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- An Alternative to a Full Time Sales Director

Build a business you no longer have to carry.

We rebuild underperforming sales functions, install commercial control, and reduce founder dependency.

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£2–20m

Turnover we work with

20+ yrs

B2B commercial leadership

One Constant

Spearhead with a bench of operators

01 – The pattern

The business is working. The pressure is still growing.

We rebuild underperforming sales functions, install commercial control, and reduce founder dependency.

Most founders do not lose control overnight. It happens slowly. 
The forecast turns from a set of numbers into a conversation you have to interpret every week. Deals only move once you step in. The team waits for your sign off before anything happens. Somewhere in the middle of all that, you became the commercial system holding sales together.

That will not scale. It is dependent on you, not on the business.

If any of this sounds familiar, you are not dealing with a sales problem. 
You are dealing with founder dependency, and it is one of the most common reasons a profitable business stays an owner dependent business long after it should have outgrown that stage.

02 – Diagnosis

Founder dependency is the real commercial problem.

Five signs tend to show up together.

01

The forecast is not trusted.

When the numbers need explaining every week, the forecast has stopped being a control system. It has become a conversation.

02

Deals escalate upward.

If a deal only moves once you personally get involved, the sales function is not carrying its own weight.

03

Activity hides the real picture.

More calls and more meetings will not create control if the underlying standards are weak.

04

Pressure moves up, not down.

Without real accountability built into the team, you become the pressure valve for the whole business.

05

Growth gets fragile.

Revenue can keep climbing while the business gets harder to lead.

A fair question to ask yourself: can sales run for a two weeks whilst I go on holiday?
If the honest answer is no, this is worth fixing properly rather than living with it.

03 – The options

So what are the
options?

For most founders in this position, the search usually ends up in one of three places.

Hire a sales
director full time

This is the expensive route. A full executive package, recruitment fees, and months of searching before anyone actually starts. Even then, you are limited to whoever happens to be available in the market right now.

A fractional
sales director

This fills the seat and gets the job done, but only as well as the one person you have found. One person can only carry one part of the problem.
A single point of contact who fixes the sales function first, backed by a bench of operators across commercial, finance and leadership, brought in only where the business actually needs them.

If you are about to recruit a sales director, it is worth reading this first: 
Before You Hire a Sales Director.

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04 – Who it’s for

Built for founder led B2B businesses that have outgrown their sales function

We rebuild underperforming sales functions, install commercial control, and reduce founder dependency.

Odinnu works with businesses turning over between £2m and £20m. They are commercially capable already, but operationally stretched, and still dependent on the owner for sales to actually function. This is not about businesses that are struggling. It is about businesses that are ready for serious commercial discipline and have simply outgrown the structure they started with.

You will probably recognise
  • You are doing some, or all, of the selling yourself.
  • The team will not perform unless you are personally involved.
  • You cannot really step back without performance dropping.
  • The forecast feels more like a guess than a number you can plan around.
If two or more of those sound familiar, sales is currently running through you, not through the business.

Richard

Founder & Spearhead

20+ yrs

05 – One constant

One constant. The Spearhead.

Richard leads every engagement personally. He works inside the business to find out what is actually holding it back, then brings in the right specialist only when the work calls for it. He is the person you think out loud with before the big calls, and the one constant while specialists come and go.

 

He built Odinnu after running his own fractional sales director business since 2023 and reaching its limit. One operator can only fix one part of the problem. Odinnu closes that gap with a bench standing behind one point of contact.

 

More than twenty years in B2B sales and commercial roles, starting in field sales and going on to lead teams both nationally and globally.

06 – The bench

A bench of operators,
not consultants.

Every specialist Odinnu brings in has actually run a commercial function, not just advised on one. Each of them runs their own business today, so they understand exactly what it means to be the one carrying it.

The Spearhead and The Bench
Emma

Emma

Pricing, Margin and
Customer
Profitability

Previous commercial leadership at Travis Perkins, HSS and CRH, delivering profit improvements of two to five percent through data and structure.

Henry

Henry

Revenue Growth and Export Expansion

MD level commercial leader, with revenue and export growth delivered across Europe, the Americas, Africa and ANZ.
Martyn

Martyn

Revenue Growth and Export Expansion

Moved from Finance Director to Managing Director, growing an SME manufacturer into a business valued at one billion euros.
Gemma

Gemma

People and
Leadership

Previous senior director roles at JLR. Now builds the leadership and accountability that lets a team run without the MD.

07 – How it works

We enter through sales. Then we build commercial control.

The work always moves in the same order.

01

Rebuild

We diagnose the sales function, strip out the
ambiguity, and rebuild the standards, process and expectations underneath it.

02

Install

We install commercial rhythm, accountability, forecasting discipline and leadership structure around it.

03

Reduce

We reduce founder dependency by making performance visible, repeatable and trusted, so the business performs without you having to step in constantly.
08 – Outcome

The outcome is
control

Five shifts that compound. Each one reduces what only the founder can do — and makes the business easier to lead.

01

Founder dependency reduced.

Fewer escalations, less rescuing, more trust in the team.

02

Forecasts become
useful.

The numbers get clearer, more disciplined and easier to rely on.

03

Standards
become
visible.

Everyone knows what good actually looks like.

04

Execution becomes consistent.

Performance stops depending on individual heroics.

05

Growth becomes more stable.

The business gets easier to lead as it grows.
09 – Why it matters

Control creates freedom.

Not freedom from responsibility.
Freedom from being the only person holding the commercial function together.
Freedom to trust the team and the forecast.
Freedom to step back without everything stalling underneath you.

32%

Increase in weekly order intake

Case Studies, full page
10 – Why it matters

What this looks like in practice.

Challenge

Sales was reactive and depended too heavily on repeat orders. Limited visibility and weak accountability meant performance could not be managed with any confidence.

Approach

We introduced clear commercial visibility, restructured the sales team around real ownership, and installed execution discipline, without adding headcount.

Outcome

A 32 percent increase in weekly order intake.

"Richard quickly identified the shortcomings of the existing structure and brought in much better structure and accountability. A very successful four months all round."
— Peter Rilett, Director, Watts Group
11 – Talk

It starts with a conversation.

Thirty minutes on where founder dependency sits in your business. If there is nothing to fix, we will tell you.

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12 – Diagnose

Not ready to talk yet?

If you would rather think it through first, the business diagnostic gives you a clearer, individual picture of how dependent your business currently is on you. It is not a quick quiz. It takes a few honest minutes, and there is no commitment attached.

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We rebuild the sales function, install commercial control and reduce founder dependency.

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SME Squared Ltd t/a Odinnu is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number 14702408. Registered office Cornerstone House, Midland Way, Thornbury, Bristol, BS35 2BS.