How it works

First, understand. Then decide what comes next.

Every engagement starts with the Stride Analysis, which sets the priorities for the work that follows. Stride Sales then builds the sales function with the client’s team in the Stride Footing, trains the reps to reach target and leads it in the Stride Cadence until it holds its pace, then hands it to whoever should run it next. Each step has a defined purpose and a defined end.

The four steps

Step 01Stride AnalysisWhere the work starts
Step 02Stride FootingBuilt with the team
Step 03Stride CadenceAccountable for targets
Step 04Hand overPlanned from the outset

01 · Stride Analysis

Testing the need before hiring

The Stride Analysis opens every engagement and answers two questions: what’s holding sales back, and what kind of leadership will move them forward. The answer comes in writing and sets the priorities for the Footing.

What the Stride Analysis delivers

Interviews with the owner, the sales team and someone from operations or finance
A close look at the pipeline, won and lost deals, pricing, customer data and compensation plans
Time on real sales calls and meetings, to see how the team actually sells
A development profile for each rep: strengths, and the specific gap in how they sell
A readout with the owner and a short written report: what’s working, the top three priorities, and what to leave alone for now
How a buyer or lender would read the revenue today
A clear recommendation on the leadership needed, whether that’s the owner, a sales lead or a VP
A starting point and a target for each handover measure
A roadmap for the Footing, in order of priority

02 · Stride Footing

Building the engine

Built with the team

The Footing covers what the Stride Analysis shows the business needs, starting with what moves revenue soonest. Strategy and revenue operations are built together. Stride Sales designs the systems the sales team runs on, from the CRM to the reporting, and directs the implementation partners who set them up. The result is a working sales system and a trained team.

Design

The ideal customer profile and the segments worth pursuing
Positioning and a pitch the team can deliver with confidence
Sales stages built around how buyers actually decide
The team structure and hiring profiles to carry it
The commercial model: pricing, recurring revenue and growth within existing accounts

Revenue operations (RevOps)

A CRM designed as the single home for the pipeline
Prospecting that runs: lists, email sequences and the tools behind them
A weekly rhythm of pipeline review, forecast and one-on-ones
A KPI scorecard and monthly owner report, built to the standard a buyer reviews in due diligence

Train

Onboarding that gets new reps productive sooner
Coaching on discovery and deal strategy, on live deals
Playbooks and talk tracks built around the team’s own deals
Individual targets and accountability measures for each rep, built on the rep’s development profile and reviewed in regular one-on-ones

03 · Stride Cadence

A sales leader accountable for the numbers

Accountable for targets

Stride Sales takes the sales leader’s seat part-time and is accountable for the targets agreed with the owner. The role has a defined end: once the handover criteria hold and the successor is running the function, Stride Sales steps back.

What that involves

Running the weekly pipeline and forecast meetings
Coaching the sales lead and reps on live deals
Holding each rep to individual accountability measures, in regular one-on-ones
Hiring and onboarding against the defined profiles
Preparing the next sales lead to take the seat
Fixing what isn’t working, quickly
Reporting results against the agreed targets every month, to the owner and to any investors

04 · Hand over

A handover on terms agreed up front

Planned from the outset

The handover is planned from the start, in the proposal. Whoever takes the seat next, the owner, an internal sales lead or a new hire, is identified and trained in the Cadence, then takes over one responsibility at a time and runs the weekly pipeline and forecast alone before Stride Sales steps back. What stays is a sales system that no longer depends on the owner.

Handover criteria are proposed before the work starts and the targets confirmed after the Stride Analysis, so both sides know exactly when the job is done. Typically:

Target attainment: How many reps reach their targets
Pipeline coverage: Pipeline the team builds itself, measured against the period’s target
Forecast accuracy: How close the forecast lands, month after month
Process adoption: How consistently deals follow the agreed stages
Owner out of day-to-day sales: Deals are closed by the team, and day-to-day follow-up no longer sits with the owner
Ownership: The successor runs the weekly meetings and the forecast without outside help

The measures and thresholds are set with each client, based on the Stride Analysis.

Questions

Who will I actually work with?

Michaël. Stride Sales is his practice, and he does the work personally: the Stride Analysis, the Footing, coaching the team and reporting to the owner. There’s no hand-off to someone more junior.

Not ready for a full-time VP of Sales?

In most of the SMB companies Michaël has worked with, a full-time VP of Sales would have been more than the business needed, and the need to hire had often never been tested. That’s an expensive hire to make on an untested need, and strong candidates tend to look for bigger teams to lead.

The job is different too. Most VPs are hired to run a sales function that already exists, and what these companies were missing was the function itself.

Stride Sales builds it with the team, leads it until it holds, then transitions it to the leadership that fits the business: the president, a sales lead, or a VP once the need is proven and there’s a function for them to run.

How is this different from other fractional sales leaders?

Stride Sales builds the sales function, trains the team to reach target, and hands it over on criteria agreed up front, so both sides know when the job is done. Each engagement brings an investor’s eye for what makes revenue worth more when a business changes hands, and runs in English or French across Ontario and Quebec.

Do you set up the CRM and RevOps tools?

Stride Sales starts from the tools the company already has, decides what the systems need to do and oversees the work. A specialist firm, such as a HubSpot or Salesforce partner, handles the technical setup. That keeps the pipeline stages, automations and forecast dashboards true to how the team sells. Michaël worked this way across a private equity portfolio.

Does this cover marketing and existing customers?

When the Stride Analysis calls for it, yes, at the level of direction. Stride Sales sets the demand generation strategy and directs marketing partners, and builds account growth and renewals into the sales system. Recurring revenue is often where a business gains the most value before a sale.

Do you need experience in my industry?

No. Sales is sales, and an industry can be learned quickly. Over more than 20 years, Michaël has sold, led sales teams or set sales strategy in managed IT and cybersecurity, telecom and SaaS, logistics and fleet management, insurance software, HVAC, environmental services, industrial distribution and municipal markets.

Will you replace my sales manager?

No. The aim is a stronger sales lead, or help hiring the right one. Everything built during the engagement stays with the company.

How much of my time does it take?

Less than selling every deal personally, but not none. The Stride Analysis needs access and a few conversations; the Footing and the Cadence need regular decisions from the owner. The proposal sets out what’s expected on both sides.

Do you work in French?

Oui. Every engagement can run in French or English, in Quebec and Ontario.

How do we start?

With a first call. If there’s a fit, a short proposal follows with scope, timing and price, and the engagement opens with the Stride Analysis.

The first step is a call.

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