FOR OPERATING PARTNERS · LOWER MIDDLE MARKET
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THE PROBLEM WE REMOVE
Sales lives in the founder’s head.
No stages. No exit criteria. Customer relationships undocumented. The commercial asset you underwrote drives home every night.
The forecast is a feeling.
CRM as address book. Pipeline reviews as storytime. Board packs built on the owner’s optimism, quarter after quarter.
And it all lands on you.
Commercial value creation defaults to the operating partner. You underwrote the deal. Nobody underwrote you running sales meetings.
FOR THE SKEPTIC
You’ve bought sales training before. It faded in a quarter.
So have most of your peers, at most of their portcos. That failure pattern is why MXL exists, and why this engagement is built differently in three ways nobody else will put in writing.
FIELD REPORT · PE-BACKED MECHANICAL SERVICES PLATFORM
80% of reps wouldn’t cross-sell. The deal model needed all of them.
A multi-brand platform: HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, electrical. The thesis only works if reps sell outside their own trade, and by leadership’s own estimate, four in five wouldn’t for fear of the technical question they couldn’t answer. We installed one system underneath every brand: playbook rebuilt with cross-sell as the throughline, the platform’s first cross-brand sales conference, an AI simulator where reps practice the exact conversations they used to avoid, and executive coaching on a bi-weekly cadence.
THE SYSTEM HELD AT SCALE
SELLERS AT ENGAGEMENT START 5
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SELLERS TODAY, SAME SYSTEM, EVERY BRAND 40
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Bar lengths to scale. Growth largely through acquisition; the system held at every step.
“The Board is impressed with MXL. They’re the best advisors in the industry.” A CEO’s words, not ours.
HOW IT RUNS ACROSS A PORTFOLIO
Diagnose wide. Install where it counts. Report everything.
STEP 01 · DIAGNOSE
Scorecard every portco.
The three-week diagnostic runs across the portfolio. Every company scored on six areas against lower-middle-market benchmarks. You see, for the first time, which portcos have a sales system and which have a founder with a phone.
STEP 02 · INSTALL
Fix the biggest gaps first.
Install the skills with the largest EBITDA impact, portco by portco. Fixed fee, fixed scope, 60 to 90 days, with baselines captured before work begins.
STEP 03 · OPERATE + COMPOUND
Telemetry to the board.
Monthly practice and coaching keeps the system running. Quarterly re-baselines feed your board pack. Every quarter names the next three moves, in writing, with owners.
WHAT YOU REPORT TO THE BOARD · MXL ACCOUNTABLE
Numbers a board can read in five minutes.
Targets missed means formal review. Root cause and corrective plan required. Accountability cuts both ways, in writing.
THE HOLD PERIOD · WIRE TO EXIT
T-MINUS 3 WEEKS
Diligence diagnostic on the target
DAY 0-180
Diagnose and install, per the steps above
RUN-STATE
Operate+, for select portcos
PRE-CLOSE · DILIGENCE
Run the diagnostic before you wire the money.
The three-week diagnostic works pre-close. You learn how founder-dependent revenue is, what the real pipeline looks like under the seller’s forecast, and what the first 180 days of commercial work will cost, priced into the deal instead of discovered after it.
RUN-STATE · OPERATE+
The system, run for you.
Software does the daily enforcement on the playbook we installed. One certified MXL operator runs the cadence on top and reports the numbers your board reads. Offered to select portcos after the first install.
NIGHTLY - every open deal checked against exit criteria
WEEKLY - forecast rollup from stage logic, coaching, call scoring
QUARTERLY - re-baseline against the six areas
ONE PORTCO · ONE DIAGNOSTIC · THREE WEEKS
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