The Situation
The company had a strong technical team, a portfolio of proprietary software products alongside custom development work, and a base of enterprise customers. Financially, the business was stable. But commercially, it was standing still.
There was no sales department. No marketing function. No CRM. No documented product positioning. No sales assets. No defined pricing logic. No structured outreach of any kind. Every customer the company had ever won came through recommendations, word of mouth, or inbound referrals.
The engagement was initiated in the context of a succession-driven ownership change. A new majority shareholder had come in, and the mandate was framed as a classic value creation initiative: unlock the commercial potential that the technical team had never been tasked with pursuing.
The challenge was clear. Customer concentration was high. Diversification was low. And the company had no mechanism to change either of those things. It was a pure software organization with minimal commercial orientation. To grow beyond its existing base, it needed an entirely new capability.
Approach
The engagement was structured around parallel workstreams. The principle was simple: generate revenue immediately while building the infrastructure that would make that revenue repeatable and scalable.
Product Focus and Prioritization
Before anything else, the team selected a sharply defined subset of products for the initial Go-to-Market push. Scope was deliberately narrowed. The goal was to avoid dilution and concentrate effort on the products with the fastest path to commercial traction.
Immediate Outbound Execution
Outreach started on day one. There was no waiting for the full infrastructure to be in place. The team went directly to high-potential prospects with a hands-on, execution-driven approach. Multiple deals were initiated early. Several closed. Others entered longer enterprise sales cycles that continued beyond the engagement.
This early traction served two purposes. It generated revenue. And it created internal buy-in for the broader commercial transformation.
Commercial Infrastructure Build
In parallel, the team built everything the company had been missing.
The website was redesigned. Product positioning was clarified and documented for the first time. A company presentation was created. Sales battle cards were developed for each product. Case studies were built for use in the sales process. Messaging was standardized across all touchpoints.
A CRM system was implemented where none had existed. A structured sales process was defined with clear stages, lead tracking, and pipeline visibility. Outreach tools were integrated and automated. The company could now see, measure, and manage its commercial activity.
A full sales playbook was built, codifying the outreach methodology, sales sequences, and handover mechanisms. This was not documentation for its own sake. It was the onboarding blueprint for every future sales hire.
Pricing and Commercial Logic
The company had never had a structured pricing framework. Project pricing was inconsistent and opaque. The team built an initial pricing model, standardized the logic for how projects should be priced, and created a foundation for more predictable and transparent commercial conversations.
Capacity Planning
Sales growth without delivery capability creates a different kind of problem. The team connected sales forecasting with operational capacity planning to ensure that commercial acceleration was matched by the ability to deliver.
Marketing Experimentation
Toward the end of the mandate, a marketing agency was onboarded to scale lead generation beyond outbound. Early content was produced. A webinar was run. Campaign formats were tested. The team identified which messaging resonated and which channels showed promise, creating a campaign backlog for the new hire to execute on.
Hiring and Handover
The mandate concluded with the hiring of the company's first full-time salesperson. The handover was clean. The new hire walked into a structured CRM with an active pipeline, a full sales playbook, standardized pricing logic, ready-to-use sales assets, and a campaign backlog. There was no foundational setup left to do. The work could begin on day one.
Outcome
The engagement generated approximately EUR 500,000 in new revenue from newly established sales activities within roughly six months. At the end of the mandate, the active pipeline stood at approximately four times that amount, with multiple enterprise deals in late-stage discussions.
But the revenue was only part of the story.
The company went from having zero commercial infrastructure to operating a structured Go-to-Market function. Product positioning was documented. A CRM-based pipeline was active. A repeatable outbound motion was running. Pricing was standardized. A sales playbook existed. A marketing engine was in motion.
The dependency on a small, concentrated customer base was materially reduced. New customer relationships had been established across sectors and use cases. The foundation for diversified, scalable growth was in place.
The organization had moved from a purely technical software team to a commercially enabled growth platform. And it had done so without disrupting the technical excellence that had built the company in the first place.
Quote
"We had the technology and the customers, but we had never learned how to sell. This engagement did not just bring in new revenue. It gave us the structures, the tools, and the confidence to grow on our own terms."
Managing Director, Software Company
Key Takeaways
- Go-to-Market can be built from zero in a structured, phased manner. The absence of any commercial function is not a disadvantage if the build is approached with the right combination of execution speed and structural rigor.
- Quick wins and long-term infrastructure must run in parallel. Early revenue validates the thesis, builds internal confidence, and buys time for the foundational work. Infrastructure without traction is theory. Traction without infrastructure does not scale.
- Sales infrastructure is the onboarding multiplier. A CRM, a playbook, sales assets, and standardized pricing reduce onboarding time for future hires dramatically. The first hire walked into a functioning system, not a blank page.
- Post-transaction value creation starts with commercial capability. Technical excellence is necessary but not sufficient. If a company cannot sell in a structured, repeatable way, ownership changes alone will not unlock growth.
