Where commercial strategy meets the actual business

When strategy doesn't reach the street, growth gets expensive.

The forecast depends on what reps believe will close. Managers get pulled into deals their teams should handle. New business stalls, established accounts go underdeveloped, and some orders look better in the pipeline than they do after freight, capacity and service costs.

Strategy to Street works one-to-one with sales managers to improve how their teams win new business, grow existing accounts, protect margin and deliver results. It also equips commercial leaders to earn more profitable business from customers they already serve.

Explore the 90-Day Advisory Take the Strategy to Street Diagnostic

For commercial leaders and sales managersManufacturing Distribution Packaging Industrial services

25+

years across the commercial business

Experience from every side

Selling · Sales management · Business ownership · Consulting · Executive leadership

Built for industrial B2B

Manufacturing, distribution, packaging and industrial services

The flagship offering / 90-day 1:1 advisory

One sales manager's decisions affect an entire team's results.

90DAYS OF
REAL WORK

Private 1:1 working sessions every week or two

A forecast needs defending. New-customer targets aren’t showing up in the pipeline. Reps keep selling familiar categories instead of the full line. A growth initiative has been announced, but account priorities haven’t changed.

The manager has to make the call—and get the team to act. Whether they’re new to the role, hired from outside, leading an acquired team or experienced in the job, the business depends on what changes in the field.

What changes through the work

Real decisions.
An experienced point of view.
Action through the team.

The manager works privately with an experienced commercial operator on the business already in motion: the forecast, rep performance, new-customer pursuits, full-line selling, account growth, margin and operating constraints. Assumptions are challenged, tradeoffs examined and next moves worked out. The manager owns the decisions and gets the team to act.

The 90 days start with two or three measurable business targets. In private 1:1 working sessions every week or two, the manager puts decisions into action through the team and checks what changes. Day 45 is a progress review. At Day 90, results are reviewed against the agreed targets, with an operating plan the manager will use to keep the work moving.

The Day-90 test

What the manager handles better. What the team does differently.

Progress is measured against the business targets agreed at the start, with a practical operating plan to carry the work forward.

Forecast

A number the manager can defend, with action on the risks.

People

Performance problems addressed earlier and followed through.

Organic growth

New-customer pursuits, full-line selling and account priorities showing up in what reps do.

Commercial decisions

Recommendations that account for margin, capacity and customer consequences.

From earlier 1:1 advisory work

The reps were waiting for the manager. So were their customers.

Sales were lagging, and the manager had taken on work his reps needed to handle. They waited for his answers and approval, leaving customers waiting too. The work shifted to having reps weigh customer situations and explain their recommendations. Fewer deals stalled, and reps grew more confident handling customer decisions themselves.

The investment makes sense for different reasons

What changes for you—and the business.

If you own the business

Your revenue and organic growth plan depends on what sales teams actually win, expand and earn. One manager can determine whether reps pursue new customers, sell the full line, grow existing accounts and act on performance problems early. The advisory works on those decisions and how the manager gets the team to execute. You can review progress at Day 45 and results against agreed business targets at Day 90, including what the manager and team will keep doing differently.

If you lead sales

You already develop your managers, but you also set their targets, review the forecast and evaluate their results. That changes what they may be willing to work through openly with you. The advisory gives them an experienced operator outside the reporting line to challenge assumptions and turn your new-business, account-growth and margin priorities into team action. You retain authority over the decisions that belong with you. The manager owns the work; you can evaluate progress against agreed targets, with fewer issues needing your intervention.

If you manage the team

Whether you came up through sales, joined from outside or inherited an established team, you're accountable for what the team delivers. That may mean getting a veteran rep to sell the full line, building a stronger new-business pipeline, growing neglected accounts or carrying out a growth initiative that hasn't changed the team's behavior. Work privately with someone who has carried a number, led teams and made the commercial calls you're facing. Get a direct point of view and a practical next move you can put to work. The payoff is stronger team results, greater command of the job and credibility earned by delivering.

For sales managersExplore the 90-Day Advisory

For owners and sales leadersExplore the 90-Day Advisory

How much of your customers' business are competitors getting?

Some of your best growth opportunities may be in accounts you already serve. Competitors are supplying products you could profitably provide to customers who already know your business. The relationship is established. The additional business is not. Winning that business takes a reason for the customer to change, sound economics and management follow-through—not another instruction to cross-sell.

THE STRATEGY TO STREET

HDW Playbook

HIGH · DEEP · WIDE

A licensed commercial operating model for growing profitable wallet share in manufacturing, distribution, packaging and industrial services. HIGH: reach the people shaping customer priorities. DEEP: understand their operations, costs and problems. WIDE: earn additional product and service categories, including at customer locations you do not yet supply. The Playbook turns that understanding into account plans, customer conversations, sales actions and a management rhythm that tracks progress and protects margin.

Playbook License$2,495

Complete Playbook in PDF and editable Word, plus a 13-piece toolkit for internal company use and customization.

Playbook + Done-With-You InstallBy inquiry

Your sales leaders and managers put HDW to work over 12 weeks, with hands-on guidance as they map where competitors hold business, launch the first account-growth plays and establish a management cadence. By Week 12, each priority account agreed at kickoff has a named owner, mapped whitespace and a first growth play underway. Your team leads its first wallet-share scorecard review and is ready to run the next one without us.

Inquire about the HDW Playbook

The person behind the work

She's carried the number—and depended on managers to deliver it.

Cheryl started in sales and was promoted to manage former peers. She learned firsthand that getting results through a team is a very different job from producing them yourself.

Over more than 25 years, she's sold, managed sales teams, owned and operated sales effectiveness businesses, and worked directly with commercial leaders and sales managers in manufacturing, distribution, packaging and industrial services.

For 14 years, she was a senior executive reporting to the CEO of a national manufacturer and distributor. She built the company's marketing function, shaped internal and customer-facing messaging, supported onboarding and acquisition integration, and worked one-to-one with commercial and operations leaders, fellow executives and sales managers.

Her work has included strengthening sales management, helping newly acquired teams adapt to new expectations, and turning organic growth priorities—winning new business and expanding existing accounts—into sales actions and management practices.

She's worked through difficult people decisions, margin pressure, underperforming teams and growth opportunities that weren't being pursued. She understands how customer needs, sales execution and operating realities affect the business result.

Today, Cheryl works directly with sales managers on the people, customers, numbers and decisions they're responsible for. She knows that identifying what needs to change is only the beginning. What matters is getting the team to do it.

Connect with Cheryl on LinkedIn

Cheryl Clark, founder of Strategy to Street — Cheryl ClarkFounder, Strategy to Street

A different way to start / Strategy to Street Diagnostic

Are your commercial priorities changing what the team does?

Take the Strategy to Street Diagnostic

The Strategy to Street Diagnostic helps you examine whether growth priorities show up in the team’s account choices, sales actions and ownership of results. It identifies where execution may deserve a closer look.

You’ll see what your answers suggest about whether your strategy is showing up the way you think it is, what to watch for, one thing to check this week, and a question to bring to your next leadership team meeting.

Strategy DilutionAccountability for ResultsCommercial Confidence

Start a conversation

Let's talk about what you want to accomplish.

You may be investing in a manager taking on greater responsibility, looking for stronger sales performance, or pursuing more profitable growth from existing customers. Start with what you want to accomplish and the situation you're working through.

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