Sales Manager Now

Fractional Sales Management for Commercial Print and Packaging Companies

You've built a real sales team — but you're still the one closing every program-level account, and your reps are quoting a lot more than they're opening new business.

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's Quoting Without Hunting

Your Account Executives Have Stopped Prospecting

Your reps are good at managing the accounts they already have — reorders, spec coordination, production follow-up. What they're not doing is systematically reaching out to new brand managers or pitching new packaging programs. The comp plan rewards gross profit from the total book, existing and new combined. Without a manager enforcing new account activity every week, prospecting simply doesn't happen.

"Working a Few Specs" Is Not a Pipeline

Every buyer who says "can you quote this?" gets the full treatment — spec work, samples, pricing analysis — before anyone qualifies whether they have the intent to switch. That's Hopeium. Your reps are perpetually busy but rarely converting: quotes submitted, proofs sent, follow-up calls made to prospects who were just price-checking. A qualified spec to a ready buyer is high payoff. An unqualified spec to a comfortable incumbent's client is your most expensive low-payoff activity.

Your Reps Are Sharpening the Pencil Before the Value Conversation

Print and packaging buyers are trained to collect three quotes and compare on price. Your reps know this, so they pre-discount — submit the most competitive number before a brand manager has even explained what they need. The value story is real: color consistency, on-time delivery, sustainability certifications. But your reps can't build that conversation with a buyer, so they compete on price and margin erodes with every renewal.

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The Fix

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

The Old Way

The Full-Time Trap

Hiring a $160K Director of Business Development from a national print conglomerate is a math error for a 5-person print sales team.

  • Won't do their own spec work or cold outreach — expects the estimating team to quote everything and the phone to ring.
  • Arrives with a rolodex from their last employer that clients don't follow — and a salary that consumes the entire sales investment before a new account closes.
  • Tends to become the star closer — limiting the development of your current account executives rather than building a team that can close without them.
  • Managing a team of 4–6 print reps is under-challenging for a corporate VP — they get bored, disengage, and move on before anything lasting gets built.

Fractional Advantage

We Implement. We Don't Just Advise.

  • ICP Clarity & Spec Qualification

    We define which accounts — by program type, volume profile, and channel — your reps should pursue, and enforce it. Reps stop building unqualified specs for prospects who will never switch and start investing in opportunities they can actually win.

  • New Account Activity Accountability

    We hold the team accountable for hunter behaviors every week: new prospect discovery meetings, qualified specs submitted to net-new accounts, and program proposals presented to buyers who have confirmed intent — not just a pipeline of quotes waiting to hear back.

  • Value Selling Coaching for Brand and Procurement Buyers

    We shift your reps from price-focused quote submitters to advisors who can walk a brand manager or procurement director through the business case for your capabilities before the price conversation starts.

  • Account Assignment & Program Segmentation

    We align accounts to the right rep based on program complexity and growth potential. Program-level accounts go to account executives equipped to manage them — strategic assignment improves win rate before a single spec is submitted.
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Our Methodology

No Magic. Just Process.

  1. Stop the Bleeding

    We audit time allocation — reorder management, unqualified spec work, and production follow-up versus genuine new account development. We set ICP criteria by program type, volume threshold, and buyer profile, and enforce them. Reps stop submitting specs to prospects who will never switch.

  2. Build the Engine

    We install weekly sales team meetings and monthly one-on-ones focused on new account activity, not quote status. We track the leading indicators that predict program growth: new prospect discovery meetings booked, qualified specs submitted to net-new accounts, and program proposals presented.

  3. Scale & Consult

    We build comp structures that reward new program acquisition — not just total book GP — so hunting becomes financially rational. We develop reps' ability to sell on value to brand and procurement buyers. When it's time to grow, we help you hire hunters, not rolodex transfers.

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 new account activity and results reviewed, coaching and learning shared among reps. Issues solved and next actions set for the week ahead.

  • Prospect Qualification

    We establish and enforce ICP criteria for which accounts are worth pursuing and which specs are worth building — so your reps' time and estimating capacity go to buyers who are actually in play.

  • Accountability Tracking

    We track the leading indicators in print and packaging business development: new prospect discovery meetings booked, qualified specs submitted, program proposals presented, and pipeline progression by rep.

  • Hiring Support

    When it's time to grow the team, we screen for account executives with genuine hunter instincts — not just industry contacts from their last employer.

How can you manage my print sales team if you've never worked in prepress or production?

Your account executives already know prepress, substrates, and production coordination. You need us to know Sales Management.

What's missing is sales discipline — a weekly accountability structure for new prospect outreach, a qualification process that stops reps from building unqualified spec work, and a coaching cadence that helps them sell on value before the price conversation starts. We manage attitude, activity, accountability, and conversations. That's what drives results, regardless of the production environment.

Your team handles the technical credibility. We provide the structure that converts it into signed program agreements.

