Profit and productivity, through people executing the right process.
If the process is wrong, it doesn't matter how great the people are. We pair "been there, done that" coaching with our own process intelligence to find where work actually breaks, then fix it for good.
Great people on a broken process produce broken results.
Most profitability and productivity problems get diagnosed as people problems. They're not. They're process problems wearing a people costume.
The process you approved isn't the one your team follows. The documentation you trust is, on average, less than half accurate. The hero who carries everything has documented none of it. That's where margin leaks, hires fail, and growth stalls.
We bring together deep people expertise and process intelligence, so the work your team executes is the work that actually drives profit.
People. Process. Profit.
People
Hire, coach, and retain leaders who can run the playbook. Generational transition, leadership development, culture built on integrity, intensity, intentionality.
Process
Map what actually happens, not what the SOP says. Surface drift, rebuild the steps that drive margin, and lock in the ones that work.
Profit
Realign cost and pricing structures, model compliance as economics, and turn productivity gains into bottom-line dollars you can see.
Three layers, one clean engagement.
Signal · Diagnostic Map
We observe how work actually flows, buyer segmentation, deal economics, where SOPs and reality diverge, where margin leaks.
IronLane · Execution Framework
We design the system: clear sales stages, role accountability, documented process, and the right workflows to keep it honest.
Controlled Activation
Fractional leadership and on-the-floor implementation. We build internal muscle and deliberately reduce dependency on us.
Built for businesses where people and process have to win together.
Founder-led businesses
Scaling past founder sales, where the process lives in one head.
Corporate Reboot
When it's time to get out and you don't know how, we build the path, the playbook, and the people to run it.
Mid-market operators
Strong people, drifting process, margin you can feel slipping.
Generational transitions
Handing the business to the next generation without losing the recipe.
The process you approved isn't the one they follow.
Real situations we see every week, with what we actually did about them. Filter by theme, find the one that sounds like your business, and let's talk about the case study behind it.
What Happens When Sarah Quits?
You know exactly who carries everything. You haven't documented a single thing they do.
A 180-person manufacturer lost their VP of Operations with two weeks' notice. We mapped her real workflow in 11 days, captured 43 undocumented decisions, and onboarded her replacement in half the expected time, protecting an estimated $2.1M in at-risk margin.
The Process You Approved Isn't the One They Follow
Somewhere between the SOP and the keyboard, reality took a different road entirely.
A PE-backed services firm had a 14-step quoting SOP. Observation showed teams using 9 of them, plus 6 workarounds nobody approved. We rebuilt the live process, cut quote-to-close by 38%, and locked in the steps that actually drove win rate.
You Think Your Docs Are 80% Accurate. Try 43%.
Every process owner thinks their documentation is mostly good. Observation says otherwise.
Pre-acquisition diligence on a $40M target. Stated process documentation: 'fully mapped.' Reality: 43% match with execution. We delivered the buyer a corrected operating picture in 3 weeks, repricing the deal and saving $4.6M.
Your Highest Performers Are Invisible
Top performers deliver 400-800% more. You identify them through politics and self-promotion, not contribution.
We instrumented contribution across a 60-person commercial team. Three quiet performers were generating 6× the revenue of the loudest. Compensation, promotion paths and retention plans were rebuilt around contribution; voluntary turnover of the top quartile dropped to zero over 18 months.
The Deal Stalled at Proposal, Nobody Can Tell You Why
Your pipeline has a stage where revenue goes to die. The CRM shows a date. Not what actually happened.
A B2B services company watched 41% of qualified deals die after proposal. We reconstructed the real buyer journey, found three silent objections never logged in CRM, and redesigned the proposal stage. Win rate post-proposal climbed from 22% to 47% in two quarters.
Your $200K Sales Rep Spends 60% of Their Day Not Selling
CRM updates. Internal approvals. Quote configs. You hired a closer. They're doing admin.
Time-on-task analysis across a 12-rep team showed 58% non-selling time. We re-routed approvals, automated quote configuration, and reassigned admin work. Selling hours per rep doubled, without adding headcount, driving a 31% lift in booked revenue.
Find out if this is the right fit.
A short conversation. No pitch. Just clarity on whether the right process, and the right people running it, can change the next twelve months for your business.
Direct: hello AT marcusmares DOT com