Sales Manager Now

Fractional Sales Management for AV Integrators

You've built a solid integration business — good clients, quality work, an AE team that handles what comes in — but you're still the one who has to step in to close anything significant, and the new-account pipeline isn't growing the way it should.

Let’s get your business to the next stage of growth.

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The question is: what's your next move? Should you invest in more technology and lean operations, or in your revenue-generating department so they'll be more efficient and effective? — this is where we come in.

The Diagnosis

The Real Cost of a Sales Team That Isn't Hunting New Accounts

When AEs Stop Hunting and Start Managing

AEs drift from hunting new accounts toward managing existing ones — because existing clients generate proposal requests, and proposals feel like selling. Comp plans that pay on project completion reinforce it. Without someone tracking new outreach separately, the pipeline becomes a mirror of last year's client list.

Chasing Bids You Were Never Going to Win

Without a defined ICP, AEs respond to every incoming RFP — including speculative three-bid situations and projects where a consultant already wrote the spec for a competitor. AV proposals take real time to build. When nobody's enforcing ICP standards, Hopeium sets in: reps keep working deals they can't win.

Cutting the Proposal Instead of Selling the System

Commercial AV is a multi-bid environment, and clients have been trained to shop on price. When an AE can't articulate the ROI of a premium integrated system, they discount the Scope of Work to close. The margin erodes, and nobody has given the AEs a better way to hold their number.

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The Fix

Why You Probably Shouldn't Hire a VP (Yet)

The Old Way

The Full-Time Trap

Bringing in a Director of Sales from a major AV distributor or national integrator sounds like an upgrade — but it's usually a $150K lesson in misaligned expectations.

  • Focuses on vendor partnerships and trade shows rather than coaching AEs to open new accounts.
  • Consumes the entire sales budget on their own salary before a single new corporate account opens.
  • Tendency to become the star closer — limiting the development of your current AEs.
  • A full-time manager role is too much for a small AE team — they get bored and move on within the year.

Fractional Advantage

We Implement. We Don't Just Advise.

  • ICP Clarity & Opportunity Qualification

    We define which clients, project types, and verticals your AEs should pursue — and which bids to walk away from. Your team stops chasing three-bid speculative RFPs and starts building a pipeline of winnable direct-relationship opportunities.

  • New Account Activity Accountability

    We track the leading indicators that predict new account growth: new outreach to Facilities Directors and IT Directors, discovery meetings booked, first site surveys completed, and new opportunities opened in CRM. Revenue follows activity — and activity has to be managed.

  • Value Selling Coaching

    We coach AEs to shift from proposal-focused closers to consultative advisors who can build a commercial case for a premium integrated system — so they stop discounting when an IT Director or Facilities Manager pushes back on the Scope of Work.

  • Account & Territory Assignment Strategy

    We align client accounts and prospect territories to the right AE based on account complexity, relationship fit, and growth potential. Strategic assignment improves win rate before the first conversation happens.
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Our Methodology

No Magic. Just Process.

  1. Stop the Bleeding

    We audit where your AEs' time is actually going. We establish ICP criteria for which clients, verticals, and project types your team should pursue — and enforce them. Reps stop spending proposal hours on bids they can't win.

  2. Build the Engine

    We install a consistent weekly rhythm focused on new account activity — not project status updates. We track the indicators that matter: new outreach to Facilities Directors and IT Directors, discovery meetings booked, and new opportunities opened by rep. Any AE with no new outreach gets a direct conversation.

  3. Scale & Consult

    We build comp plans that reward new account acquisition, not project completion from existing relationships. We develop AEs' ability to sell on system value so they stop discounting when buyers push on price. When it's time to hire, we screen for real hunter instincts — not just AV familiarity.

Scope of Work

What We Actually Do

We don't just "consult" or give advice. We take over the functional management of the sales department.

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  • Weekly Sales Team Meetings

    Accountability to activity and results reviewed, coaching and learning from each other. Issues solved and next actions set.

  • Prospect Qualification

    We establish and enforce ICP criteria for which clients and project types your AEs pursue — so their time goes to opportunities they can win, not every RFP in the inbox.

  • Accountability Tracking

    We track the leading indicators for new account growth: outreach to new Facilities Directors and IT Directors, discovery meetings booked, and pipeline progression by rep.

  • Hiring Support

    When it's time to grow, we screen for hunter instincts and sales discipline that fit the standard we've built — not just AV industry familiarity.

How can you manage my AV team if you've never spec'd a Crestron system or designed a Dante audio network?

Your AEs already know Crestron, Dante, and structured cabling. You need us to know Sales Management.

We manage attitude, activity, and conversations — the cadence of prospecting, the discipline of qualifying, the coaching on how to navigate a buying committee. That's the work that makes a sales team run. Technical knowledge doesn't produce a prospecting call. Management structure does.

Your team handles the technical credibility. We provide the structure that converts it into signed Scopes of Work.
  • A dedicated sales manager embedded in your sales and company team
  • A clear, customized sales plan—plus someone to make sure it happens
  • Coaching and accountability that drive performance
  • Consistent systems for pipeline, reporting, and team rhythm
  • Leadership that frees you up to focus on the business, not just the sales team

Underneath it all is our Fractional Management proven framework consisting of Five Key Tenets—a practical approach that aligns your sales team with your business goals, compensation, systems, and culture. It’s how we turn good reps into a great team.

Trusted. Proven. —Built for Small Business.

