Addoli · Founder-led B2B · £1m to £15m revenue
Fractional Commercial Director (CCO): the commercial No. 2 for founders doing it alone
You are not stuck because you are bad at business. You are stuck because you are very good at the version that got you here.
Most founders at £1m to £15m are not short of ability. The commercial infrastructure has not kept up with the business they have built. I find the specific thing blocking your next level, and I build the system that removes it.
Free scored assessment. Report by email. No sales call required.
“Most plateaued businesses do not have a sales problem. They have a commercial infrastructure problem.”
Tom Wood · Founder, Addoli25+ years
Building and scaling businesses.
From the floor up
Not from an MBA down.
Psychology-trained
Which is why the diagnosis works.
First step free
The stall is what costs.
The commercial plateau
Do any of these sound familiar?
Busy and stuck feel the same from the inside. The difference is almost always structural, not motivational.
“We are working harder than ever. The number will not move.”
More effort into the same system produces the same result. The constraint is the structure, not the work rate.
“Deals only close when I am in the room.”
You hired the right people and briefed them well. Something changes when you step in. That is a positioning problem, not a people problem.
“We hired a salesperson and it did not work, again.”
The person did not fail. The system they were handed did: no positioning, no playbook, no infrastructure to execute against.
“Our pipeline is completely unpredictable.”
Some months are feast, others famine. Nothing generates consistent demand, just relationships, luck and effort.
“We sound exactly like our competitors.”
Prospects compare you on price because nothing in your messaging gives them a reason not to. That is a proposition problem.
“We are growing, but it feels fragile.”
Revenue depends on a few relationships and the founder holding it together. One bad quarter could set you back years.
If two or three of those felt uncomfortably accurate, you are not broken. You are between stages, and the gap is a structural problem, not a personal one.
Find out which stage you are on →Where is the blockage, exactly?
The 7 Plateaus framework
Every founder-led business sits on one of seven stages. Most stall in the same place, for nearly the same reason. The jump from Plateau 3 to Plateau 4 does not need more effort. It needs different architecture.
P3 · Plateau 3 of 7
The Busy Trap
Strong delivery. Respected by clients. The founder is at the centre of everything commercial, so growth is capped by one diary.
Take the founder out of the critical path. Build the commercial infrastructure that lets others sell and decide.
Free download
The 7 Plateaus Framework Guide
What each plateau looks like, what it feels like and what to do about it. Free PDF, sent to your inbox.
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The guide is on its way. While you wait, take the free five-minute assessment to find out which plateau you are on.
Take the free assessment →How it works
A clear path from stuck to scaling
No mystery. No six-month scoping exercise. Every engagement follows the same four steps.
Diagnose
I use the 7 Plateaus to map your commercial position: not what you think is happening, what is actually happening. Most founders are surprised by where the real constraint sits.
You get: your plateau, the root cause of the stall and a prioritised list of fixes, on one page.
Design
Positioning, sales architecture and pipeline design, built for where you are and where you are going, not borrowed from a model that worked for a different business.
You get: a commercial strategy you can execute. A working document, not a 90-page deck.
Build
I am inside your business one to two days a week. Playbooks get written, systems get installed and your team gets the tools and clarity it has been missing.
You get: working commercial infrastructure. Documented, tested and yours, whether or not I stay involved.
Step back
I step back as internal capability grows. The systems run, the team works from the playbook and you stay in the decisions you want to make, not all of them.
You get: a business that wins revenue without the founder in every conversation.
Choose how to start
Three ways to work together. One right answer for where you are.
Start here
The Commercial Diagnostic
£4,000 + VAT
Two weeks · fixed price
A structured review that finds what is actually blocking growth: your plateau, the root cause and what to fix in what order.
- You know exactly why growth has stalled
- A prioritised action list, not a report for the drawer
- A 90-day plan linked to your stakeholder map
- You decide whether to continue, no pressure
Most valuable
Fractional Commercial Director
£2,500 to £4,500 + VAT a month
One to two days a week
Full commercial leadership without the full-time cost. A full-time Commercial Director costs £120k or more and takes six months to hire.
- Commercial decisions happen without you in the room
- The team works from documented playbooks
- Pipeline stops being a conversation and becomes a system
- You get your week back
Fastest visible results
The Proposition Architect Review
£8,000 + VAT
Four weeks · fixed price
If prospects compare you on price, your proposition is not doing its job. I rebuild it: issue-led value proposition, signature method and messaging that makes comparison irrelevant.
- Prospects understand what you solve
- Conversations start from authority
- Fewer deals lost to “someone cheaper”
- Positioning aligned with your ideal client
Not ready to spend anything? Four free diagnostics, under ten minutes each, with a written report.
See the free diagnostics →Something I should tell you
Fractional support has a bad reputation in some circles. It has been earned.
Too many consultants run a few workshops, produce a deck and move on. The founder is left with a document they do not quite know how to use, and a team that was never brought into the thinking. I have seen it, and I have cleaned up after it.
The structure here is different. I am in the business. I attend the meetings. I write the playbooks. If three months feels like too much, start with the two-week Commercial Diagnostic. No lock-in, and you will know exactly what you would be committing to.
