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Chief Commercial Officer

The role of a Chief Commercial Officer is an Executive level role, responsible for the commercial strategy, and development of the business towards its commercial goals. Often shortened to CCO, the Chief Commercial Officer will input into the sales and marketing plans for the business and forecasting their impact on the profit of the business.

If you are looking for a Chief Commercial Officer job role or would like to find out how to become a CCO, what skills you need, and what salaries are on offer, you will find a complete guide below.

If you’re an employer looking to recruit a Chief Commercial Officer, please see our Executive Search recruitment page, and the full overview of our services to employers. If you need to hire and would like our services, contact us today.

We place Chief Commercial Officer candidates within London, month in month out. With the rise of flexible working over the last 2 years, we are extending our recruitment services to candidates across the UK, Europe and North America.

Salary

There are many factors used to determine the Chief Commercial Officer salary and package expectations – size of business, industry, growth stage, product pipeline and company turnover – just to name a few.

We’d expect a salary between £120,000 – £300,000 with additional benefits such as private medical insurance, performance related bonuses and pension contributions as standard for this level of role. The salary is largely determined by the organisation type, i.e., a large global listed business will be closer to the top range, with an early-stage scale-up towards the lower end of the scale, potentially with an equity package to enhance the overall package.

Equally, if an employer requires a CCO with specific niche experience and knowledge, the candidate will often be able to negotiate a salary at the higher end of this scale. Traditionally, those CCO’s working within London could expect a salary at the higher end of this scale, but with the rise in demand from candidates for flexible working, employers are tending to level out this playing field.

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Example Job Description

A typical Chief Commercial Officer job description will read something like the below:

The successful candidate will be responsible for the delivery of the company’s commercial strategy, working across marketing, sales and customer teams to drive business growth.

Key roles for Chief Customer Officer:

  • To develop and implement sales and marketing strategies, plans, forecasts and KPIs
  • Sit on the senior management team and work cross-functionally to maximise outputs from business projects
  • Develop strategies to be innovative in the market and win new customers to the business
  • To manage customer relationships and measure customer satisfaction through customer insight programmes
  • To oversee and evaluate market research and adjust the business strategy as required
  • To manage and develop the sales, marketing and customer services teams and instil a culture of continuous improvement
  • To generate new sales leads via a multichannel approach
  • To meet measure and exceed performance results, within agreed budget. Actively analyse sales performances against quotes and plans to determine effectiveness
  • Effectively manage and lead the sales, marketing and customer team to success
  • To report to the company Directors and Board

Requirements

  • A strong, proven commercial background
  • Proven ability to plan, implement and analysis performance results against objectives and KPIs
  • Significant senior management and leadership experience.
  • Demonstrable experience of managing operational performance within financial budgets.
  • Proven ability to attract new sales and retain existing customers.
  • Demonstrable personal leadership qualities

What are employers looking for?

Creating a job description is a difficult task for a commercial leadership role – each business will have different requirements depending on its size, how established the business is, the budget, and what product the business sells, from software, a service to a tangible product. Saying this, businesses looking to fill a Chief Commercial Officer role, are more than likely looking for evidence of experience including:  

  • Commercial acumen including focus on revenue, profit, and business growth
  • Focus on performance standards for the business – setting the strategy, the KPIs and ensuring teams are meeting these
  • Focus on the effectiveness of HR, including team structures, salaries, retention of staff and training
  • Ability to understand and guide the sales and marketing strategy for the business, ensuring revenue and profits are met, and costs are well managed

FAQs

What is the difference between COO and CCO?
The Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) is responsible for the commercial development of the business by setting a commercial strategy and ensuring these goals are met. An understanding of the performance of marketing and sales team is required to do this, as well as a focus on the motivation, performance, and retention of quality teams. A Chief Operations Officer (COO) will oversee all of the business’s operations, including product manufacturing, service delivery and customer relations.
How much do Chief Commercial Officers make?
We’d expect a salary between £120,000 – £300,000 with additional benefits such as private medical insurance, performance related bonuses and pension contributions as standard for this level of role.
Who does a CCO report into?
In most business structures, a Chief Commercial Officer will sit on the leadership team and report directly into the CEO.