Insights — Executive Recruitment — 3 min read
Should a Commercial Director Own Pricing, Partnerships and Revenue?
Three questions decide the shape of a commercial remit: who sets price, who owns partners, and who carries the revenue number. Each can be answered differently — but each must be answered.
In short
A Commercial Director should own pricing authority within an agreed framework, and should own partner and channel arrangements as commercial agreements rather than relationships. Ownership of the revenue number depends on structure: where sales reports into the role, it should; where a Sales Director owns the function, the Commercial Director owns margin and terms while the revenue number sits with sales.
Every commercial remit is assembled from the same three components, in different proportions. Pricing authority, partner ownership and the revenue number can each sit with the Commercial Director, sit elsewhere, or be shared.
There is no universally correct combination. There is, however, a set of combinations that do not work, and they are worth knowing before the brief is written.
Pricing: authority within a framework
The strongest model gives the Commercial Director authority to set the price position and the discount framework, agreed annually with the board, and to approve exceptions within defined limits. Above those limits, escalation is explicit and rare.
| Model | How it works | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Full commercial ownership | Commercial Director sets price and governs exceptions | Clear accountability; requires board confidence |
| Framework with thresholds | Board agrees position; commercial approves within limits | Most common workable model in mid-sized businesses |
| Deal-by-deal approval | Managing Director or finance signs each significant deal | Slow, and margin accountability cannot meaningfully sit with the role |
The third model is not inherently wrong — some businesses run it deliberately — but it should not be combined with a job description that makes the Commercial Director accountable for margin.
Partnerships: ownership means terms, not contacts
Partner, distributor and reseller arrangements are commercial structures with margin implications, exclusivity questions, performance expectations and exit consequences. They are frequently treated as relationships instead — held personally, renewed informally and reviewed only when something goes wrong.
- Who the business appoints, in which territory or segment, and on what basis of exclusivity.
- The margin structure, and whether it still reflects the value each party contributes.
- Stated performance expectations, and what happens when they are not met.
- Review cadence, and the exit position if the arrangement stops working.
Those four items are commercial decisions. Whoever holds them holds the channel. If the answer today is 'the Managing Director, informally', transferring them is one of the clearest early deliverables for a new commercial appointment.
Revenue: it depends on the structure
This is the component that varies most legitimately. Two structures are sound.
| Structure | Revenue number | Commercial Director is judged on |
|---|---|---|
| Sales reports to Commercial Director | Commercial Director | Revenue and margin together |
| Sales Director alongside Commercial Director | Sales Director | Margin, terms, partners, bid outcomes |
What about bids and major deals?
Bid strategy belongs with commercial leadership in almost every structure, because it is where pricing, terms, risk and capacity meet. That means owning the qualification standard — which opportunities are worth pursuing — as much as the pricing of the submissions themselves.
A bid function that cannot decline work is an expensive proposal department. Giving the Commercial Director the authority to say no, and holding them to the quality of what is pursued, is usually more valuable than improving the documents.
Deciding the shape of your own remit
- 01Decide pricing first — it determines whether margin accountability is real.
- 02Decide partners second — it determines whether channel economics are managed or inherited.
- 03Decide revenue last, and let the reporting structure decide it rather than the other way round.
- 04Write all three into the brief, with the thresholds, before approaching anyone.
Discuss a Commercial Director requirement
Permanent, interim or fractional. The conversation starts with what the role must own — price, margin, terms and partners — rather than with a job title.
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Written by
International Sales & Market Development Director, Evans Sales Consultancy
Published 17 September 2026 — 3 min read