Make the invisible cost undeniable
The Catalyst
Most deals don't die because the solution is wrong. They die because the cost of doing nothing was never made clear enough to force a decision. Everyone in the room knows the status quo is expensive, but knowing something and being unable to ignore it are two different things. I help you make the numbers impossible to dismiss. Not inflated, not manipulated, just precise enough that the economics speak for themselves. When the cost of inaction is undeniable, the close isn't a technique. It's a conclusion.
See what The Catalyst prepares
A preview of real coaching output — toggle between a first meeting and your fifth to see how depth builds over time.
Value Hypothesis
For Meridian Technologies, digitizing supply chain decision triggers converts $2M+ in reactive freight spend into avoided cost, while compressing the time-to-decision that currently makes peak season a managed crisis rather than a managed operation. The value isn't in better data, it's in fewer decisions made too late.
Cost of Inaction
Unplanned expediting freight costs
7ESTIMATED: $1.8-2.5M annually based on comparable operations at this revenue scale. Confirm with Sarah's ops data.
Stockout revenue impact
6ASSUMED: Each stockout event at Meridian's sales volume represents approximately $40-80K in delayed or lost revenue. Frequency is the unknown.
Operational team overhead on firefighting
5ESTIMATED: 15-20% of operations team bandwidth absorbed by exception management, this is recoverable capacity.
Three-Horizon Value
Horizon 1 (0-90 days). Quick wins
Warehouse-to-distribution handoff visibility goes live; expediting decisions that currently take 4.2 days average compress to under 2 days. First measurable freight cost reduction visible within the first inventory cycle.
Sarah has a concrete metric to show Marcus at Q4 review, not a project, a result
Horizon 2 (90-365 days). Strategic gains
Full supply chain visibility integrated with ERP; stockout prediction model identifies risk 72 hours earlier than current process; operations team shifts from reactive management to exception-by-exception oversight.
Meridian's operations model shifts from cost center to competitive advantage, the narrative Sarah wants for her team
Horizon 3 (1-3 years). Competitive advantage
Predictive supply chain enables Meridian to offer shorter commitment windows to customers, creating a service differentiation that competitors running legacy operations can't match within 18-24 months.
The CFO argument: this becomes a revenue enabler, not just a cost reduction
Force ROI Map
Warehouse visibility gap, decision latency
9Highest ROI + highest solvability. The 4.2-day average decision lag is the root cause of the majority of expediting costs.
Manual exception management overhead
7High ROI (recoverable team capacity), medium solvability. Requires change management alongside technology.
ERP-WMS integration gap
6Medium ROI, currently low solvability due to IT bandwidth. Address in Phase 2 after Horizon 1 quick wins build momentum.
Champion Briefing
Sarah needs to be able to make the case to Marcus in one sentence: 'A 90-day pilot that targets the $2.1M freight problem, with a capped cost and a defined IT scope, that delivers a measurable result before Q4 review.' Give her the number for her number: if the pilot reduces expediting costs by 30%, that's $630K in annualized savings from a bounded investment. That's the ROI headline Marcus needs to hear.
How The Catalyst prepares
Core skills are always active. Optional skills can be toggled based on your needs.
Core Skills
Optional Skills
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