Sales and BD

One interested person is not a deal

For founders and sales leaders of software companies selling into mining, metals, battery and supply chain enterprises. Miners, refiners and OEMs have lines of influence, and your deal has to travel through them. If the founder is still in every deal, I run sales and business development as part of your team.

Book a 30-minute call

Agreed in writing first
No lock-in
Part of your team

Typical problems I fix

The founder is in every deal. The pipeline runs on referrals, with no repeatable process to build it.
A single-threaded pipeline. Deals run through one contact, an interested innovation or IT team is treated as the buyer, and IT security and procurement come in late.
Long pilots that do not convert. Free pilots with no success criteria and no scale-up plan.

Background: Sales Director at a traceability software company, selling into mining, metals and battery supply chains.

How it works

1
ReviewThe pipeline, the target accounts and who you are really talking to.
2
FixI work the deals with you: find who owns the problem, multi-thread the accounts and set pilots up to convert.
3
Hand overThe ideal customer profile, the sales script and the routines written down, so your team can hunt and qualify without the founder.

How I work on your deals

The real buyer, pilots that convert, the founder out of the deal

The real buyer
Find who owns the problem
Use any door to get in, then ask who else should be involved. I tie your outcomes to the buyer's balanced scorecard and multi-thread early, so IT security and procurement are in before they push back.
Pilots that convert
No free pilots
Someone signs off money, success is agreed up front, the scale-up steps and timelines are in the pilot plan, and the commercial, IT and procurement questions run in parallel.
Founder out of the deal
Write down what is in the founder's head
The ideal customer profile, the sales script, the value proposition and objection handling, with guardrails so your team can hunt and qualify on its own.

How an engagement runs

First 30 days: An ideal customer profile, a target account list and the sales routines that fit your business.
What I do: Sales and business development as part of your team: CRM, target accounts, outreach and closing.
Done when: You have repeatable routines and a pipeline your team runs without the founder.
How it is priced: A monthly engagement. The outcome, the first 30 days and the fee are agreed in a statement of work before anything starts. After the first month it runs month to month.

Who you will work with

Shehan Mathew

I run MN Consulting, and I have sat on both sides of these deals.

The seller: Sales Director at a traceability software company, selling into mining, metals and battery supply chains.
The buyer: Sourcing supply chain and sustainability technology to implement at BHP.

Guide · PDF by email

The founder's pipeline playbook

Selling software into mining, metals and battery supply chains: finding the real buyer, speaking the miner's language, setting up pilots that convert, and getting the founder out of every deal.

Get the guide

Questions

How can a founder-led business build a repeatable sales pipeline?

It starts with a clear ideal customer profile, a target account list and sales routines that fit your business. A company still finding product-market fit needs a different structure from one that has found it. I take the foundations the founders have set and build a repeatable process for their team to grow.

Should we offer a free pilot?

No. Avoid free pilots, so that someone has signed off money and is incentivised to make it work. Agree what success looks like, write the scale-up steps and timelines into the pilot plan, and run the commercial, IT and procurement questions in parallel with the pilot, not after it.

Is this a strategy engagement?

No. I do the work as part of your team: the CRM, the target accounts, the outreach and the meetings, through to closing. You get a working pipeline, not a recommendations deck.

How is it priced?

A monthly engagement. The outcome, the first 30 days and the fee are agreed in a statement of work before anything starts. After the first month it runs month to month.

Is the founder still in every deal?

If you are selling software into mining, metals, battery or supply chain enterprises, I am happy to talk it through.