I'm Not a Career Consultant.
I'm an Operator Who Became One.
Most PE revenue-growth advisors are MBAs who've never closed a complex industrial deal. I set B2B industrial sales records, partnered with a German capital equipment manufacturer, and founded a distribution company in India before I started helping others.
Today I work exclusively with US-based industrial manufacturers and the private equity sponsors that own them. Quality of Sales, ORE, the Five Buying Decisions, the Sales Maturity Model, I built these because I lived the problems they solve.
The conviction behind the work.
Many leaders of B2B industrial companies have realized (slowly, sometimes painfully) that despite good people and great intentions, what they’ve built isn’t best in class like their products. They don’t have the same rigorous process for marketing and sales that they have for manufacturing operations. They don’t have the same insight, and they don’t have the same control.
On the PE side, the math is harder. McKinsey, Bain, and AlixPartners converge on a single point: organic revenue growth is now the primary lever of value creation. Sponsors have institutional playbooks for capital structure, operational improvement, and inorganic growth. They don’t have one for organic revenue growth. That’s the gap I work in.
I do this because I’ve watched too many good companies fail at the one thing they should have been best at. Process engineering transformed manufacturing. The same rigor, applied to revenue, is the work I’ve spent decades building.
The credibility behind the wedge: biography, not positioning.
I was going to be an architect. Before that, an engineer. Before I graduated from Johns Hopkins. Before I was a US Army Infantry Officer, Airborne Ranger qualified. Before I set B2B industrial sales records. Before I was partners with a German capital equipment manufacturer. Before I founded a distribution company for industrial products in India. Until I concluded that managing operational and HR details wasn't what I enjoyed, and started helping others.
What I've always loved and excelled at: recognizing and creating business opportunities; synthesizing the science and engineering with the art and design; connecting the strategy dots; and challenging traditional assumptions.
The international history matters less to my work today than it did ten years ago. I work CONUS now: US-based industrial manufacturers and the PE sponsors that own them. But the operator scope is part of why I see what I see. When I walk into a sales situation, I've been on that side of the table. When I look at a target's revenue function, I'm looking with the eyes of someone who's run one. When I sit on a board, I think about value creation the way an operator thinks about it.
Johns Hopkins University: Graduate
US Army Infantry Officer: Airborne Ranger qualified · Service-Disabled Veteran
NACD Governance Fellow
NACD Directorship Certified
Private Directors Association: Certificate in Private Company Governance
National Speakers Association: Professional Member
Two books on industrial sales & marketing
Independent board director, middle-market industrial
I don't license other people's IP. The systems below are what I've built over decades of pattern-matching the same broken revenue functions in industrial companies.
Quality of Sales
An empirically grounded framework for diligencing, building, and measuring sales capability across the PE deal lifecycle. Predictive validity, process engineering, and root-cause diagnosis applied to the revenue function. Implementable in pre-deal diligence, day-one integration, hold-period growth, and pre-exit value creation.
Overall Revenue Effectiveness™
A diagnostic for the entire customer-facing revenue function: strategy, marketing, sales, and customer success. Built on the principle that revenue growth deserves the same rigor manufacturers apply to operations.
The Five Buying Decisions
Most industrial sales teams sell as if there's one decision: vendor selection. There are five, and missing the first four is why deals stall, slip, or die in committee.
Sales Maturity Model
Where does your revenue engine sit on the curve: laggard, average, strong, or leader? The model assesses 17 dimensions and tells you exactly which ones are dragging the others down.
Marketing Maturity Model · Why Industrial Sales Hiring Fails · What PE Needs to Understand About Organic Revenue Growth
A handful of related guides and frameworks are in active development and will be added to the site as they're ready.
Organic revenue growth shows up differently at every stage of the deal lifecycle. Here's where I plug in, and the shape engagements typically take.
Diligence the target's sales team before you buy. Assess whether the team can actually execute the growth thesis or whether the spreadsheet assumptions are aspirational. Financial diligence rarely catches what's hiding inside a sales function.
The first 100 days are when sales process, methodology, and reporting either get installed or get punted. I work with new portco leadership to install the basics deliberately, not by accident.
Implement the systems for sustainable organic growth. Fix root causes. Build forecasting tied to methodology. Replace opinion-based pipeline review with engineering-based pipeline review.
Approaching exit, every gap in the revenue story is a discount on the multiple. Close those gaps and tell a credible organic-growth story to the next buyer.
How I Engage
Per-deal, on retainer across the portfolio, or embedded with a portco. Most engagements are project plus performance, scoped to the question, with a clear deliverable.
Quality of Sales Diligence
Pre-close evaluation of the target's sales team. Modeling support for what the team can actually deliver against thesis assumptions. Risks financial diligence misses.
100-Day Sales Integration
Day one assessment. Week one quick wins. Month one process installation. Quarter one measurable improvements.
Mid-Hold Diagnostic
When growth never showed up. A detailed read on the sales organization in roughly a month, with root cause and a realistic improvement roadmap.
