Revenue Execution Engine
The living system that runs your growth goal.
The Revenue Execution Engine turns Next Mile's growth goal into named plays across three audiences, a bi-weekly Bloom Weekly cadence, and a continuous-learning loop. It is a living operating tool, not a deliverable: the working version for the leadership meeting, and the asset that travels with the team between meetings. If you're using it right, it gets sharper every two weeks because of what you put into it.
Choose a path
each path names who it is for and what you do thereLeadership
For Wally, Mike, and Ron. The sub-navigation is the agenda; run it in order.
Where we are against the goal.
The target, what the pipeline holds today, and what one deal actually costs in activity.
Read the big number as what it takes to produce a single closed deal. The line under it is how many deals sit at that step in HubSpot today, and the small number is the annual target it comes from.
What the line says today. Seven open deals spread across four steps, and a single deal at the front of the funnel. The whole model assumes 50 leads and 12 intro calls behind every close, and neither of those is being counted. That is the measurement gap, not a performance gap.
Conversion rates are assumptions to calibrate as HubSpot data lands. Note that on the 09/01 call the figure quoted live was about 40 leads to one deal, while the scoreboard math gives 50. Worth settling which before anyone is measured against it.
Nothing new has entered in nine weeks. The newest open deal is still Cowtown, created 07/16/26; everything else is 07/08 or earlier. That gap was six weeks at the last meeting and it grew while Jon Price was being hired.
Freight Logistics sits in Closed Lost and that is now wrong. Closed 07/13/26, but as of 09/10 Mike is calling Fitzmark and Wally is preparing a new engagement agreement covering all buyers. At 2.5% of a $4M enterprise value the fee is $100,000, larger than three deals currently on the board, and nothing in HubSpot tracks the recovery.
Three open deals carry no next step. Electra, MAT Parcel and FAST EXACT all read no upcoming activity.
Check in.
Go around the room. Each person shares what has been most meaningful personally and professionally in the last 7 days, and how they feel about it. It gets everyone present before the numbers start.
Round the table.
Wally, Mike, Ron: a personal best and a professional best from the last seven days. Keep it to five minutes total, then move straight to the KPIs.
Due before the next meeting.
The Bloom goal is 90% completion every 7 days. Click any row for the detail.
Then move UTS into it. Wally: “this is the system built with the mindset that if you had been hit by a bus right now, we need to remember that this deal is done, Bruce should feel relieved, but he is worried about his employees and customers. His legacy depends on it.” This is the first deal to reach the stage, so it is the first chance to run the play rather than describe it.Open stage 10 →
What needs working.
Off-track numbers and open questions surface here. Work the top three by importance, not urgency. Click any row for the detail.
Jay’s point, recorded because it stays true: it is not the signed agreement that decides the question. “When the service comes in and decides whether they are going to make beef about this, they look at how he is supervised, what he is called, how he works with us.” A vice-president title on a contractor’s card is one more fact on the wrong side of that test. Dan added that the branded card is itself a risk, and that a title makes it materially worse.
Wally accepted the exposure knowingly: “we are big boys, we just know that is a risk, probably a low risk, but it does exist.” If Jon ever leaves disgruntled the downside is back withholding taxes. Ron’s mitigation, which nobody argued with, is to keep supervision light so the arrangement genuinely looks like a contractor relationship.
Revisit in three to six months. Jay’s framing: if it is working well, have a serious conversation about making him an employee rather than letting years of exposure accumulate. Ron offered partner or phantom equity as alternatives. Jon has said he does not want to be an employee.
Mike’s wording, now the standard: not “you get 20%” but “up to 20%, depending on how quickly we can sign an agreement with a prospective seller.” That is what Bluejay were told and it is what the documents describe.
Should our name appear in the buyer’s press release? No, and do not build a play around it. Mike: “most buyers do not want to do it. They would rather be working a direct deal with a seller.” He has never named a buyer in his own announcements for the same reason, because a prospective seller reading it may just call the buyer directly. Next Mile does its own announcement instead.
Can we name Fitzmark in ours? For UTS yes, because Fitzmark already announced it publicly with quotes from Bruce, and it is a fact that Next Mile represented UTS. Ron’s point is prospective, not about this deal: where a sale has not been publicly announced, get a courtesy heads-up or sign-off from the acquirer before we announce it. Add that to the Diligence and Close play.
