Leading a sales team
Nine direct reports in field sales and convention sales, with responsibility for targets, key accounts, and close coordination with revenue management.
View the roleCommercial leadership · International experience
Commercial experience.
Close to the business.
I have led sales teams, developed international markets, and run my own businesses since 2008. I am now looking to bring that experience to an employed leadership role with regular, in-person collaboration.
My focus is hospitality, business development, and commercial management.
Based in Ratingen · Düsseldorf and North Rhine-Westphalia
Frank HeisterbergCommercial Leadership · MBA · Talent Development
Relevant experience
What I bring to a role.
My experience connects commercial decisions with responsibility for the people and operations behind them. These examples give a sense of the work and the scope I have held.
Developing markets
Brand expansion and location analysis, working with operators and investors in a hotel group with more than 180 properties across seven countries.
View the roleKeeping the business running
Budgets, forecasts, annual accounts, sales, and day-to-day operations. Acquisitions added responsibility for maintaining continuity while changing structures.
View the roleWorking together
How I approach responsibility.
I begin by getting to know the business, the people doing the work and the way decisions and processes run. That helps me understand the question we need to answer. My MBA gives me a broad choice of methods. I select the ones that help us understand the situation and make a better decision.
Structure and clarity
I take time to understand a complex situation, bring the important questions into focus and explain the reasoning behind a decision, especially when people see things differently.
How I work
I start with the people, the facts and the work itself. I check where interests overlap, where they differ and which decisions are holding things up. From there, I agree on priorities, clarify who can decide what and make the next steps manageable.
Methods I draw on
I use stakeholder and process analysis to understand the situation and a gap analysis to establish where we stand. Scenario comparisons, decision matrices or decision trees help me weigh the options. We then agree on responsibilities and who has the authority to decide.
Fair leadership
I look closely at what helps someone perform well and what is getting in the way. That gives us a fair basis for development while keeping expectations clear.
How I work
I agree on objectives, make time for regular conversations and give feedback people can act on. If results fall short, I look at capability, working conditions and behaviour before deciding what needs to change. We agree on the support and the next steps, then return to them.
Methods I draw on
SMART objectives and skills profiles help make development needs specific. I combine them with one-to-one conversations, development plans and, where useful, GROW coaching or mentoring. Regular reviews give us time to discuss progress and agree on the next step.
Integration through change
Bringing businesses or teams together means bringing different habits and expectations together too. I make those differences discussable early, while there is still room to work through them.
How I work
I listen to the people who know the work, compare how decisions and processes run and agree on what we should preserve or change. We then work through the transition in stages, keeping customers and the daily business in view.
Methods I draw on
Depending on the change, I draw on stakeholder interviews, process mapping, a review of handovers between teams, joint workshops, an integration plan and a risk and action register.
Make strategy work
I want a strategy to give people a useful direction for their daily decisions. That means being clear about priorities, giving them the resources to act and checking whether the work is taking us where we intended.
How I work
I turn the strategic direction into priorities we can explain and carry out. Together, we weigh the commercial benefit against the effort, agree on milestones and revisit the assumptions as results come in. If the situation changes, we adjust with a clear reason.
Methods I draw on
For commercial planning, I draw on market and account analysis, SWOT, business cases, budgets and forecasts. Action plans, relevant KPIs and regular reviews help us follow the work; Kanban can make progress and bottlenecks visible where it suits the workflow.
The next professional step
A deliberate move into a team.
After many years of running my own businesses, a change in my personal circumstances has led me to choose a new professional direction. I want to bring my experience into an employed leadership role and work alongside a team on site, with a shared responsibility for the business and its daily work.
Continued learning
Experience, kept current.
My recent studies build on questions I have encountered in leadership. I have explored how people develop their abilities, how to assess performance fairly and how to work through change with a team. Team Management and Leadership is a particular focus, supported by finance, project management and digital transformation.
Through the MBA and Team Management and Leadership programme, I have developed a broad command of strategic analysis, SMART objectives, GROW coaching, mentoring, root-cause analysis, decision trees and conventional and agile project methods. I draw on that repertoire according to the question, the business and the people involved.
2025
MBA & Master in Team Management and Leadership
ENEB / Universidad Isabel I. 1,800 hours, 72 ECTS across the combined program; final average 9.91/10 (Distinction).
2025
Innovation and Project Management
ENEB specialization diploma, 250 hours. Additional Spanish for Business course, 60 hours.
2022
IHK examination admission
Admitted to the Geprüfter Betriebswirt / Master Professional examination without additional requirements. This is examination admission, not a completed qualification.
2025
Additional university studies
FernUniversität in Hagen. Six completed modules totaling 60 ECTS; continued study in business law.
Working methods
Working through the questions that come with the business.
I develop my own tools when I see a useful way to organise information or make a decision easier to follow. My development workshop explains the question behind each project and where the work currently stands.
Experience matched to a role
A personal workflow for job analysis, evidence-based profile matching, and application documents.
Open Career IntelligenceProcess thinking in practice
Projects in decision support, documentation, and business processes, with different levels of maturity.
Explore selected projectsMake responsibility clear
Clear expectations and fair assessment are part of my work, especially when structures or working relationships change.
Read my approach
A personal perspective
A little more about me.
I grew up in Brazil as the child of German parents. International work and years as an American football player and coach have shaped how I work with people. Today, family and my dog Balto are also an important part of my life.
My current writing includes a book project on Siberian Huskies and FCI Group 5 dogs. It began with questions from everyday life and developed into a sustained examination of the evidence.
Let’s talk
Where could my experience contribute?
Tell me about the role, the team and what you want to achieve. I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience could help.