Engineered Sales Hiring
Predictive assessment, structured search, and onboarding. For VPs of Sales and individual contributors. Predictively accurate vs. resume-and-interview gut feel.
Exit Readiness Audit
Sales engine evaluation prior to the sale process. Demonstrate a repeatable, scalable revenue motion to buyers. Translate sales discipline into multiple.
Portfolio Programs
- Across-portfolio QoS deployment
- Portco CEO revenue mastermind
- AI tools for revenue growth program
- Consolidated revenue reporting
- Sales & marketing maturity benchmark
Independent Board Director
NACD and PDA certifications in governance and PE portfolio company governance. Board service for portcos where revenue growth is the open question.
Publishing Bolt-On Strategy
My contrarian thesis: one of the first bolt-ons in an industrial roll-up should be a struggling industry publisher. Buy the audience.
Operators and audiences who've watched the work. The lead quote is the one that captures the operator-excellence point most precisely.
“He’s got the credibility of someone who’s actually run companies, not just written books about it.”
With Ed, clients get strategic vision, tactical excellence and business savvy in a rare, single package. If you’re a B2B manufacturing company that wants to grow, you’ve got to talk to Ed.
CEO · Databox
His deep technical expertise, international experience and perspective as a capital equipment company owner himself infuses his engaging presentation with a compelling call-to-action.
VP Market Development · PMMI
There are few speakers that challenge an audience to think AND inspire them to act. Ed Marsh is one of those speakers. Ed’s keynotes are full of thoughtful insight that never fails to grab and hold an audience’s attention.
Bestselling Author · Brandscaping
Ed will always be the first consultant I ever liked!
Engineer & VP of Sales
Selected work, weighted toward the PE-relevant pieces. The proof that this isn't a pivot: it's a sharpening.
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June 2025
Quality of Sales: The PE thesis paper: framework, data, and the value-creation case for organic revenue growth.
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2025
Why 2025 Is a Watershed Year: A deep dive into the secular changes in industrial sales and marketing.
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Feature article
The Importance of Operator Excellence in Effective Oversight: In Private Company Director Magazine.
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Multiple
Five articles on Axial Forum: Revenue growth, valuation, and top-line strategy for middle-market M&A audiences.
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2018
Common Sense Revenue Growth: Co-authored with John McTigue. Riptide Business Press.
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2012
Current State of B2B Sales & Marketing: Foundational thinking on the changes in B2B buying.
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Published
Two board case studies: Authored with Board Options on family-business and PaaS-evolution scenarios.
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Ongoing
Active blog & columns: edmarshconsulting.com/blog · LinkedIn · Medium (Manufacturing Strategy) · X / @edbmarsh.
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National Speakers Association: Professional Member
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Keynote · NTMA annual meeting, National Tooling & Machining Association
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Featured speaker · PMMI: Multiple annual meetings of the packaging machinery trade association
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Master of Ceremonies · AmEx Grow Global events: As Export Advisor to American Express
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National radio · The Small Business Advocate: Multi-segment interview
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Chambers of commerce, business bootcamps: Topical speaker and panelist on industrial revenue growth
Selected outlets where work has been published, cited, or quoted:
I'd rather have an honest conversation about whether we're a fit than waste either of our time. Here's how to know if it's worth a call.
- You're a PE sponsor or operating partner responsible for portfolio organic growth in industrials
- You're a portco CEO or board member where the EBITDA bridge has a hole where organic revenue should be
- You're a privately held industrial manufacturer where inbound, prospecting, or hiring is broken
- You sell complex, engineered, or capital equipment products with long sales cycles
- You want empirical measurement, not opinion: process engineering applied to revenue
- You're willing to make changes based on data, even when the data is uncomfortable
- You value direct, honest assessment over polished consultant theater
- You want a marketing agency to run your Google Ads and social
- You're looking for a fractional CMO or outsourced sales manager
- You sell B2C, SaaS, or services outside industrial manufacturing
- You need someone to validate decisions you've already made
- You want a short engagement with no commitment to implementation
- You expect results without changing process, people, or approach
Talk to Ed About Your Sales Team
Sharp diagnostic questions. An honest read on whether Ed can help, and if he can't, who can.
An honest read on your sales team.
No pitch deck. No proposal cycle. No follow-up automation. Ed asks sharp diagnostic questions about your organic growth challenge and gives you an honest read on what's actually happening.
- A clear next step, a better referral, or a few things you can do this week
- Ed's read on whether your sales problem is people, process, or strategy
- If Ed isn't the right fit, he'll tell you who is
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Prefer to leave Ed a message instead?
No calendar, no obligation. Ed reads every message personally.
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Ed reads every message personally and usually responds within 24 hours.
Veteran-Owned. Army Trained. West Point & Ranger School.
Ed Marsh is a U.S. Army veteran, West Point graduate, and Ranger School graduate. HubSpot for Veterans: free business training, dedicated guidance, and actionable projects for veterans and spouses.