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Commercial and sales leadership, without the full-time hire
Plenty of good companies in distribution and material handling grow on the founder’s relationships until they don’t. The pipeline is a spreadsheet, the forecast is a feeling, and pricing hasn’t been looked at since the last price increase. We step in as fractional CRO and build the commercial engine your next stage needs.
Who it’s for
Distributors and 3PLs. Material handling dealers and systems integrators. Equipment, rack, robotics and software suppliers. PE-backed platforms that need commercial discipline before the next acquisition or the exit.
The common thread is a business that’s outgrown how it sells. Usually there’s a capable team, a few big customers carrying too much of the revenue, and nobody senior whose full-time job is the number.
What the work covers
Sales strategy and focus
Which markets, accounts and offers to chase, and which to stop chasing. A plan the team can repeat back, with targets that tie to it.
Pipeline and forecast discipline
A CRM people actually use, clear stage definitions, weekly deal reviews and a monthly forecast leadership can plan around. The boring machinery that makes growth predictable.
Pricing, margin and proposals
Data-driven pricing and quoting standards, discount rules that protect margin, and proposals that win on value instead of on the lowest number.
The team itself
Role definitions, hiring, territories, compensation plans and coaching. Dealer and partner programs where a channel makes more sense than another rep.
Done it, not studied it
As Chief Revenue Officer at United Material Handling, ELMAT Group’s founder, Jovan Bjelobrk, led sales, marketing, product development and customer success, and built pricing and forecasting models from the company’s own data. Before that, as VP of Sales and Marketing and then COO at SRSI, he helped grow a systems integrator from four people to more than sixty, with consistent double-digit revenue growth, and built its CRM, dealer portals and training programs from scratch.
Leadership and networkEntering the US market? Manufacturers from Asia-Pacific and Europe have a specific version of this problem: no channel, no reference customer and a buying process that works differently. That’s covered on the US market entry page.
Common questions
What does a fractional CRO do?
A fractional Chief Revenue Officer runs the commercial side of your business part time. That usually means setting sales strategy, building pipeline and forecasting discipline, fixing pricing, and hiring and coaching the sales team, with the same accountability as a full-time executive.
How is that different from a sales consultant?
A consultant gives you recommendations. A fractional CRO owns the number with you. We sit in the pipeline reviews, works live deals, and is measured on results, not on a report.
How long does an engagement usually run?
Most run six to twelve months. The goal is a commercial engine that works without us, whether that ends with a full-time hire, a promoted leader or a smaller ongoing advisory role.
Which companies is this a fit for?
Distributors, material handling dealers and systems integrators, equipment and software suppliers, and PE-backed platforms in distribution and industrial markets, typically with a few million to a few hundred million dollars in revenue.