For founders who have outgrown what got them here
You're not stuck because you're bad at business.
You're stuck because you're very good at the version that got you here.
Most founders at £2m–£15m aren’t stuck because they lack ability. They’re stuck because the commercial infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the business they’ve built. I find the specific thing blocking your next level, and I build the system that removes it.
Tom Wood
Founder, Addoli | Fractional Commercial Director
“Most plateaued businesses don’t have a sales problem. They have a commercial infrastructure problem. And they keep failing to fix it because they keep treating the symptom.”
25+ Years
building and scaling businesses.
From the floor up
not from an MBA down.
Psychology-trained
which is why this diagnosis works.
The first step costs nothing.
The stall does.
Do any of these sound familiar?
"We're working harder than ever. The number won't move."
Busy and stuck feel the same from the inside. The difference is almost always structural, not motivational.
"Deals only close when I'm in the room."
You’ve hired the right people. You’ve briefed them well. But something about the conversation changes when you step in. That’s not a people problem. It’s a positioning problem.
"We hired a salesperson and it didn't work, again."
It wasn’t the person who failed. It was the system they were handed. No positioning, no playbook, no infrastructure to execute against.
"Our pipeline is completely unpredictable."
Some months are feast. Others are famine. There’s no system generating 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’s a proposition problem, not a sales problem.
"We're 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’re not broken. You’re between stages. And the gap between where you are and where you want to be is a structural problem, not a personal one.
Where is the blockage, exactly?
The 7 Plateaus Framework
Every founder-led business sits on one of these seven stages. Most plateaus happen at the same place. And the reason is nearly always the same.
Most businesses I work with are operating at Plateau 3. Strong delivery. Respected by clients. Founder at the centre of everything commercial. The jump to Plateau 4 doesn’t require more effort. It requires different architecture.
The Assessment tells you exactly where you are in under 3 minutes.
The Starting Line
First Proof
The Busy Trap
Most Founders
Almost There
The Target
The Engine Room
The Incomparable Business
Category Ownership
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 straight to your inbox.
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The guide is on its way. While you wait, take the free 3-minute diagnostic to find out exactly which plateau you are on.
Take the Free Diagnostic →How It Works
A clear path from stuck to scaling
No mystery. No six-month scoping exercise. Here’s how every engagement works.
01
I use the 7 Plateaus Framework to map your commercial position precisely. Not what you think is happening, what’s actually happening. Most founders are surprised by where the real constraint is.
You get: Clarity. A specific diagnosis of your plateau, the root cause of the stall, and a prioritised list of what to address, in plain English, one page.
02
Positioning, sales architecture, pipeline design. Built specifically for where you are and where you’re going, not adapted from a generic model that worked for a different kind of business.
You get: A commercial strategy you can actually execute. Not a 90-page deck. A working document.
03
I’m inside your business 1–2 days a week. Playbooks get written. Systems get installed. Your team gets the tools and the clarity they’ve been missing. This isn’t advice from the sidelines.
You get: Working commercial infrastructure. Documented. Tested. Operational. Yours, whether or not I’m still involved.
04
I step back progressively as internal capability strengthens. The systems run. The team operates from the playbook. You stay involved in the decisions you want to make, not all of them.
You get: A business that generates revenue without the founder at the centre of every conversation.
Choose How To Start
Three ways to work together. One right answer for where you are.
Not sure which fits? Take the free 3-minute Assessment and you’ll know before you’ve spoken to anyone.
Start Here
Discovery Engagement
£4,000 + VAT · 2 Weeks · Fixed Price
Before you commit to anything longer, you need to know what’s actually blocking you. No guesswork, a structured review. In two weeks, you’ll have a precise diagnosis: which plateau you’re on, what the root cause is, and what to fix in what order.
→ You know exactly why growth has stalled
→ A prioritised action list, not a 90-page report to store in your drawer
→ A strategic plan linked to your key stakeholder map
→ You decide whether to continue, no pressure either way
Most Valuable
Fractional Commercial Director
£2,500 – £4,500 + VAT per month · 1-2 days per week
Full commercial leadership without the full-time cost. A full-time Commercial Director costs £120k+ and takes six months to hire. This is 1-2 days a week inside your business, building the systems, aligning the team, executing the strategy.
→ Commercial decisions happen without you in the room
→ Team operates from documented playbooks, consistently
→ Pipeline stops being a conversation, starts being a system
→ You get your week back
Fastest Visible Results
The Proposition Architect
£8,000 + VAT · 4 Weeks · Fixed Price
If your prospects compare you on price, it means your proposition isn’t doing its job. In 4 weeks, I rebuild your positioning from scratch: issue-led value proposition, signature methodology, and messaging that makes comparison irrelevant before the meeting starts.
→ Prospects understand what you solve, not just what you do
→ Sales conversations start from authority, not justification
→ You stop losing deals to “we went with someone cheaper”
→ Positioning aligned with your ICP
Something I Should Tell You
Fractional support has a bad reputation in some circles. And it's earned.
Too many consultants show up, run a few workshops, produce a deck, and move on. The founder is left with a document they don’t quite know how to use and a team that was never onboarded into the thinking.
I’ve seen it. I’ve cleaned up after it.
What I do is different, and I can prove that because the structure is different. I’m in the business. I attend the meetings. I write the playbooks. I’m measured on outcomes, not outputs. And the minimum commitment is three months, not one, because anything less doesn’t give the work time to take.
