Most small businesses don't need a sales department. They need a few days a month of experienced, accountable selling — done properly and written down.
Who it's for
Owner-managed businesses where the owner is also the sales team and has run out of hours. Manufacturers with capacity to make more than they currently sell. Technical businesses whose product needs explaining by someone who understands it. Companies between sales hires, or not ready for one.
Marine is the home ground — builders, equipment brands, service businesses — but the same model runs in engineering, manufacturing and other B2B markets where sales cycles are long and relationships decide who wins the work. If your world is dealers, tenders, trade shows and technical buyers, it will feel familiar.
What's included
A typical month
A retainer usually covers two to six days a month, shaped to the business. A representative four-day month looks like this:
- Pipeline day. Every open quote and opportunity reviewed and chased. Follow-up notes logged where your team can see them.
- Account day. Contact with priority accounts — calls, visits or reviews. Growth opportunities and problems surfaced.
- New business day. Prospecting, qualification and first meetings for the target list we agreed at the start.
- Review half-day + flex. A written monthly summary — what moved, what stalled, what to push — plus flexible time for whatever the month threw up.
The measure is simple: more of the quotes you already send turning into orders, and a pipeline you can plan production around.
Outsourced vs employing
A capable full-time sales manager costs well over £50,000 a year once salary, National Insurance, pension, car and expenses are counted — and takes months to find and months more to become effective. A retainer buys senior experience from the first day, at a fraction of that cost, with no recruitment risk and no notice-period exposure.
Employing is still right when there's a genuine full-time workload and you're ready to manage the role. Part of this service is telling you honestly when that point arrives — and helping you recruit for it.
Commercials
- Retainer — most common. Agreed days per month, reviewed quarterly, scale up or down as workload changes.
- Project — a defined scope: a product launch, a territory push, a follow-up backlog cleared.
- Day rate — booked days for specific visits, events or advisory work.
Travel billed at cost and agreed in advance. No commission schemes, no long tie-ins — terms you can plan around.
Next step
A short discovery call: your products, your customers, where sales time currently goes and where it leaks. If the honest answer is that you don't need this service, I'll say so.