Fractional VP of Sales for founder-led B2B companies, in any industry
You don’t sell software. You still sell to committees.
If you run a services firm, a manufacturer, a distributor, a contractor, an agency or any B2B company where the owner still closes the big deals, you have the same problem as a software founder. Your best customers buy through several people, over months, and every one of those conversations runs through you. I spent 30+ years selling complex, multi-stakeholder deals to some of the largest companies in the country. This page is what that playbook looks like when you strip out the jargon, and how I help founders outside tech use it as a fractional VP of Sales.
Based in Scottsdale, Arizona. I work in person across Greater Phoenix and remotely with founders across the US.
Founder-led, B2B, and stuck at the size of the founder’s calendar.
The industry matters less than the shape of the sale. Founders find this page searching for a fractional sales consultant, a part-time sales director or a fractional VP of Sales; the job is the same. You are a fit if most of this sounds familiar:
- You sell to other businesses, and your bigger deals involve more than one decision maker.
- You, the founder or owner, still bring in or close most of the meaningful revenue.
- You have between about 8 and 80 people, and no VP of Sales or head of sales in the role.
- Growth is real but lumpy. A few big wins carry the year, and you can’t say why some close and others vanish.
- You have tried a salesperson or two. They sold the small stuff and the big deals still waited for you.
Typical companies: professional and IT services, engineering and construction firms, manufacturers and distributors, logistics providers, agencies, healthcare and education vendors, and business services selling to large accounts.
Enterprise selling, without the vocabulary.
Big technology companies have names and acronyms for all of this. The ideas underneath are simple, and they work in any business that sells to other businesses.
- Know who you sell to, and who you don’t. A written description of your best customer: size, industry, the problem, and the event that makes them buy now. Most “sales problems” are really this problem.
- Map everyone who has to say yes. The person who wants you is rarely the one who signs. List the owner, operations, finance, purchasing and whoever can quietly say no.
- Every deal has a next step with a date. “Following up next week” is a hope. “Site walk Tuesday with their COO” is a next step.
- Forecast on evidence. A deal is only late-stage when the person who signs has engaged. Enthusiasm from your contact doesn’t count.
- Find the warm paths. Referral partners, suppliers, associations and people who already serve your buyer. For most founders these beat cold calls by a wide margin.
None of this needs new software. It needs someone to write it down, run it every week, and hold the team to it — starting with the founder.
You stay in three moments. The team carries the rest.
The goal isn’t an owner who never sells. It is an owner who sells only where their weight actually moves the deal.
Where the owner stays
- The first real conversation with the person who owns the budget.
- The moment late in the deal when the buyer needs to hear what your company will commit to.
- The final conversation on anything non-standard: terms, pricing, scope.
Everything else — the first calls, the proposals, the follow-up, the pipeline review — moves to the team, one stage at a time. Getting out of founder-led sales lays out the sequence.
Large, careful buyers behave the same in every industry.
My career started outside software: designing and selling plant systems and automation into petrochemical, food and beverage, plastics and manufacturing companies, then ERP into manufacturers. Later I sold to some of the largest retailers and consumer brands in the country, and ran a book of $100M+ in annual bookings at Toshiba.
The lesson that carries across all of it: the companies that win big accounts are organized, patient and specific. They know who decides, they show up prepared for the hard questions, and they don’t let a good relationship stand in for a decision. That can be taught to a 20-person company in any industry.
Fractional VP of Sales, sized to your company.
I run sales with you one or two days a week until it is repeatable, and bring you in only where the owner is the difference. Usually that means:
- A written description of your best customer, and a short standard for which deals are real.
- A simple pipeline with dated next steps, reviewed weekly, in the CRM you already have or a spreadsheet if that’s what fits.
- A plan for the five to ten accounts that would change your year, and who has to say yes in each.
- A partner and referral plan, so new business doesn’t depend on cold calls.
- Coaching your salespeople inside live deals, and helping you hire the next one well.
- A forecast you can take to your bank, your board or your partners.
Outside software, answered.
You come from enterprise software. Why would that work for my company?
Because the hard part of a big B2B deal isn’t the product. It is getting several people at a large customer to agree, on their timeline, with their risks answered. That is the same whether you sell software, engineering services or industrial equipment. I translate the method into your business and your words.
What size company do you work with?
Usually about 8 to 80 people, founder- or owner-led, with no head of sales in the role. Big enough to have real customers and a team; small enough that the owner is still the sales department.
Is a fractional VP of Sales the same as a fractional sales consultant?
Not quite, though founders search for both. A fractional sales consultant usually hands you a plan and leaves. A fractional VP of Sales works inside your deals every week, runs the pipeline with you, coaches your people and stays accountable for the result. When the motion runs without me, I help you hire the person who takes it over.
Do you make cold calls or set appointments for us?
Not as the main job. I build and run the sales motion, and I usually find that partners, referrals and warm paths beat cold calls for founder-led companies selling to larger accounts. If outbound fits your market, I will design it and help you staff it.
Do you work in person?
Yes, across Scottsdale and Greater Phoenix. Founders elsewhere in the US work with me remotely, with travel for the moments that matter. Phoenix and Scottsdale has the details.
Notes from inside these deals.
Getting out of founder-led sales without losing the deals
Transitioning away from founder-led sales fails when the founder hands deals to a VP before a motion exists. Here is the sequence that keeps the deals, a 90-day plan, and how to hand off a live deal.
A Valley founder's first enterprise deal
What the first enterprise deal looks like for a Greater Phoenix founder, and what changes when your startup sales leader in Phoenix can sit in the deal review.
Your first sales hire: a leader or a rep?
Should your first sales hire be a leader or a rep? Usually neither, yet. The answer depends on whether a motion exists, and most founders hire before it does.
Other industries I work in: Retail technology · AI & computer vision · B2B SaaS · eCommerce & order management · Point of sale & store technology · Supply chain & logistics technology
Thirty minutes. Bring the big account you keep almost winning.
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