wants someone thinking about market positioning, route to market and commercial model, distinct from whoever is running the sales team's day-to-day performance.
Tendering or public sector work is expanding
Formal tender and procurement processes now demand a dedicated commercial owner for bid strategy, pricing and contract terms.
What a Commercial Director typically owns
- Pricing strategy, structure and discounting policy
- Contract negotiation, terms and commercial risk across major agreements
- Partnership, distributor, licensing and channel agreements
- Commercial strategy: route to market, commercial model and margin architecture
- Tender and bid strategy where formal procurement is material to the business
- Commercial governance and reporting on terms, margin and contractual exposure
What success should look like
Consistent, defensible pricing
Discounting and terms follow an agreed commercial policy rather than individual negotiation, and margin is protected.
Contracts that reduce risk rather than create it
Agreements with customers and partners are negotiated to terms the business can actually deliver against and defend.
Partnerships that perform
Distributor, reseller and licensing arrangements are structured to align incentives and are reviewed rather than left to run indefinitely.
A clear line from sales leadership
The Commercial Director and whoever leads sales operate with distinct, understood mandates rather than overlapping authority.
Why a permanent appointment may fit
Commercial terms compound over years: pricing precedent, contract structure and partner agreements set patterns that are expensive to unwind. A permanent appointment gives the authority and continuity to build commercial discipline that holds.
It is the right model when commercial complexity — pricing, contracts or partnerships — is now a genuine, ongoing constraint on the business, and the requirement is to own it continuously rather than resolve a single deal or renegotiation.
- Commercial complexity (pricing, contracts, partnerships) is now genuinely ongoing
- The business can fund and manage a full-time senior executive
- The mandate is distinct from, not a substitute for, sales-team leadership
What the brief should clarify
- Which commercial decisions currently have no clear owner
- How the role divides authority and reporting from whoever leads sales
- The scale and nature of existing contracts, partnerships and pricing exposure
- The authority the role carries over pricing, discounting and contract sign-off
- Who the role reports to, and what the board expects to see reported
- Any international dimension: cross-border contracts, distributor networks or licensing
Other engagement models for a Commercial Director
The role is the same question. The engagement model answers a different one: how long the leadership is needed, how quickly, and how much of it.
Permanent
A long-term senior leadership appointment, owned inside the business.
You are reading this model
Interim
Time-limited, immediately capable executive leadership for a defined situation.
Interim Commercial Director recruitmentFractional
Ongoing senior leadership without a full-time executive appointment.
Fractional Commercial Director recruitmentCommercial terms are agreed before anything begins. We do not publish standard executive day rates.
Related executive roles
Roles a business is genuinely choosing between when the mandate is still being settled.
Leads the sales function: target market, pipeline, team, forecasting and conversion.
Owns revenue architecture across sales, marketing and customer revenue, and the systems that make growth predictable.
Leads the operational and commercial running of a company or division: P&L, the management team and growth delivery.
Relevant Evans Sales Consultancy services
Linked only where they genuinely relate to this requirement.
Where Evans Sales Consultancy leads the commercial function directly rather than recruiting someone to lead it.
A fixed-fee commercial review that establishes whether pricing, contracts or commercial strategy are the genuine constraint before a senior appointment is made.
The partnership, pricing and contractual decisions a Commercial Director is typically asked to own when a business enters a new market.
Recruiting into a new international market? Where the role is defined by a market plan — a Country Manager, an export or technical commercial hire — International Recruitment is the right route.
Executive recruitment enquiry
Discuss a permanent Commercial Director appointment.
Tell us which commercial decisions — pricing, contracts or partnerships — currently have no clear owner. We will come back on whether a permanent Commercial Director is the right answer, and how the mandate should divide from sales leadership.
Common questions
A Sales Director leads the sales team: target market, pipeline, people and conversion. A Commercial Director owns the terms the business trades on: pricing, contracts, partnerships and commercial strategy. The two roles can and often do sit alongside each other, with a clear division of authority rather than one reporting into the other by default.
Possibly, if pricing discipline, contract risk or partnership complexity have outgrown what the Sales Director's mandate covers. Where sales performance is the only genuine gap, strengthening the Sales Director appointment is usually the better answer.
A Chief Revenue Officer owns alignment and performance across sales, marketing and customer revenue functions. A Commercial Director's mandate is typically narrower and more specific: pricing, contracts and partnerships. Where the core problem is commercial terms rather than functional alignment, Commercial Director is the closer fit.
Not typically. Sales-team leadership belongs with a Sales Director or Head of Sales. A Commercial Director's mandate is the commercial framework those roles sell within — pricing, contracts and partnership terms — not day-to-day management of salespeople.
Evidence of the specific commercial problem you need solved: pricing discipline, contract negotiation at scale, partnership structuring, or tender strategy. Sector familiarity matters less than a demonstrated pattern of owning the type of commercial complexity your business has.
Yes. Where the appointment is principally about structuring distributor or licensing arrangements in a new market, International Recruitment is often the more appropriate route. Where it is a senior leadership hire whose scope happens to include international agreements, Executive Recruitment is the right home.