The roles
Each of these is a real role with a real number attached, not a service line. I've held versions of all three on payroll. Pick the one that's empty.
The commercial role
You have a product that sells at home and no one senior selling it abroad. I own the number: pipeline construction, direct deals, tenders, channel and partner structure, pricing in-market, and the sales methodology and CRM discipline underneath all of it. Every stakeholder who can stop a deal gets mapped — MEDDPICC, Strategic Selling, Challenger, Value Selling, Consultative, adapted to whatever the room actually needs — not just the sponsor who says yes.
Not for you if you already have a working local sales team and need capacity rather than leadership. Hire reps, not me.
The security & AI governance role
Security stopped being a technical question and became a commercial one. This role owns the posture that decides whether your contract gets signed: EU AI Act, SDAIA, UAE PDPL, DIFC Regulation 10, LGPD, NIS2 and GDPR, mapped against the deals actually in front of you. Vendor questionnaires, data-residency architecture, and the board-level answer to "is this safe to buy." CISSP, and twenty-five years of selling into the enterprises that ask.
Not for you if you need a certification delivered rather than a function led. Buy an auditor — they're cheaper and they're the right tool.
The regional role
Presence, partners, institutional and government-adjacent relationships, local hiring, the operating rhythm, and the P&L discipline that holds it together. This is the role that runs a region rather than a territory — and the one most willing to tell you the region shouldn't exist yet. Twelve years of it in the Gulf, on the ground, not flown in.
Not for you if you already have an entity and a functioning local team. That's execution support, and it isn't what this role is for.
How the role gets filled
Both start with the same fixed first month. What differs is how much of the practice the role consumes after it.
| Interim | Fractional | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Full-time equivalent, one client | 2–6 days per month, ongoing |
| Term | 6–12 months, defined end | 6-month minimum, open-ended |
| Typical trigger | Someone left, or a search is running | The market is real, the headcount isn't approved |
| Buys you | A vacant role covered now | A role you can't yet fund full-time |
| Capacity cost | The whole practice | One of three |
| Month one | Fixed fee. It can end in "don't fill this role yet" — the fee is the same either way. | |
| After month one | Monthly fee plus an outcome component tied to what we agreed in month one. | |
Tell me which role is open and what has to be true in six months. If it's the wrong role, I'll say so.
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