A second revenue line, built from zero
Tens of millions of users and one revenue model. The second one was brand advertising, sold to agencies and brands direct, and nobody inside the company had sold media before.
Delivered
- The advertising motion built from nothing: pitch, pricing, process
- An outreach system for senior agency and brand-direct buyers
- Sales collateral audited in full, then rebuilt
- Training and standing coaching for four remote sellers
- Ad operations, reporting and programmatic guidance
Outcome
- 2,000+ agency and brand targets worked
- 40+ new senior contacts opened for the full-time team
- Largest deal in company history closed, a Fortune 100 beverage brand
- $300K+ in directly attributed revenue
“Boosted our e-commerce and partnership sales efforts.”
Which sales model, and which five hires
National retail distribution, a direct-store-delivery model, and a funding round ahead. The question was not how to grow faster. It was which structure to grow into.
Delivered
- Competitive landscape across four category comparables
- Benchmark studies on two brands that had already made the run
- Acquisition and exit comparables, with the multiples they implied
- Three-year org roadmap: pre-funding, post-funding, growth phase
- Sales organisation split into direct and distribution verticals
- The case for shifting weight toward the direct model
Outcome
- One document the founder and board could argue strategy from
- A hiring sequence with the reasoning attached, not a wish list
Their revenue, margin and per-store numbers are theirs, and are not published here.
Is field sales a real channel, or an expensive distraction?
An inside-sales company wanted that answered with evidence rather than opinion, and wanted to be able to run the channel if the answer came back yes.
Delivered
- A field sales playbook, built and then tested in a live market
- Test market selection, and the criteria behind the choice
- Team structure, role definitions and compensation frameworks
- The first field account executive hired, trained and coached
- KPIs set up front: lead-to-close time, rep efficiency, quota
Outcome
- A business case covering strategy, financials and operations
- A clear go or no-go call, with the evidence underneath it
- A tested playbook and a rep in seat, so a yes could start at once
The engagement was designed so a no was worth as much as a yes.
Close the first twenty yourself, then hire the people who take over
A company moving upmarket into enterprise restaurant accounts needed the motion proven by someone running it, and then staffed.
Delivered
- Twenty mid-market accounts carried through the funnel personally
- The enterprise playbook, written out of those live deals
- Two mid-market and enterprise account executives hired
- A junior account executive brought in underneath them
- Case studies prepared for the team that inherited it
Outcome
- A documented enterprise motion built from deals actually worked
- Three sellers hired and in seat to run it
- Multi-unit accounts advanced through the pipeline and handed over
A US commercial function, stood up from nothing
Proven traction at home, no US presence, and a board that needed the US story to be credible. First customers and partners closed personally, then a function built underneath.
Delivered
- Three-year US model with base and stretch cases, and unit economics
- US route to market, sized, with a segmented target account list
- Integration tracker across named platforms, with blockers and owners
- Pilot construct, partner pitch materials and contracting templates
- Outbound engine: sequence, scripts, CRM rebuild, conference motion
- A full onboarding brief for an external BDR agency
Outcome
- Live US distribution through national publisher partners
- A CRM, pitch and objection set the team runs themselves
- The US motion absorbed into the company's own sales operating system
Two of the last three years have included building a US function for a European company.
Picking the channels before spending on any of them
A consumer app with a nascent B2B advertising product knew who it wanted to sell to and had no agreed view of how to reach them.
Delivered
- Market sizing, total addressable down to what it could serve
- Positioning against four incumbents on the axes buyers complain about
- A written ICP: demographics, psychographics, and five pain points
- Channel architecture across inbound, outbound and indirect
- Trade show economics modelled to the break-even deal count
- Partnership, industry association and affiliate program design
- Sales organisation merging sales and success under one leader
- A three-stage pricing path, cost-per-click to subscription to enterprise
Outcome
- One document the team could set channel priority from
- Sales enablement collateral and a documented inside-sales motion
“Preston brought a level of strategic clarity that was invaluable to Franki as we honed our go-to-market approach. More than just a strategist, he acted as a mentor, challenging our thinking and helping us sharpen our focus.”Eugene Varricchio, CEO, Franki
Post-sale analysis was run by the advisor on the bench whose depth is customer success. That is the bench working as intended.
A 75-slide deck, and nothing underneath it
Real product, founder-built deck, and no repeatable sales function: no funnel model, no cadence, no objection handling, no comp structure, and a different pitch from every rep.
Delivered
- One monolithic deck decomposed into twelve owned, maintained sections
- Five-stage CRM pipeline with definitions and exit criteria
- A commission structure tied to those stages
- A spoken talk track, so reps pitch without the deck in front of them
- Target account map with ICP scoring, and a weekly outbound cadence
- A weekly GTM session with a written issue log carried week to week
- Channel partner training, delivered to partner reps
Outcome
- A living playbook the GTM team maintains, with owners and a change log
- Every artefact scoped to onboard a new hire unaided
- The company's first full sales cycle closed during the engagement
The CEO seat
The deepest version of this work is not advising the chief executive. It is being the chief executive. In one engagement I hold the seat, carry the title externally, and sign my own outreach.
Delivered
- A phase-one operating plan separating foundational unblocks from growth
- ICP refocused onto the segment that converts, and named withdrawal from the one that does not
- Marketplace discoverability audited end to end
- Distribution shifted off creator-led sharing and onto an owned engine
- Partnership sequencing: prove it mid-tier before approaching the majors
- A two-step outbound playbook, permission asked before any pitch
- Rate guidance by tier, with compliance language where it is needed
Outcome
- Strategy and cold outreach owned by the same person, which is the point
- The plan revised against what the outreach actually returns
Named clients appear on this page with their permission. This company has not been asked, so it is not named.