Frequently Asked Questions

A mentor who uses coaching methodology. Sometimes I'll sharpen your thinking with questions, because you know your business better than I ever will; sometimes I'll tell you plainly what I'd do, because I've been where you're trying to go. I'll always be clear which you're getting.

You're right that it isn't, and partly right about why that matters. Selling expertise genuinely is different from selling products: buyers can't evaluate it in advance, sales cycles run six to eighteen months, and the work wins the next work. That's exactly why I only work with consultancies, agencies and specialist advisers, and why the SMARTer system was built around how those businesses actually win clients. What I'd gently challenge is the conclusion owners often draw, that being different means nothing systematic applies. Every firm I've worked with believed that at the start. The system flexes to your business; the principle that revenue generation can be systematic rather than accidental holds everywhere

Don't change it; build on it. Referrals are the best evidence there is that your work is good. The problem is what happens between them: the feast-and-famine cycle, the inability to plan, the way growth stalls at the capacity of your personal network. A systematic approach doesn't replace relationships, it makes them deliberate: more of the right ones, nurtured properly, converting more predictably. Advocacy is the eighth stage of my system precisely because referrals are too valuable to leave to chance.

Three to five hours a week, including our sessions, and I design everything around that ceiling because I've never met an owner at your stage who had more. Preparation before sessions takes fifteen to thirty minutes, not hours of homework. And the early work usually focuses on the vital few activities that produce most of the results, which means time freed from things that weren't working, not just new demands added.

Your scepticism is well-founded, and I'd want to hear exactly what you tried. Almost always, what failed was a tactic without a system: posting into the void without knowing precisely who it was for, networking without qualification, content with no nurturing behind it. Tactics fail when the stages around them are missing. That's a design problem, not evidence that marketing doesn't work for firms like yours, and it's fixable.

Honestly: if you need revenue in the next eight weeks, mentoring is the wrong purchase, and I'll tell you so on our first call. Building capability takes months, and typical sales cycles in your market are long. What I can say is that early work often surfaces quick wins, opportunities already sitting in your pipeline or client base that better qualification and follow-up can unlock, whilst the durable system builds behind them. But I won't dress this up as a rapid-revenue scheme, because it isn't one.

No, and I'd be careful of anyone who says yes. Your results depend on your market, your delivery, and above all on what you do between sessions. What I guarantee is my side: full commercial experience applied to your situation, a proven framework, honest measurement against goals you set, and a formal midpoint review where we change course or stop if it isn't working. You're never locked in.

Engagements are priced by scope, and I'll give you a clear figure before anything is agreed, in writing, with no surprises after. What I can tell you here is the shape: this is a professional engagement priced accordingly, it's a fraction of the cost of hiring commercial staff or an agency retainer, and unlike either, what you're buying stays in your business after we finish.

The work suits firms between £500K and £10M turnover, and that range is deliberate: below it, the business usually needs the owner selling hands-on rather than building systems and can't yet fund the engagement comfortably; above it, the answer is usually a commercial team and different infrastructure. If you're outside the range, book the call anyway; I'll be straight about whether I'm right for you, and where I can I'll point you somewhere better suited.

Thirty years in frontline commercial roles at companies including Oracle, Infor and Lawson, three businesses of my own, an ILM Level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring, approved mentor status on the government-backed Help to Grow programme, and EMCC accreditation in progress, with my practice under ongoing professional supervision. The blend is the point: commercial practice, founder experience, and formal training in developing people rarely come together in one adviser.

Yes, and it's in the written agreement, not just implied. The only standard exception is professional supervision, where coaches discuss their practice anonymously to maintain standards; your identity and commercially sensitive details are never shared.

Sessions run over Zoom, so location is never a barrier, and diaries are easier to manage without travel. Between sessions you'll be testing changes in the real world.

Forty-five minutes to an hour, over Zoom. You talk about your business; I listen properly and ask questions. I explain how I work, and answer anything at all. Then we each decide, and mutual is meant: I don't take on every business that approaches me. No pitch, no pressure, and you'll leave with something useful either way.