From CEO to Fractional Commercial Director
About Tom Wood
Tom Wood is the founder of Addoli and a Fractional Commercial Director for founder-led B2B businesses turning over £1m to £15m. He has spent more than 20 years in commercial roles, including as a CEO, Commercial Director and Chairman, building and scaling businesses in insurance, e-learning and compliance, including a successful exit and post-sale merger.
Now he helps founders remove commercial bottlenecks by building the systems that make growth predictable.
I know what it is like to be a bottleneck
I have been the CEO at a plateau. I learned that systems and leadership scale. Heroics do not.
So I stopped trying to solve everything myself. I built the commercial systems, leadership and positioning that let the business scale without depending on me.
Addoli exists to do the same for other founders: remove founder dependency and build commercial systems that hold.
What changed
Revenue became predictable.
Growth became repeatable.
The business became valuable beyond me.
I did not learn this from the outside
- 2008
The spin-out
An e-learning platform for insurance broker compliance, spun out of a compliance consultancy.
- 2007
The unglamorous build
20,000 questions written over nine months. It won 26% of the market.
- 2015
Market leader, then beyond
Broadened to charities, chambers of commerce, schools and prisons.
- 2020
Sold, then merged
Sold during the pandemic, then merged with the biggest competitor of fifteen years.
- Now
Addoli
Fractional Commercial Director for founder-led B2B businesses, £1m to £15m.
BSc (Hons) Psychology and Communication
Most commercial leaders come from sales or finance. I came from psychology first.
Four principles I use every day:
Motivation
Motivation comes from mastery, autonomy and purpose. Motivate your people and key stakeholders in the right way, and they will move mountains for you.
Cognitive load
Founders become overloaded at a certain point. They cannot just work harder. They need to delegate, systematise and reduce decision fatigue.
Loss aversion
Buyers fear loss more than they desire gain. Positioning around what you prevent is often more powerful than what you enable.
Social proof
B2B buyers are risk-averse. Case studies, testimonials and references reduce perceived risk more than features do.
Most commercial problems are people problems in disguise
Fix the people issue, and the process issue resolves.
- “We need better sales training”
- The founder is in every deal and it is not scaling
- “We keep competing on price”
- Marketing has fallen into the Comparison Trap
- “Pipeline is unpredictable”
- The team does not understand qualification
- “Deals are discounted too much”
- No confidence in articulating value
- “Forecasts are wrong”
- No accountability or transparency
My commercial philosophy
Six principles behind every engagement
Systems over heroics
Revenue can only go so far if it depends on one person. If it only works when you are in the room, it does not work.
Discipline over instinct
Founder instinct gets you to the first few million. After that you need repeatable systems. Instinct still matters, but it needs structure.
Playbooks over tribal knowledge
If your process lives in your head, it cannot scale. Document it. Teach it. Measure it.
Coaching over control
The goal is not to make your team dependent on me. It is to make them confident, capable and self-sufficient.
Clarity over complexity
Most commercial problems are not complex. They are unclear. Fix clarity, and complexity dissolves.
Proof over promises
I do not ask you to trust me. I build systems that generate measurable proof, then we review it together.
What founders and clients say
Tom took the time to fully understand what we wanted to achieve and knew how to get us there. I learned so much from working with him, and it really transformed the business.
From your Proposition Architect report, I have been able to narrow my proposition and focus on where I make a clear difference. You have a great way of phrasing things so they really land.
Working alongside him on the merger, he brought a human-in-the-loop style that prioritised people over spreadsheets. His ability to facilitate discovery was the glue that allowed two very different cultures to speak the same language.
Credentials
Education
- Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Leadership (Distinction)
- CMI Level 7 Certificate in Strategic Management and Leadership
- BSc (Hons) Psychology and Communication
- Trained Mental Health First Aider
- Sirolli Institute, Enterprise Facilitation
Recognition
- 2014: Winner, Leading Wales Awards
- 2016: Winner, Innovation Point Wales Digital Dozen
- 2018: Winner, Wales Online Best Use of Technology in Education
- Finalist: e-Learning Development Company of the Year
- Runner-up: Global e-Assessment Awards
Professional service
- Board Advisory Network, Daring to Dream - The Emotional Health Charity, 2026 to present
- Volunteer Chairman and Trustee, childcare charity, 2010 to present
- Board Advisor, local trade association
- Local authority entrepreneurship programmes
- Industry standards development, insurance and international trade
Specialisations
- Commercial strategy and planning
- People management and coaching
- Commercial proposition design and marketing
- Key stakeholder mapping
- Pricing strategy
- Pipeline management
- Learning and development
Who I work with, and who I do not
I am best for
- Founder-led businesses turning over £1m to £15m
- Professional services, consultancies, agencies and B2B services
- Founders and CEOs who are the commercial bottleneck
- Sales teams that need coaching, not replacing
- Businesses ready to systematise, not just hire someone to sell
- Leaders open to change
If you were advertising for a number two in your business, would you invite me to an interview? If yes, a fractional engagement could give you that at a fraction of the cost.
I am not right for
- Businesses under £1m: too early for fractional commercial leadership
- Transactional B2C: a different skill set
- Companies happy with the status quo
- Founders unwilling to delegate commercial decisions
- Businesses over £15m: you need a full-time Commercial Director
If that is you right now, I am still happy to talk and point you in the right direction. Education works both ways.
What makes me different
- 1
I have done your job
I am not a career consultant. I have been CEO and Commercial Director. I have stared at revenue plateaus, dealt with inconsistent sales and built commercial systems from scratch.
- 2
Psychology and commercial
I understand buyer psychology, team dynamics and pattern recognition, not just sales tactics.
- 3
Systems over dependency
My goal is for you not to need me. I build playbooks you keep, coach teams to be self-sufficient and step back when you are ready.
- 4
Proof, not promises
Every engagement starts with a fixed-price diagnostic and is reviewed against it every quarter, so you always know what has changed.
- 5
You get me
Founder-direct delivery. Not junior consultants. Not offshore teams. Me.
The book · coming soon
The leaderboard is lying to you
The three Commercial Frameworks and the 7 Plateaus, and how founders use them to break through.
Join the waiting list