Build the team that can carry the number
I help B2B SMEs hire the right salespeople, give the team a practical way to sell, develop the person leading them and apply AI where it genuinely improves sales productivity. Each service can stand alone, without requiring a Fractional Sales Leadership engagement.
Sales Recruiting
hire the right salespeople
Sales Playbooks
one consistent way to sell
Leadership Development
build the person who runs the function
AI for Sales
practical sales productivity
01 · Build the Team
Sales Recruiting
A poor sales hire is expensive well beyond the salary. In an SME it can cost a territory, a year of pipeline and a surprising amount of confidence in the sales function.
I help define what the role actually needs to achieve, the sales environment the person will work in, the compensation logic and what good looks like before candidates are assessed. The recruiting search is then delivered through Sales Xceleration Recruiting, with validated behavioural and sales-specific assessments available to reduce reliance on gut feel.
Best for: SMEs hiring sales representatives, account managers, sales engineers or their first sales leader, particularly where previous hires have not worked out.
Sales recruiting delivered with Sales Xceleration Recruiting, Powered by Sales Xceleration®.
Not sure how strong your hiring process is?
Take the Sales Hiring Skills Assessment. The link is advisor-tracked so your enquiry remains connected to Macidton.
02 · Equip the Team
Sales Playbooks
A good Sales Playbook gives the team one practical source of truth for how your business sells. It captures the knowledge that otherwise lives in the owner’s head, individual reps’ notebooks or a collection of disconnected files.
I shape the playbook around your market, buyers and sales process. It can bring together ideal customer profiles, value propositions, sales stages, discovery questions, qualification logic, common objections, messaging and the practical guidance your team needs to move an opportunity forward consistently.
An AI-enabled version is also available through Sales Xceleration. It gives salespeople an interactive way to prepare for calls, work through objections and access the organisation’s agreed sales approach when they need it.
Best for: teams where everyone currently sells a little differently, new teams that need consistency quickly, and businesses that want to reduce how much sales knowledge depends on one individual.
Sales Playbook capability Powered by Sales Xceleration®.
One way of selling, not six
If the sales process is mostly in people’s heads, a Playbook can turn it into something the whole team can actually use.
03 · Develop the Leader
Sales Leadership Development
Promoting the best salesperson into sales management is common. It is also one of the easiest ways to accidentally lose a good salesperson and create an inexperienced manager at the same time.
I work with owners, sales managers and first-time sales leaders on the practical disciplines of running a sales team: pipeline reviews, one-to-ones, forecasting, coaching, accountability, performance conversations and the shift from personally closing deals to creating an environment in which other people can close them.
Where formal development is appropriate, I can use sales leadership and sales skills programs delivered through Sales Xceleration. Selected one-to-one coaching is also available where the need is leadership development rather than a full Fractional Sales Leadership engagement.
Best for: first-time sales managers, owners carrying too much of the sales leadership themselves, and businesses preparing an internal leader to take over a function that has been built or stabilised.
Sales leadership and sales skills development programs Powered by Sales Xceleration®.
Build the leader who can run the function
This is especially useful when the long-term answer is to build capability in-house rather than keep an external sales leader indefinitely.
04 · Improve Productivity
AI for Sales Teams
Most SME sales teams are already experimenting with AI. The issue is rarely access to another tool. It is deciding where AI belongs in the sales process, what information it can safely use, what a good output looks like and where human judgement still matters.
Through Sales Xceleration’s AI for Sales capability, I help teams identify practical use cases across sales preparation, coaching, lead generation and administrative work that consumes selling time. The focus is sales productivity and management, not a broad technology transformation programme.
A useful starting point is a Sales AI Clarity Session. We look at where AI could genuinely improve the sales function, what should be left alone and the highest-value areas to test first.
Best for: teams already using AI inconsistently, managers introducing sensible guardrails, and SMEs looking for practical productivity gains without creating another major systems project.
AI for Sales capability Powered by Sales Xceleration®.
Keep AI inside the sales problem
If the question is how AI can make your sales team more effective, that is in scope. If the requirement is enterprise-wide AI transformation, it is not.
Assessments support the decision, they are not the service
Across recruiting and development work I can use validated behavioural, leadership and sales-specific assessments where they help answer a real question: can this person sell in this role, what is holding the team back, or what should we develop first?
I do not position assessments as a separate consulting product. They are there to improve a hiring or development decision, not to create another report that sits on a shelf.
Want a broader view of the sales function?
The Sales Agility Assessment looks beyond one hire or one manager and helps identify where the wider sales organisation needs attention.
Where this fits with Fractional Sales Leadership
Fractional Sales Leadership remains the core engagement when the business needs someone inside the function to build the strategy, infrastructure and management rhythm. Sales Team Development solves a narrower problem when the structure is largely right but the people, tools or leadership capability need attention.
They can work together, but they do not have to. A business can engage me for a recruitment search, a Sales Playbook, leadership development or practical AI support without committing to a fractional engagement.
If the underlying problem turns out to be broader than the original brief, I will say so. Equally, if you only need the discrete piece of work, that is all we need to do.
If the sales system itself needs a defined piece of work first, such as an Ideal Customer Profile, value proposition, sales process, CRM, pipeline or forecasting, see Sales Strategy & Systems Projects.
Sales Team Development FAQs
Do I need a Fractional Sales Leadership engagement to use these services?
No. Sales recruiting, Sales Playbooks, leadership development and AI for Sales Teams can all be used as standalone services. Some businesses need one discrete intervention. Others discover that the underlying issue is broader.
Who actually runs the recruiting search?
The recruiting search is delivered through Sales Xceleration Recruiting. I work on the commercial side of the brief: what the role needs to achieve, what good looks like, how it fits the sales process and how candidates should be assessed against the real job rather than a generic job description.
Can you help if we already have a recruiter?
Yes. Role definition, compensation design, interview structure and sales-specific candidate assessment can sit alongside an existing recruiter where that is the better option.
What is the difference between a Sales Playbook and our CRM?
Your CRM records what is happening. A Sales Playbook defines how the team should sell. It gives people the agreed messaging, process, qualification logic, discovery approach and practical guidance they need before and during an opportunity.
Is the leadership development your own program?
The judgement, coaching and application come from my own experience running sales teams. Where I use Sales Xceleration training programs, methodology or tools, they are identified clearly as Powered by Sales Xceleration® rather than presented as Macidton IP.
Are you offering general AI consulting?
No. The focus is deliberately narrow: applying AI to sales activity, sales management and sales productivity. If the requirement is a broader enterprise AI transformation, I am not the right person for that work.
Need to strengthen the team without rebuilding the whole sales function?
Tell me what is not working. If the right answer is a hire, a Sales Playbook, leadership development or a practical AI intervention, we can keep the scope there. If the underlying issue is broader, I will tell you that too.