If that sounds like a longer commitment than you’re comfortable with, start with the two-week Discovery. No lock-in. No obligation to continue. You’ll know exactly what you’d be committing to before you commit to anything.
What A Typical Engagement Looks Like
Pattern Recognition In Practice
A composite based on typical engagement patterns, the details vary, the structure doesn’t.
Situation
A founder-led professional services business. £4.5m revenue. Profitable. Well-regarded by clients. Strong on delivery. Growth had stalled for 18 months. The founder was closing most deals personally. Two salespeople hired in the previous 12 months. Pipeline hadn’t improved.
Diagnosis
Two weeks. Discovery Engagement. The business was running at Plateau 3: strong delivery, no commercial infrastructure independent of the founder. Root cause: no documented sales process, no differentiated positioning, no system generating consistent pipeline. The two salespeople had been given a role with no system to execute against. They were set up to fail.
BUILD
Ninety days. Two days a week. Positioning rebuilt from capability-led to issue-led. Sales playbook written and tested with the team. Pipeline system restructured. The team now ran commercial reviews independently, using a documented process they’d helped build.
Shift
Reduced founder time spent in sales
Pipeline visible 90 days out
Team operating from playbook
Culture blueprint created and embedded
Price objections dropped
Two weeks. Discovery Engagement. The business was running at Plateau 3: strong delivery, no commercial infrastructure independent of the founder. Root cause: no documented sales process, no differentiated positioning, no system generating consistent pipeline. The two salespeople had been given a role with no system to execute against. They were set up to fail.
Reason for the last one: the proposition now gave buyers a reason to choose , not just a quote to compare.
Based on typical engagement patterns. Specific results vary.
What They Say
From people who've been through it
This Is For You If...
The right conditions for this to work
✓ You’re a founder, CEO, or MD of a £2m–£15m business
✓ Revenue has plateaued and effort alone isn’t shifting it
✓ You know you need help, but don’t know where to start
✓ You’re willing to invest in systems, not just more sales activity
✓ You want a partner, not a consultant who writes reports
✓ You’re ready to make structural changes to how you operate your business
This Isn't For You If...
When I'm not the right fit
✗ You’re looking for a quick fix or a magic bullet
✗ You want someone to write a strategy deck and leave
✗ Your business is pre-revenue or pre-product-market fit
✗ You’re not prepared to change how things are done
✗ You want a traditional management consultant experience
✗ Budget is your primary decision factor (this is a value investment, not a cost)
Questions You're Probably Asking
Straight Answers
How quickly will I see results?
Clarity comes in two weeks, that’s the Discovery Engagement. Structural changes that you can see, your team operating differently, pipeline becoming visible, typically within 60–90 days. Revenue impact follows as the system takes hold: usually visible within three to six months. I won’t promise faster because that would be dishonest. I will promise you’ll know whether we’re 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 embed in 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've brought in commercial help before and it didn't work.
That’s the most common thing founders tell me before we start. Usually what happened was this: 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. People follow. In the right order, it works.
This sounds expensive for a business our size.
A full-time Commercial Director costs £120k–£150k per year, before employer NI, pension, or the six months it takes to find the right person. Fractional support at £2,500–£4,500/month is one-third to one-fifth of that cost. The question isn’t whether you can afford this. It’s whether you can afford another year of the stall. How many months will I work with you? We agree that up front. No surprises.
We don't need strategy. We need more sales activity.
I understand that instinct, and I’ve heard this a lot over 25 years. Here’s what usually turns out to be true: the sales activity isn’t the constraint. The system around it is. More calls, more meetings, more outreach into a leaking bucket just costs more. The Discovery Engagement is specifically designed to tell you whether I’m right about that, or whether you are.
From The Trenches
Pattern recognition from real diagnostic work
A cart pushed too fast loses its wheel
Two products that did not work commercially taught me more about building a business than any of the ones that did.
Why your business can’t grow without you: the Founder Effect and the architecture that fixes it
Early-stage growth in a founder-led business runs almost entirely on what I call the Founder Effect. Your personal energy. Your network. The instinct for the right client, the right conversation, the right moment.
AI bilge: why your AI output is only as good as your commercial architecture
The businesses generating genuine commercial advantage from AI right now share a few characteristics that have nothing to do with the tools they have chosen.
The first step costs nothing. The stall does.
A free diagnostic call. A free 3-minute assessment.
Both give you clarity before you commit to anything.
No forms. No sales sequence. One honest conversation.
3 minutes. Find your exact stage.
The diagnostic call is free. Always.
If we can’t identify one meaningful commercial opportunity in our first conversation, you don’t pay anything, and you never will. That’s the guarantee.
Where Are You In The Journey?
Stage 1
Just exploring.
Follow before you commit.
Not ready to buy. Not sure if this is for you. That’s fine. Follow the thinking for free: the newsletter, the diagnostics, the content. The right moment to reach out will become obvious.
Stage 2
You like the thinking.
Make a small bet.
A book. A paid diagnostic report. A training course. Real value at low commitment. A way to go deeper without booking a call.
Stage 3
You’re ready.
Let’s start a conversation.
The problem is real. The timing is right. The next step is one honest conversation, no pitch, no pressure, to find out if this is the right fit.