You Know the Pattern

The pipeline looks healthy on paper, but nothing is closing. The forecast keeps slipping. The board is asking questions you cannot answer with certainty. Your sales director has either left, checked out, or is part of the problem.

I have spent the past five years fixing this exact situation for B2B technology companies. Not advising from the sidelines. Building pipelines, closing deals, and installing sales operations that actually work.

The track record: over £5M in closed revenue. More than £11M in qualified pipeline. One consistent pattern. I find what is broken in weeks. I fix it in months. Then I leave you something that lasts.

Henk L. Pleiter
The Cost of Inaction

Everyone talks about ROI. But ROI has become background noise. Every vendor promises it, every business case includes it, and your board has heard it a thousand times. I prefer a different calculation: what is it costing you to do nothing?

Your pipeline is decaying. Every month without effective sales leadership, deals that should close this quarter slip to the next, then slip again, then go cold. I have walked into companies where 40% of the pipeline had not been touched in six weeks. That is not a pipeline. That is a graveyard.

Board confidence is eroding. Every quarter with a declining forecast chips away at trust. Not just in the numbers, but in the people presenting them. Once that trust goes, it takes years to rebuild. If it can be rebuilt at all.

Your best people are already looking. When top performers see deals stalling, they pick up the phone. Not to prospects. To recruiters. A-players do not wait for turnarounds. They leave. Replacing one costs six months of lost productivity and a hefty recruitment fee.

Your competitors are closing your deals. Lost market share rarely comes back. Customers who choose someone else are locked into contracts and become reference accounts for your rivals.

The recruitment timeline works against you. Hiring a permanent Sales Director takes four to six months. Add a three-month notice period and a further quarter to get up to speed. That is nine months of commercial drift before any decision starts to impact revenue.

That is the real cost. Not what you might gain by acting, but what you are already losing by waiting.

What You Get From Day One

This is not advisory work. From the first week, I operate as your Sales Director, embedded in the business, accountable for pipeline and revenue. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Methodology That Closes Deals

MEDDPICC, Challenger, and SCOTSMAN applied to every live opportunity from week one. Structured qualification, executive-level deal governance, and rigorous forecast discipline. Not theory. Working deal mechanics that turn pipeline into revenue.

Revenue Ops That Reflect Reality

AI-enabled CRM automation, pipeline hygiene, and forecast accuracy built into your existing stack. I have reduced sales admin overhead by 50% and improved forecast accuracy by 25% within a single quarter. Your board sees numbers they can trust.

Technology Platforms From Both Sides of the Table

I have sold and implemented Adobe Experience Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Sitecore, Optimizely, Amplience, and Aprimo. I know what these platforms promise and what they actually deliver. That means credibility with your buyers and honest conversations with your team about what is possible.

Go-to-Market Execution Across Geographies

GTM strategy and hands-on execution across EMEA, Americas, and APAC. Nearshore delivery, enterprise SaaS, bespoke development, and partner-led growth. I have built pipeline in markets where your team has never operated.

How I Work

Every engagement follows the same evidence-based approach. Fast diagnosis, structured execution, measurable outcomes.

01

Diagnose

Weeks 1–2. Full commercial audit: pipeline health, deal quality, forecast accuracy, team capability, process gaps. Evidence-based diagnosis, not assumptions.

02

Triage & Structure

Weeks 2–4. Pipeline triage, MEDDPICC enforcement, deal prioritisation, quick wins identified. CRM and reporting cleaned up. Board gets a credible forecast.

03

Execute & Accelerate

Months 2–6. Full commercial execution: closing deals, building pipeline, coaching reps, activating partners, launching outbound. Revenue starts moving.

04

Embed & Hand Over

Months 6–12. Playbooks documented, cadences running, team trained, KPIs tracking. I leave behind a sales function that works without me.

