Josh Dempsey

Hired four times to build a function that did not exist.

Twice by the same company, which is the part of that sentence worth reading.

The work has been the same shape every time. A commercial organization that had either never been built or had stopped working, and a number that still had to be carried while it was rebuilt. Not a transformation program running alongside the business. The business, with the number still due.

I have carried the number for commercial organizations between twenty and a hundred and twenty-four million dollars, across enterprise, commercial, business development and channel. The pattern that matters is not the size of any one of them. It is that the same rebuild worked in all of them, which is how you know it is a method rather than a run of luck.

Most consultants last operated years ago. Everything I build, I am running somewhere else this quarter.

Certified in Winning by Design’s Revenue Architecture.

Years in go to market, carrying a number for nearly all of them.

Revenue organizations built from nothing, not inherited and reorganized.

Presidents Club awards, every one in a territory that started at zero.

Times hired to build a function that did not exist, or rebuild one that had stopped.

What I got wrong

The number was real. The method was not.

Revenue that depends on specific people is not a system. It is a run, and I was the specific person.

A few years ago I changed companies and found out how much of what I knew was anecdote. Two decades of hitting numbers and no way to hand any of it to anyone else.

All art, almost no science.

Then it cost other people. I hired on instinct, the way I had been taught. Two of them washed out inside five months. They were not bad hires. They were good reps for a company with a different ICP, at a different stage, running a different motion. Nobody had written down which one we were, so there was nothing to hire against and nothing to ramp them into.

That is the argument for writing the system down.

The Leader Layer exists because of this →

Why the systems

I like the puzzle more than the pitch.

Finding the thing that is actually wrong is the part of this I enjoy, which is why I would rather do that than sell you a project.

Some of that comes from poker. In 2023 I won three World Series of Poker events in eight weeks: a bracelet and two Circuit rings. Analysis, strategy and execution under pressure are the same three disciplines at a final table as they are in a forecast review, and I have had to get good at them in both places.

Poker is where I learned that a good instinct you cannot explain is just a run that has not ended yet. You can run hot for a long time and never know why. Then the maths arrives.

Who this is for

I will tell you on the first call if I think you do not need me.

A good fit

B2B, between $1M and $100M, selling something that takes a conversation rather than a signup.
A founder, VP of Sales or CRO who will be in the working sessions themselves.
Revenue that works but cannot be explained, or a team about to grow past its playbook.
Somebody who wants the system to outlive the engagement and is willing to be taught it.

Not a fit

Pre revenue, or still looking for product market fit. You need customers, not a stage model.
Looking for somebody to run the team. That is a fractional leader and I am not one.
Hoping a consultant will tell your board the thing you have not wanted to say yourself.
Wanting a deck. I produce working systems, and a deck is what you get when nothing got built.

Book a call Or run the Six Reads first

If you are in the right column and I still think the timing is wrong, I will say that too.

OR WRITE INSTEAD

Not ready for a call? Tell me what is going on.

I read everything myself and reply within two business days. If I am not the right person for what you describe, I will say so and point you somewhere better.

Prefer email? josh@stageonegtm.com