Situations we often see

Worked example

“We’re about to hire a sales manager”

A common one. The plan is a technically credible hire, often an applications engineer, who will visit customers and find new business. Outsourced telesales or a LinkedIn agency has been tried, and the handoff didn’t work.

The workshop defines the role before interviews start: what it needs to deliver, what feeds it qualified conversations and site visits from day one, what the spares desk, systems and support can carry so the new hire spends their time with customers, and how progress will be measured in the first six months.

The maths most firms skip

With salary and on-costs, a sales manager is a £100k+ a year investment.

At 40–50% margin on equipment, they need around £200–250k of extra sales a year just to cover their cost.

If they have to build their own pipeline first, and decisions take months, the first order that pays for the role can be a long way off.

And the retention risk

Technical people want to spend their time solving customer problems. If half their week goes on calling, emailing and messaging to book their own appointments, they’re unlikely to stay. Even if they do, they won’t deliver the value you hired them for.

Worked example

“I’ve finally got time for business development”

The founder has brought in an MD to run the day-to-day, and now has time to grow the business. They’re confident once they’re in front of an interested prospect. Creating those conversations consistently is the hard part.

Business development has relied on their own networking and events. There’s a CRM, but little process around follow-up and nurture, and thousands of customers, past customers and LinkedIn connections that rarely hear from them.

Where the workshop starts

• ›Which markets and customers are the strongest opportunity?
• ›Where should the founder’s new time go, and where shouldn’t it?
• ›How are contacts developed when there’s no immediate need?
• ›What stays with the founder, and what can be systemised or supported?

The aim isn’t more activity. It’s more of the right conversations, with the founder brought in where they add the most value.

Worked example

“We’ve built a good business on relationships”

A long-established supplier with a strong reputation in its sectors and thousands of historic contacts, but no systematic way of keeping in touch with them. LinkedIn looks like an opportunity, but keeping it going by hand is a slog.

The bigger risk is quieter. Key accounts can rest on one relationship, and when that person moves on, their replacement often brings their own preferred suppliers.

And the MD is still stepping in to check where things stand.

Where the workshop starts

• ›Is every enquiry followed up, and how far has each one got?
• ›Why are opportunities lost: price, lead time, customer type or the kind of enquiry?
• ›Which important accounts depend on a single contact?
• ›Who should be in an active sales conversation, and who should be nurtured until the timing is right?

The aim: every relevant contact either in an active conversation or being nurtured, and confidence that opportunities are moving without the MD stepping back into the detail.

Worked example

“We want more of the right work, not more work”

A specialist manufacturer has invested in the capability and quality systems to win more work in premium, highly regulated sectors. The team is busy and lead times are stretching, so capacity has to go where it earns the most.

Customers often can’t be named and the work can’t be shown, so normal case studies are off the table. Meanwhile the network and contacts live in the owner’s memory, with no CRM or nurture behind them.

There’s a longer-term question too: how much of the business’s value depends on one person.

Where the workshop starts

• ›Which customers and sectors are worth more of the team’s capacity?
• ›How do capacity and commercial priorities line up?
• ›How do you market credibly when you can’t name customers or show the work?
• ›What would make the business less reliant on the owner, and more valuable?

The aim: a steadier flow of the right opportunities, the owner’s sales time spent where it counts, and a business that’s more scalable and less reliant on one person.

Worked example

“Big projects, then nothing”

An engineering services business with good structure once work arrives: quoting, planning and delivery all run well. Before that point, work turns up reactively, with no defined way of choosing which customers and work to go after.

The owners have grown a business before, and know more turnover doesn’t automatically mean a better business. Service contracts could level-load the engineers and smooth out the peaks and troughs of project work, but new customers rarely start there. They start with one job done well.

Where the workshop starts

• ›What do you actually want the business to become?
• ›Is there a repeatable route from one-off jobs, to repeat work, to service contracts?
• ›Which existing customers have more to offer, and how do you stay in touch between enquiries?
• ›How do you stay front of mind with prospects who have an incumbent supplier today?

The aim: the owners’ time spent on customers and technical problems, with systems and support carrying the legwork and bringing them in when a prospect warrants it.

“Great show, no orders”

Back from an exhibition with a pile of leads and no system to follow them up.

The workshop looks at

Where interest goes cold: who owns each lead, and what the next step is.

What changes

Show interest turned into conversations, quotes and orders.

“We’ve got a team and a CRM, but no system”

Good people working hard, with the real pipeline in their heads and inboxes.

The workshop looks at

How the commercial operation compares with best practice, and the few changes with the biggest impact.

What changes

A forecast you can trust and a weekly rhythm the team runs itself.