Combustible Co. — Your sales process shouldn't live in your head

The problem

You know how to win work. You don't have a way to repeat it.

Too much of the process still depends on you knowing what to do, when to do it, and who deserves your attention.

Founder dependencyThe important opportunities still come through you, get qualified by you, and need you in the room to move forward.

Inconsistent discoveryEvery sales conversation takes a different path. Sometimes you diagnose the real problem. Sometimes you jump straight into proving how you can help.

Expertise leakageYour best people get pulled in too early. Strategy gets given away. Proposals become unpaid consulting exercises.

Unpredictable growthReferrals and relationships create opportunities, but there isn't a repeatable system for qualifying, advancing, winning, and expanding them.

More hustle won't fix this. A commercial process that makes your expertise repeatable will.

The work

Build a commercial process your team can actually repeat.

Four things, in order. Each one feeds the next.

01 · Positioning

Create more of the right conversations

Everyone says they do great work, and so does every competitor your prospect is considering. We dig into your past wins and find the real reason clients chose you. It's usually something about how you work that never made it onto the website.

Once that's clear, your outreach, referrals, and LinkedIn start attracting the people who have the problem you solve.

02 · Qualification & discovery

Qualify earlier

Most founders find out a deal was never real after they've written the proposal. We build qualification into the first conversation: who's a fit, what has to be true, and how to walk away early so your time goes to real opportunities.

Discovery gets structure too, so the first real conversation does the diagnosing instead of the proposal.

03 · Consultative sales

Sell more consultatively

We map your customer journey into clear stages with a decision at every step. You stop pitching and start diagnosing, stop writing proposals for tire-kickers, and walk into meetings as the advisor instead of the order-taker.

04 · Growth system

Build growth that doesn't depend on you doing everything

Pipeline discipline, account growth, and a sales process that's written down instead of living in your head. We set the cadence for tracking deals, growing the clients you already have, and handing pieces of the work to a hire when you're ready.

The goal is growth that keeps moving when you step out of the room.

A better sales process doesn't just help you close. It helps you choose.

Most founder-led sales processes break down after someone raises their hand. The first conversation becomes a capabilities pitch. Helpful advice becomes free consulting. Proposals get written before anyone knows how serious the buyer is. And senior people get pulled into opportunities that never deserved the investment.

Combustible helps you make every step intentional.

Choose what deserves your time

Know which opportunities are worth your attention, expertise, and resources before you overinvest.

Diagnose before prescribing

Understand the business problem, urgency, stakeholders, and buying dynamics before jumping to a solution.

Advance with intent

Every conversation earns the next one. Proposals come after alignment, not as a substitute for it.

The result: fewer dead-end pursuits, less free consulting, stronger buyer conversations, and a sales process your team can actually repeat.

Proof

"So much of my success today is attributed to how Jimmy helped me through this whole sales journey. The proposal at that point is just a formality."

Ryan Koral — Founder, Tell Studios · 20+ years in video production

"We stopped giving away our best thinking for free. Jimmy helped us turn discovery into a paid strategic engagement that qualifies the opportunity, protects our team's time, and positions us as the experts from the beginning."

Delainie Wheeler & Marissa D'Agostino · Co-founders, Backtalk Detroit · Brand & marketing mavens

"Jimmy helped me take something that was growing organically and give it structure without losing what made it special. I now have a clearer way to evaluate opportunities, understand where the real commercial value is, and build toward growth that can actually scale."

Michelle Kobernick · Founder, The Flavor Profiles · Culinary expert, master food writer & photographer

About

I'm Jimmy. I am Combustible.

For more than 20 years, I've led growth across agencies, consulting firms, technology companies, SaaS businesses, and professional services organizations. The same pattern showed up everywhere: founder-led businesses are full of people who are brilliant at the work and allergic to selling it.

You don't have to become a different person. You need a process you control, so the fire grows on purpose instead of by accident. When you work with Combustible, you work with me. No account managers, no junior team, no handoffs.

Connect with me on LinkedIn →

Hear how I think about salesHow to Make Sales Fit Your PersonalityStudio Sherpas podcast · 60 min

How engagements work

Start with a diagnosis.

Most clients work with Combustible for 4–6 months to diagnose, build, test, and prove a stronger sales process. Founder-led businesses often continue with fractional growth support beyond that, as long as the partnership is creating measurable value.

Sales Diagnostic

Focused assessment. Usually the starting point.

Growth Strategy Workshop

Working session to design the core sales playbook.

Fractional Growth Leadership

Ongoing support to implement, test, and prove the model: opportunity reviews, founder and seller coaching, and forecasting discipline.

Ready to turn reactive sales into repeatable growth?

Book a free 30-minute call. Worst case, you walk away with one idea that sharpens how you sell. Best case, you stop relying on luck to grow.

Book a free 30-minute call