Outcomes, not outputs
Three months
Inside the business
Pattern recognition in practice
What a typical engagement looks like
A composite based on typical engagement patterns. The details vary. The structure does not.
A founder-led professional services business. £4.5m revenue, profitable, well regarded. Growth stalled for 18 months. The founder closed most deals. Two salespeople hired in a year; pipeline unchanged.
Plateau 3: strong delivery, no commercial infrastructure independent of the founder. No documented sales process, no differentiated positioning, no pipeline system. The salespeople were set up to fail.
Two days a week. Positioning rebuilt from capability-led to issue-led. Sales playbook written and tested with the team. Pipeline restructured. The team now runs commercial reviews on its own.
- Less founder time in sales
- Pipeline visible 90 days out
- Team working from the playbook
- Culture blueprint embedded
- Price objections dropped
Price objections dropped because the proposition now gave buyers a reason to choose, not a quote to compare. Specific results vary.
The right conditions
Is this right for you?
This is for you if
- ✓You are a founder, CEO or MD of a £1m to £15m business
- ✓Revenue has plateaued and effort alone is not shifting it
- ✓You know you need help, but not where to start
- ✓You will invest in systems, not just more sales activity
- ✓You want a partner, not a consultant who writes reports
- ✓You are ready to change how the business operates
This is not for you if
- ✕You want a quick fix or a magic bullet
- ✕You want someone to write a strategy deck and leave
- ✕The business is pre-revenue or pre-product-market fit
- ✕You are not prepared to change how things are done
- ✕You want a traditional management consultant
- ✕Price is the main decision factor
Questions you are probably asking
Straight answers
The questions founders ask before the first call.
What is a Fractional Commercial Director?
A Fractional Commercial Director is a senior commercial leader who works inside your business one to two days a week. They own how the business wins, prices and grows revenue, without the cost of a full-time director. Read the full guide
What is commercial infrastructure?
Commercial infrastructure is the set of systems that let revenue grow without the founder at the centre of every decision: positioning, sales process, pipeline, pricing and the playbooks the team works from. What commercial infrastructure means
How quickly will I see results?
Clarity comes in two weeks, through the Commercial Diagnostic. Structural changes you can see, such as your team operating differently and the pipeline becoming visible, typically arrive within 60 to 90 days. Revenue impact follows as the system takes hold, usually within three to six months. I will not promise faster, because that would be dishonest. I will promise you will know whether we are on track long before then.
How is this different from hiring a management consultant?
Management consultants produce a strategy document and leave. The deliverable is the thinking, not the implementation. I work inside your business and build alongside you. At the end, you have working commercial infrastructure that your team operates, not a document that explains what you should build.
We have brought in commercial help before and it did not work. Why would this?
That is the most common thing founders tell me before we start. Usually the person or firm was good, but they were dropped into a business without commercial infrastructure and expected to create results from nothing. I start with the infrastructure, and the people follow. In the right order, it works.
Is this expensive for a business our size?
A full-time Commercial Director costs £120k to £150k a year, before employer National Insurance, pension and the six months it takes to find the right person. Fractional support at £2,500 to £4,500 a month is £30k to £54k a year. We agree the length of the engagement up front, so there are no surprises. The real question is whether you can afford another year of the stall.
We do not need strategy. We need more sales activity. Is that wrong?
I understand the instinct, and I have heard it often in 25 years. What usually turns out to be true is that the sales activity is not the constraint. The system around it is. More calls, meetings and outreach into a leaking bucket just cost more. The Commercial Diagnostic is designed to show whether I am right about that, or whether you are.
Fieldnotes for Founders
Pattern recognition from real diagnostic work
Why can a founder-led business not scale around its founder?
Write a founder job description for your own business. Not the title, such as CEO, Founder or Managing Director, but the actual job: everything you
Why is my website attracting the wrong prospects?
You are attracting the wrong prospects because your proposition tells everyone they are welcome. When a page does not say who it is for, the wrong buyers enquire and the right buyers quietly leave without contacting you. A clear fit line, including who you are not for, filters out the wrong enquiries and gives the right buyers confidence to get in touch.
Commercial decisions: why founders delay them
Founder-led businesses delay commercial decisions because most of them are never consciously made. They happen by default, by absence, or they sit on the founder’s desk. The cost is the commercial outcome waiting behind each decision. Three patterns explain it: the default decision on customer acquisition, the absent decision on staying flat, and the bottlenecked decision that waits for the founder.
Where are you in the journey?
Start wherever you are
Just exploring
Follow the thinking for free
Not sure this is for you yet. The right moment to talk will become obvious.
You like the thinking
Make a small bet
Real value at low commitment. Go deeper without booking a call.
You are ready
Start a conversation
The problem is real and the timing is right. One honest conversation, no pitch.
The first step costs nothing. The stall does.
A free diagnostic call or a free five-minute assessment. Both give you clarity before you commit to anything.
The diagnostic call is free, always. If we cannot identify one meaningful commercial opportunity in our first conversation, you do not pay anything, and you never will.