  • 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 companies with an outside sales team responsible for finding and winning new program accounts — not managing existing client relationships or processing inbound orders from accounts already on the books.

If your sales motion is primarily inbound — or your reps are primarily estimators and customer service coordinators rather than account hunters — we'll tell you honestly that our process probably isn't the right fit at this stage.

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 when will we actually see a return?
Our fractional sales management service typically runs at 60–70% of what a full-time sales manager would cost in total compensation. For most print and packaging companies, that means experienced sales management without the risk of a full-time hire who leaves inside a year because the role isn't challenging enough. How quickly you see results depends on your team. If you have capable reps who are simply undirected, you'll see a change in prospecting activity and new program conversations within 60–90 days. If the team needs restructuring or turnover to get there, expect 12–18 months. Either way, the long-term value — a team that can open new program accounts without you in the room — is worth more than any individual new account you'll land.
How will you manage a print and packaging team without any hands-on experience in substrates, prepress, or production timelines?
This question comes up and we'd rather address it directly than sidestep it. Your account executives know substrates, prepress, and production coordination — that's their job. Our job is to manage what they do with that knowledge in front of a buyer: are they prospecting new accounts or just managing existing ones? Are they qualifying prospects before spending three hours on a spec? Are they selling on value or just submitting the lowest number? We don't need to know press speeds to run a weekly pipeline review that forces honest qualification of every active opportunity. The production knowledge is yours. The sales management infrastructure is ours. Confusing those two roles is why "industry experience" hires who can't manage people so often underdeliver.
How long is the engagement? Are we locked in?
We work month to month — no long-term contract required. That said, we want to be honest: the real payoff from building a sales management structure takes 12–24 months. Short-term results — reps prospecting more consistently, unqualified spec work declining, new program conversations starting — can show up in 60–90 days. But if you're looking for a 90-day project, that's probably not the right frame for what we do. The clients who get the most out of this model treat it as a long-term leadership relationship, not a one-time fix.
What does a typical week look like when you're managing our team?
Every week includes a sales team meeting focused on new account activity — new prospect conversations, qualified specs submitted, program proposals in progress, and which Hopeium needs to be cut from the pipeline. We're reviewing individual rep activity, coaching how they're handling specific prospect conversations, and challenging which opportunities are worth the spec investment. Once a month, we do one-on-ones with each rep to work through their individual development — how they're building value conversations with buyers, what's getting in their way, what behaviors need to change. We also meet with you regularly to stay aligned on production capacity, pricing strategy, and the accounts worth prioritizing. The work is embedded in how your team operates — not a periodic check-in.
We're a mid-sized shop. Are we the right size for this?
Our work fits best when you have an outside sales team already in place — typically $3M–$20M in annual revenue, 2–8 account executives responsible for developing new program accounts, and a B2B consultative sales process with enough margin to justify leadership investment. If your sales motion is primarily inbound — clients call in orders and your "reps" process them rather than develop new accounts — our process probably isn't the right fit yet. If you have outside reps who are capable but aren't producing new program growth, that's the exact problem we're built to solve.
With reps constantly in the field and on press checks, how will you manage them without being on the ground yourself?
This is the most important question for a production-based business to get right, and we hear it from almost every print and packaging owner we talk to. Here's what we've found in almost 20 years doing this: the management work that produces results — clear ICP criteria for which accounts to pursue, weekly accountability for new prospect activity, monthly coaching on how reps are having buying conversations — doesn't require being in the shop or on press checks with them. Your prepress team and your estimators are the production experts; your reps are the sales experts. Our job is to build the structure that makes their sales activity productive, not to supervise their production coordination. The belief that effective sales management requires being physically embedded in the business is the same belief that keeps owners managing their teams directly forever — and producing the same flat results year after year.
How long before we actually start winning new program accounts consistently?
You'll see a change in behavior before you see a change in results. In the first 60 days, reps start showing up to weekly meetings with actual prospecting activity — discovery meetings booked, new outreach documented, qualified specs in progress rather than a list of quotes waiting to come back. By 90 days, new accounts should be entering the pipeline that weren't there before. Whether those convert to signed program agreements depends on rep capability, the complexity of the programs you're pursuing, and your competitive positioning. Packaging programs at major CPG brands can take 6–12 months to close; smaller brand collateral programs can move in 60–90 days. We'll tell you when the timeline is realistic and when we have a people problem, not just a process problem.
Some of our reps also handle estimating and production coordination. Does that complicate the sales management side?
It does, and it's a common structural problem in print and packaging. When reps split their time between estimating, production coordination, and selling, selling almost always loses — the urgent production tasks crowd out prospecting, which feels less immediate. Part of what we do is assess how your reps' time is being used and work with you on where to draw the line. We're not there to restructure your operations, but we are there to protect the time your reps need for genuine new account development. If the estimating and coordination workload is so heavy that reps have no capacity to hunt, that's a resource conversation we'll have with you directly.