Ed Smith, fractional VP of Sales in Scottsdale, Arizona
I started this practice after rebuilding GTM for a computer-vision company that had to pivot — as VP of Sales, reporting to the CEO.
I live and work in Scottsdale, Arizona, meet Greater Phoenix founders in person, and work remotely with founders across the US and Canada. I’ve spent 30+ years selling complex enterprise technology into retailers, brands, manufacturing, and CPG — commerce platforms, order management, point of sale, supply chain, computer vision, agentic and AI solutions. Always the complex enterprise sale. Always to large, sophisticated buyers and organizations who could have chosen someone bigger.
From working at small companies that became very large. To the biggest brands in software. Deals that set records.
I started at Amtech Process Systems — a very small company that became a very large one and was acquired. I’ve seen that pattern, and worked inside it, more than once since: an early seller at Demandware, ATG and hybris — three companies that went on to be acquired by Salesforce, Oracle and SAP. I love the high-growth trajectory of companies like that, and I know it takes a particular talent to get in early and do the hard work.
I’ve also sold for the biggest brands in enterprise software. I led Midwest sales at Adobe, and at IBM I closed the largest eCommerce and order-management deal in the company’s history at the time. At Toshiba I ran the Kroger book of business — $100M+ in annual bookings, Toshiba’s single largest client globally — from inside the retailer’s own technology headquarters. At Standard AI I rebuilt the go-to-market for a computer-vision company that had to pivot its product, reporting to the CEO. I've worked alongside the CEOs at every company and stage. So I know what it is to sell with no brand behind you, and what it is to sell with a huge one — and the two are different jobs.
What that adds up to is a set of tools, not a theory: how to define the ICP and the buyer map, how to qualify deals, all the pre-work to get into a deal, how to find the economic, technical and business buyers, how to get through procurement, RFP responses, demo to win, true strategic selling, closing, how to hire the first sellers and in what order, how to build a forecast a board believes. And the judgment to know which of those your company needs this quarter and the next three ahead.
Same sale. Different layer of the stack.
The pitch is the committee sale: a product a large company has not bought before, and a room that can kill it after they like it. That is the work. The stack underneath it kept moving — plant and process systems, ERP, commerce, order management and the store, then vision on the aisle. When a buyer says inventory, I know which layer they mean. That is useful in the room. It is not why you hire me.
What you hire is someone who has run that sale at every layer: small vendor and large badge, pilot and rollout, champion and economic buyer. I know how the pieces fit, which ones your buyer already owns, and where yours has to land — because I have sold the thing that makes it, plans it, sells it, moves it, and now sees it. If your buyer is a retailer, I am a fractional VP of Sales for retail technology companies — that sale has its own rules, and I have written them down.
Very similar challenges, every time. Standard AI was the inspiration.
Every emerging technology company I’ve sold for hit the same wall: a product that was ahead of the market, a founder or CEO carrying the selling, and an enterprise buyer that needed to be shown a process before it would trust a small vendor. It isn’t one company’s problem. It’s a reflection of the industry — the challenge every young technology company faces on its way to the enterprise.
Standard AI was the inspiration for me starting Fractional Sales Experts. Building the go-to-market for a computer-vision company through a product pivot. As a partner to the CEO — defining the ICP, the positioning, building the partner ecosystem, the sales playbooks, getting sales on track from activity to the forecast, etc. It showed me something I’d suspected for years: a founder doesn’t need a bench to sell into the enterprise. They need one person who has done it, brings the tools, and will do it with them. That is the practice.
Helping young companies sell into the enterprise is the work I want to do. Setting the company up right. Defining the ICP. Mapping the buyer and the pain across the enterprise, from CEO to VP to CFO to the techie who is in the room. Getting through procurement. Running the RFP. Showing up as an enterprise company before you are one. I’ve done every piece of that, and I’ll roll up my sleeves and do it with you.
For the founder, not around them.
- You keep decision rights; I keep you informed and honest. I'm your trusted right hand.
- Straight answers, including the ones you won’t like — starting with whether you should hire me at all.
- In the deals, not on the sideline — and I'll keep you out of the meetings that only feel like they need you.
- Everything is documented. The process survives both of us.
Why “Experts” is plural
Fractional Sales Experts is built to become a house of fractional specialists for emerging technology companies: people I’ve sold alongside for years — partnership builders, marketers, enterprise sellers, search and AI-visibility specialists, market-entry operators — brought into your engagement when the work needs them, under my direction and my accountability.
Today it starts with me. I'm already building out my network of fellow fractional Subject Matter Experts. The ultimate goal is to be a resource to my clients — to help fill in all your needs and gaps as you grow.