The path is a separate sales department meeting as the structure splits out, which he would run or attend. Everyone agreed he joins eventually once he is fully engaged.
Agreed handling: leave them in Closed Lost for now. If they sign the new engagement agreement, which covers all buyers including Dynamic, move them back into an engaged stage. Mike considers the persuasion work done: his response to Chad, the call to Fitzmark, and Jeff coming back to weigh it.The call analysis →
1. The “years of guidance” paragraph is wrong. It implies Next Mile worked with Bruce through the pandemic shutdown. Mike’s first analysis file for him was August 2021.
2. Typo at the foot: “detailed UTC success story” should read UTS.
3. Subject line is unresolved. Wally wants more punch, something like another successful seller matched through Next Mile. John K.’s pushback: that reads as a marketing campaign rather than news, and the factual framing is what makes a reader curious. Maria to supply options.
4. A test email goes to the team before anything sends.
Timing: out this week while the news is still hot.
Still true and unresolved from before: the 90+ completed exits claim, the four missing blog links, the Wally-sold-through-the-process line, four token variants, and the unassigned signature.
Same for O&Os: an item earns its place only if it needs buy-in from everyone, or it is holding something up. Wally’s counterweight: “it is good and important to keep open items out there so we can make sure they are being dealt with in a timely fashion.” So the test is importance, not age.
Recap, cascade, rate.
Three confirmations, then everyone rates the meeting. Anything under a seven gets a reason.
New to-do’s from the 3D session confirmed, each with an owner and a date before the next meeting.
Decided O&Os archive to the Decisions Log in Groundwork. Agree what cascades to the wider team.
Each member: the most valuable part of the meeting, and one thing to do better next time.
Sales
For Mike, Wally, and Ron. Pick a stage; you see it whole on one screen. The green block carries the stage identity and its KPIs, then Who's here, the customer mindset, what we have and still need, and the play. Click a name to review it against the play.
Jon Price
Throughout this engine, Jon is Jon Price and John K. is John Knicely
Jon has one job: turn an engaged contact into a booked meeting with Mike. That meeting is thirty minutes, and its only purpose is to set up the Evaluation call. He does not value, does not build CIMs, does not negotiate. Four people own four consecutive stages and the handoffs are the whole design.
| Funnel stage | Target / yr | Now | Per week | Whose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leads | 600 | 40 | 12.5 | Spoke · campaigns |
| Intro calls | 144 | 6 | 3.0 | Jon |
| Qualified | 60 | 5 | 1.3 | Jon → Mike |
| Engaged | 48 | 4 | 1.0 | Mike |
| To market | 18 | 2 | 0.4 | Mike |
| LOI | 13 | 2 | 0.3 | Mike |
| Closed | 12 | 1 | 0.25 | Mike |
1 · The 600 is not Jon's number. It is every lead from every source: campaigns, COIs, Wally's network, the show, inbound. Jon does not generate 600 leads. He works the ones that arrive and converts them into intro calls. His number is the second row, roughly three intro calls a week, and the qualified handoffs that follow.
2 · Nobody knows his dial-to-lead rate yet, so the calls-per-week answer does not exist. The arithmetic is simple once we have it: dials per week equals the leads he must personally source divided by the rate at which a dial becomes a lead. To show the shape of it, if Jon had to personally source all 12.5 leads a week, that is 250 dials a week at a 5% rate, 125 at 10%, 63 at 20%. Fifty dials a day is not a real job for one contractor working warm lists. That is precisely why the campaign has to carry the top of the funnel and Jon works engagement. Set his real target at the day-30 review from his own logged data, not from a benchmark.
3 · The funnel and the goal still do not reconcile,. O&O #08 is open on it: the deck targets 2 LOIs per quarter at a 90% close rate, which produces about 7 closes a year, not 12. Hiring a business development contractor does not fix an arithmetic problem. Resolve the target before measuring anyone against it.
