The CEO of an early stage company fills many roles - - visionary, evangelist, fundraiser, sales executive, and business builder. It's impossible to fill all of these roles well and to move as quickly as required. We off-load jobs from the CEO where a dedicated resource can move things faster. One role we fill is sales; we have the specialized skills and experience, and we make the intense effort necessary to get market traction and to prove viability.
An example of our approach is the following case:
Problem: A North American subsidiary of a leading UK-based development and integration firm was unable to gain a foothold in US, resorting to "body-shopping" engineers rather than building high value solutions for customers.
Solution: We initiated working relationships at the C level in seven banks to create new offers that addressed each bank's most critical business needs. We also developed a marketing plan for the firm's bank marketplace in NA and led a grass-roots marketing and sales effort to capture first bank customers. Within 6 months, we had identified sales opportunities valued at more than $5 M for mobile telephony, call centers, e-commerce and internet.
