Services
A Head of Sales,
without the
£100k salary.
Two to four days a month, embedded in your business. Same job as a full-time hire, at the stage where a full-time hire would break you.
The shape of it
2 to 4 days a month
Enough to move things. Not enough to become overhead. Booked in advance so you can plan around it.
£350 to £450 a day
Depending on scope. Which puts a typical month between £700 and £1,800, against roughly £100k a year for the full-time version of the same job.
Days booked in advance
You know what you are spending before the month starts. No creep, no surprise invoices, no retainer quietly renewing while nothing moves.
Four ways in
Depends where you are.
Foundations
For brands still taking shape, or not yet a brand at all. Branding, labelling and sourcing, then sharpening the offer and getting the product genuinely ready for retail rather than nearly ready. Native Roots started here.
Route to shelf
For brands ready to make their move. Getting buyer ready, opening the right doors, and landing listings that are worth having rather than listings that flatter a deck.
Momentum
For brands already listed. Rate of sale and data analysis, key account management, and being the person a major supermarket actually picks up the phone to. Plus new channels, before the current ones plateau.
New Horizons
For brands leaving their home market. Planned expansion into other countries, done on evidence rather than on whoever emailed you from a trade show. I work across UK and European retail, so this is not theory.
This works if
- You are a founder-led consumer brand in food, drink, sports or pet
- You are turning over roughly £250k to £5m
- The product is genuinely good and you know it
- You are ready for retail but not ready for a senior sales hire
It does not if
- You want someone to send cold emails and report on open rates
- The product still needs work and you would rather not hear that
- You are looking for a guaranteed listing. Nobody can sell you one
- You need a full-time person on site five days a week
Before you ask
What does a day actually look like?
Rarely a full day sat in one place. It is buyer research and target lists, working through pricing and margin until it survives contact with a category manager, building or fixing the sell sheet, prepping you for meetings, and then sitting in those meetings. Between days, the follow-up and the chasing happens on email and calls. You get a note after each day saying what moved and what is next.
Can you help before I have a product?
Yes. Branding, labelling and sourcing are part of the job, not a separate thing you go elsewhere for. Native Roots was built from that point. If you have an idea and no packaging, no supplier and no pricing, that is a perfectly normal place to start.
How long until something happens?
Longer than either of us would like. Retail buying runs on category review cycles, and those are set months in advance regardless of how good your product is. The honest version is that early work is about being ready when the window opens rather than forcing one. Anyone promising you a listing by a specific date is guessing.
What if it is not working?
Then I will say so, and we stop. I would rather lose the days than take money for something that is not moving. If the product needs work before it goes anywhere near a buyer, you will hear that in the first fortnight, not the sixth month.