Sales & Commercial Excellence Leader

Overview

A Chicago based PE firm is seeking a Sales & Commercial Excellence leader to join its portfolio operations team. This role will drive sales professionalization and revenue growth across the firm's lower middle market healthcare portfolio companies, many of which are founder-owned or lightly institutionalized businesses transitioning to institutional best practices. This is a hands-on, dual-focused role combining sales operations excellence (building the commercial infrastructure) with sales team management (coaching teams and driving performance).

The ideal candidate thrives on strategy and execution, enjoys working across multiple businesses simultaneously, and is energized by the opportunity to create measurable impact in fast-moving, entrepreneurial environments.

• Quickly assess company Go-To-Market health including segmentation, value-proposition, funnel math, pricing discipline, pipeline quality, sales productivity, etc.
• Implement and optimize sales processes, pipeline management, CRM tools, and data hygiene across portfolio companies based on repeatable frameworks
• Design analytic and KPIs dashboards to track conversion rates, product/service-level profitability, customer lifetime value, sales cycle length, and pipeline health
• Recommend organizational design and optimization decisions (geographic vs. product-line coverage, hunter vs. farmer roles, inside vs. field sales structures)
• Develop compensation plans and commission structures aligned with company value creation plan, strategy and portfolio goals
• Create forecasting models and capacity planning frameworks to support growth targets and coordinate effective SIOP processes with operations

• Assess sales leadership and team capabilities to provide coaching where possible and support top-grading activity where necessary
• Lead or participate in weekly sales team meetings, reviewing pipeline health, activity metrics, and opportunity progression
• Coach sales executives, managers and reps on pipeline management, qualification frameworks (e.g., MEDDIC/BANT), call structures, demo excellence, and CRM discipline
• Introduce sales management cadence & KPIs to drive accountability and performance improvement: weekly pipeline reviews, monthly forecast reviews, quarterly planning

• Advise company leadership on Value Proposition, Marketing and Communications initiatives
• Interface and manage third party resources to support various related commercial activities including SEO/SEM, Marketing, Branding, Product Mgmt, Pricing, etc.
• Provide financially driven Commercial decision tools and frameworks create transparency & encourage discipline

• Serve as a trusted advisor to portfolio company CEOs, CROs, and sales leaders
• Spend days/weeks/months deeply embedded in individual portfolio companies in interim roles as needed
• Support diligence efforts and post-acquisition integration with a focus on commercial transformation and revenue synergies
• Manage and coordinate third-party advisors and consultants as needed

• Background: Management consulting experience in commercial excellence, revenue operations, or sales transformation—ideally serving private equity clients or PE-backed portfolio companies
• Expertise: Proven experience building/implementing CRM systems, sales processes, compensation plans, pipeline frameworks, and go-to-market strategies
• Industry: Conversational understanding of healthcare helpful but not required; ability to adapt sales models across different business types (SaaS vs. consulting/services vs. provider practices)
• Execution focus: Balances strategic design with hands-on implementation; knows when to provide immediate answers vs. lengthy analyses
• Ambiguity tolerance: Comfortable operating in messy, low-infrastructure environments with founder-led businesses
• Communication: Can hold court in CEO one-on-ones as advisor, not note-taker; influences executives and operators alike

• Bachelor's degree required; strong academic credentials preferred
• Mid-career professionals
• Demonstrated…