A Proven Approach
Stabilise. Scale. Succeed.
01

Fast, Evidence-Based Diagnosis

The first two weeks are about clarity, not activity. Pipeline health, deal velocity, qualification discipline, and CRM behaviour are analysed to identify root causes. Assumptions get replaced with evidence. You receive a precise action plan. No generic playbook. A diagnosis based on what is actually happening in your pipeline.

02

AI-Enabled Sales Strategy

AI highlights high-probability opportunities, flags risks earlier, and sharpens qualification. Combined with MEDDPICC, Challenger, and SCOTSMAN, this creates a sales process that is predictable, not just hopeful. Accurate forecasting, consistent deal progression, and a methodology your team can run without me.

03

Hands-On Commercial Execution

This is not advisory work. Live pipeline reviews. Real-time deal support. Refined messaging and coaching within active opportunities. Your team builds momentum from day one. Confidence, clarity, and conversion improve immediately because someone is in the room doing the work, not just reviewing the slides.

04

Network-Led Acceleration

An active network of over 8,500 decision-makers, partners, and technology leaders. Doors that would take months to open through outbound open in days through warm introductions. Go-to-market execution speeds up. Qualified opportunities reach target markets faster. This is not a contact list. It is 25 years of relationships that are still active.

Who Needs Interim Sales Leadership Right Now

Missing quota for two consecutive quarters is not a market problem. It is a structural one. Something in the sales engine is broken: pipeline quality, conversion discipline, deal velocity, forecast integrity, or all of the above. And the longer it goes undiagnosed, the deeper the damage.

The interim alternative: A week-one diagnostic pinpoints the root cause. Not a generic audit. A hands-on examination of live deals, pipeline behaviour, and team execution. Weeks two to four involve triage: disqualifying unwinnable opportunities, enforcing MEDDPICC qualification, and focusing resources on opportunities that will actually close. The commercial rhythm shifts fast because someone is in the room making decisions, not writing a report about them.

A leadership vacuum causes commercial chaos. Deal velocity drops through indecision. Pipeline reviews become status updates instead of strategic assessments. Forecast accuracy declines because nobody is holding the team accountable for sandbagging or wishful thinking. Top performers start taking calls from recruiters.

What immediate stabilisation looks like: I have stepped into these situations multiple times. Within weeks, pipeline reviews regain their rigour. Deals that were drifting get either accelerated or disqualified. The team gets clarity on priorities, coaching on live opportunities, and someone they can rely on to make commercial decisions. Revenue continues to be generated while the permanent search runs in the background. No gap. No drift.

Your product is strong, but commercial execution is lagging. The ICP is either too broad or too narrow. Messaging fails to resonate with buyers. Sales and marketing efforts are misaligned. Partners are underperforming. The team is busy but not effective.

The solution: Align GTM execution with a clearly defined ICP and a cohesive commercial motion that sales, marketing, and partners can all follow. Unify the pipeline. Improve qualification processes. Resolve the handoff issues between inbound leads and outbound activities. I have applied this approach across multiple engagements, from nearshore technology services to enterprise DXP platforms, and the pattern remains the same: once commercial execution is aligned, pipeline quality improves, conversion rates increase, and the sales cycle shortens.

The founder is still the best salesperson in the business. Every major deal runs through them. The pipeline depends on their relationships, their instincts, their availability. It worked brilliantly to get here. It will not get you to the next stage. And everyone knows it, including the founder.

The transition: This is not about replacing the founder. It is about building a sales function that can operate independently while preserving the relationships and commercial instincts that built the company. That means installing methodology, creating a repeatable sales process, coaching the team to close without the founder in the room, and gradually shifting the founder from chief closer to strategic sponsor. I have guided this transition for technology companies at exactly this inflection point. The founder gets their time back. The business gets a sales engine that scales.

 

When Growth Can’t Wait

Pipeline stalled. GTM strategy is misaligned. Team in transition. I deliver results from week one.

Let's Talk About What's Actually Broken

Book a 20-minute diagnostic call. I will ask direct questions about your sales operation, identify the blockers, and tell you exactly what needs fixing. No pitch. No obligation. Just clarity on whether I am the right fit.