Resetting hiring, pilots, pipeline and outreach together at a stalled retail analytics company
Only the founder could close, and pilots ran on with no rollout decision. The work diagnoses the revenue system, then builds the fixes with the team.
- Challenge
Only the founder closed, pilots drifted, and new hires could not change that.
- Approach
System-level diagnosis across the revenue engine, then hands-on implementation of each fix.
- Result
Pilots that end in a decision, and a monthly revenue review.
The situation
Retail analytics companies selling pricing and promotion analytics to large-format retailers often grow on deals only the founder can close. Pilots start in a few stores without agreed success criteria, then run on through the season with nobody asking the retailer for a rollout decision. New hires are onboarded with a product demo, and outreach depends on whoever has time that week. Fixing any piece alone changes little, while unpaid pilots absorb delivery time and the founder stays in every deal.
The question that mattered
Where is the revenue system breaking, and what must change, in what order, so the team can grow without the founder in every deal?
What we did
- 1
Diagnose the whole system
Trace recent deals and pilots from first touch to rollout or stall, and interview sellers, marketing and the founder to find where each breaks.
- 2
Redesign hiring and ramp-up
Rewrite the seller profile around retail buyers, add practical interview tasks, and build an onboarding path based on live accounts and recorded calls.
- 3
Define the pipeline and its handoffs
Set stage definitions, pilot exit criteria agreed with the retailer before any store goes live, and handoffs from outreach to seller to customer success.
- 4
Build and run the outreach engine
Stand up email and social sequences for merchandising, supply chain and finance buyers, and run them with the team until it owns them.
What we delivered
The evidence and working documents the team kept.
- Revenue-system diagnostic showing where deals and pilots break, and why
- Seller hiring profile, interview tasks and an onboarding path built on live accounts
- Pipeline stage definitions with pilot entry and exit criteria
- Outreach sequences by buyer role, with a weekly operating rhythm
- Monthly revenue review agenda with a pilot exit tracker
The outcome
Founder
steps in only at pilot-to-rollout decisions
Pilots
close with a rollout or a stop, against criteria agreed at the start
Leadership
decides hiring, pilot and outreach changes in the same review
Outreach
running every week, owned by the team
Sellers now run deals through to the pilot, and the founder's time goes to rollout conversations where a retailer wants a senior voice.
What changed in the GTM motion
A monthly revenue review replaces separate fixes. Leadership looks at open roles, ramp progress, pilots due to exit and outreach results in the same meeting, and names an owner for each change. Pilot exit criteria and the seller profile are revised from its findings.
Services in this programme
Case studies
More programmes like this
Pilots drifting, and only the founder closing?
Tell us where it is stuck. A founder replies within one working day.