  • BBB A+ Accredited
  • 19+ Years of Fractional Experience
  • 70+ Sales Teams Served Since 2006
“We didn’t just grow revenue—we built a culture of accountability and momentum.”
— Toby Wiik CEO - Standard Filter
“The transparency impressed me. The pricing was clear, the process was simple, and there was no song and dance. It felt like a partnership from the start.”
— Travis Dillard, CEO - Inflow Communications
“If you’re looking for somebody who’s going to really dig in and be a part of your business and understand your strategy, it’s a no‐brainer. I’d go with Sales Manager Now.”
— Michael Schneider, CEO - Bender Insurance Solutions
“Our manager coached people as much as metrics, so performance improved through better habits, confidence, and communication”
— Edward Johnson, VP Construction Risk - Bender Insurance Solutions
“Hiring Sales Manager Now has given me the ability to focus on growing the business, and having a part-time sales manager has just been a game-changer for us.”
— Steve Quirk, CEO - Quirk’s Media
“We learned that a fractional manager with 100% focus is far better than a full-time manager with only 25% focus.”
— John Ciniglio, CEO - TopTec Event Tents

Let's Just Talk.
No Pressure.

Our work fits best when you have an outside sales team responsible for finding and winning new accounts — not managing existing client relationships or responding to inbound RFPs from spec consultants.

If your model is primarily responding to specs that come through GC relationships, or your AEs are functioning as technical estimators rather than hunters building new direct-client relationships, we'll tell you honestly that our process probably isn't the right fit.

But if you need a system to grow beyond your current plateau, let's look at your pipeline together.

FAQ

What does this cost, and is it realistic to see results without hiring a full-time sales manager?
The fractional engagement costs significantly less than a full-time sales manager — typically 60–70% less when you factor in salary, benefits, and payroll taxes. For a commercial AV firm with 3–6 AEs, the math usually makes the decision straightforward. As for results: you can start seeing behavioral changes — more disciplined prospecting, better pipeline visibility, cleaner CRM data — within the first 60–90 days. Revenue follows later, typically 6–12 months in, because the AV sales cycle isn't a quick one. But the leading indicators show up first, and they tell you whether the engine is actually running.
You don't have an AV background. How will you manage a team that's selling Crestron systems and designing complex integration projects?
Your AEs have the AV expertise — that's not what's missing. What's missing is sales discipline: a consistent prospecting cadence, an enforced ICP, a coaching structure that develops AEs to close independently instead of always looping in the owner. We've led sales teams in industries far more technical than our own background to significant growth without becoming product experts. One of our longest-running client relationships was with a financial services firm — we were never licensed, we never went on client calls, but we managed the team's attitude, activity, and conversations for years while they grew the book of business substantially. The product knowledge is in your building. We bring the management framework that makes it productive.
How long do I have to commit to this?
We work on an ongoing engagement model, not a project contract. There's no multi-year lock-in. That said, we're honest that this isn't a 90-day fix. The AV sales cycle is long — a first deal with a new corporate client can take 4–6 months from first conversation to signed Scope of Work. Building real new-account habits in a team takes time. Most engagements find their rhythm in 3–4 months and see meaningful results by month 9–12. Owners who come in with a 60-day test mindset usually don't give the process enough runway to work. If you're serious about changing how your sales team operates, give it a real commitment.
What does a typical week actually look like for my AE team under this model?
Every week, we run a sales team meeting focused on new account activity, not just project status updates. We track the metrics that actually predict new account growth: new outreach to Facilities Directors and IT Directors, discovery meetings booked, new project opportunities opened in the CRM. Monthly, we run individual one-on-ones with each AE to coach on specific deals, prospecting conversations, and how to handle price pressure without discounting the Scope of Work. We're also available as a resource to the owner when sales decisions come up — compensation plan design, territory questions, hiring criteria. You're not buying hours from us; you're buying a management structure that runs consistently every week.
Is this the right fit for my size of company?
Our model fits best when you have $3M–$20M in revenue and 2–8 outside AEs or BDMs whose job is to find and win new accounts — not just manage existing ones or respond to inbound RFPs that come through spec consultants or GC relationships. Most commercial AV and low-voltage integrators in this range have the technical delivery side working well but haven't built the sales management infrastructure to match it. If you're smaller than that range — or if your AEs are functioning primarily as technical estimators responding to specs rather than hunters building new direct-client relationships — we'll tell you honestly that our process probably isn't the right fit yet.
We'd need you more involved than a few hours a week. I can't see how this can work with your approach.
This is the most important conversation to have before we start — because it's really a question about what management is supposed to do. More time from a manager doesn't make AEs better. What makes AEs better is a consistent structure: clear expectations, weekly accountability to their activity numbers, and regular coaching on the conversations that aren't going well. We've seen integration firm owners who were deeply involved in every deal — and it made their team less capable over time, not more. When the owner is always available to step in, AEs never have to develop the confidence to close independently. The goal of our work isn't to replace your involvement with ours. It's to build a sales team that can run without either of us in the room. Owners who need daily check-ins are usually a signal that the engagement isn't the right fit — and we'll tell you that before we start.
How long before my AEs actually change the way they're working?
Behavioral change usually shows up in 60–90 days — you'll see AEs tracking their new-account outreach, using the CRM more consistently, and starting to qualify opportunities earlier instead of building proposals for every RFP that comes in. The harder shift — AEs actually closing new accounts they developed themselves, without you having to step in — takes longer. In the AV space, where a first deal with a new corporate client can take 4–6 months from first meeting to signed proposal, you're usually looking at 9–18 months for the full picture to come into focus. The companies that get there are the ones where the owner stepped back and trusted the process.