New book: Build Something Real. Out November 9th.
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Like why you're growing with the market when you should be beating it.
I help you find what's holding growth back, build what fixes it, and stay until it holds.
When I say commercial, I mean Sales, Marketing, and R&D. In this industry, a deal doesn't close until all of them pull in the same direction. Most of the time, they don't.
Every engagement starts in the same place. I don't build anything until we know what's true.
Most growth problems hide in the gap between what your numbers say and what's actually happening. Nobody's lying. Nobody's been asked to check. I go through the CRM, the forecast, and the meetings, and I talk to the people doing the work. I'm looking for where growth actually breaks. It might be a pipeline full of projects nobody qualified. It might be samples going out with no commercial commitment behind them, or R&D buried in work that will never become revenue.
That $91M gap had been driving headcount, R&D investment, and the forecast for months. Nobody lied. Nobody was accountable for keeping the number clean.
Once we know what's true, we decide where you'll compete and where you won't. Which categories get your R&D hours and your sales effort. Which customers you grow, and which you stop chasing. Then we build what gets you there: a sales process your team actually uses, a shared definition of a qualified opportunity, metrics and a meeting rhythm that keep the pipeline honest.
A system only works if people use it on a busy Tuesday. So I stay. I coach your commercial leadership team and, where it helps, the people in front of customers. When a business needs it, I step in as a fractional commercial leader.
I grew up in Thornton, Illinois, a limestone-quarry town where hard work and community were just how people lived. That shaped how I lead.
My path ran from sales to General Manager, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Customer Officer. Along the way I worked at companies including PepsiCo, FONA International, Symrise, and Giraffe Foods.
As GM, I held my first town hall at midnight, for the third shift. They rarely saw leadership in person. I still work that way. I show up where the work happens, and I tell you what I see, even when it's uncomfortable.
I know what a real deal looks like in this industry. I know what a fictional one looks like too.
“You can't out-character a broken system.”From Build Something Real
Hard-won lessons on leadership, culture, and growth, told through real stories. Including why pipeline is not growth, and what to do about it.