| Segment | Size | Object | Creator | For Jon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closest thing to a warm seller list | ||||
| BBTC_2_Contacts · Active CRM | 181 | Contact | Ciara | Start here |
| BBTC_3_Notes · Active CRM | 181 | Contact | Ciara | Same 181, with notes |
| TIA CONF ATTENDEES · Full Import | 425 | Contact | Sara | Work pre-show |
| Newly Engaged · TIA Feature Email Send | 823 | Contact | Sara | Engaged · highest intent |
| PRE TIA BLASTS 3b · Past TIA Attendees | 1,487 | Contact | Sara | Depth, if he burns through |
| Mike and Ron’s lane, not Jon’s | ||||
| 1 Buyer Type · Non-Asset | 143 | Company | Mike | Buyer side |
| 2 Buyer Type · Asset-Lite | 108 | Company | Mike | Buyer side |
| 3 Buyer Type · Asset | 86 | Company | Mike | Buyer side |
| Transport Express | 427 | Contact | Mike | Deal-specific |
| WTS_CIM_Tickets_IMPORT | 25 | Contact | Ciara | Deal-specific |
| Data hygiene · source material, not call lists | ||||
| DH · Company Domain Blank | 1,705 | Company | Ciara | Needs enrichment first |
| DH · More Names Companies | 211 | Company | Ciara | Needs enrichment first |
| Does not exist yet · this is the gap | ||||
| Chicago · Cottingham & Butler | ? | Contact | nobody | Wally’s #1 · build it |
| Campaign responders · next campaign | 0 | Contact | nobody | Zero until it fires |
| Seller prospecting · working list | ? | Contact | nobody | Spoke owns Stage 01 |
Two things to confirm while she is on: the segment manager shows DH · Leads at 24,830 and CONTACT 1 + COMPANIES at 16,968 contacts, against the $1,282 per month HubSpot tier this engine records as 7,000 contacts. Those may be non-marketing CRM records, but the difference should be explained rather than assumed. And BBTC_2 and BBTC_3 both read 181, which looks like the same population held twice.
Thirty years in trucking
Roadway Express in 1994, then Southeastern Freight Lines, FedEx, MMI Services, ABF, YRC, BNSF Logistics, and McLean under Berkshire Hathaway. Built an exclusive deal integrating PepsiCo’s private fleet with YRC. Built a DIM-based pricing program with McLean Southern.
Then roughly four years in real estate as a broker, where he built and sold multiple companies of his own.
His network is asset-based carrier and shipper-side logistics. He is not a brokerage guy and not a private-equity guy, so point him at carriers and 3PLs and keep him off the buyer database. He has sold a company himself, which means he can hold the seller conversation without a script.
Mike’s 08/07 recap of the introductory call · Wally, Ron, Jay, Mike attending
Warm first. Always.
Wally met them in person in August. Perishable, and some are seller, COI, and buyer at once. Not built yet.
Already raised a hand on TIA content. Highest intent segment that exists today.
Legacy Black Belt active contacts. They know the name; the brand changed, not the relationship.
The next campaign, before the TIA show. Zero until it fires.
Worked ahead of the show so he arrives with meetings already booked.
Highest leverage per contact, gated until the COI carry piece exists.
Lists 2, 3 and 6 go LinkedIn first, phone second. List 1 is the reverse: Wally already met them in person, so a call is warmer than a connection request. List 5 gets worked ahead of the show.
The three Buyer Type segments and the deal-specific imports belong to Mike and Ron. ZoomInfo and LinkedIn cold belong to Spoke as Stage 01 campaign work. The DH segments are data hygiene and need enrichment before anyone dials them.
Ten names, every Monday
Ciara builds a top-10 priority call list each Monday from campaign engagement, so Jon is never choosing who to call and Wally can see the same list Jon is working.
- Monday · top 10 lands in HubSpot as tasks. Fifteen minutes with Mike on who they are.
- Tuesday to Thursday · call blocks. Every touch logged, every call a next step or a close-out.
- Friday · run the report prompt. Wally reads it over the weekend.
No contact leaves a call without either a next step with a date or a documented reason it is dead. A contact sitting with no next step is the thing that quietly kills a pipeline.
The engagement-triggered to-dos and the weekly list build. Scope and timing to confirm.
Nine working days
- Website, TIA handout, a redacted CIM so he sees the actual output
- Wally’s own exit story, told first-person
- The differentiators written down: sellers only, nothing charged until we sell, operators not finance guys
- nextmilema.com email · HubSpot seat on the negotiated rate
- Fathom on the team workspace
- LinkedIn profile updated to Next Mile before day one
- Ciara · HubSpot, sequences, logging discipline
- Dan · this engine, stages 01 to 03, where he hands off
- Sales templates converted and sequenced · Wally’s stated requirement for 09/14
- The Chicago list and a seller working list have to be built · nothing on the shelf is a seller call list
No outbound. Listen to three seller calls and one COI call, sit in on a live Mike call, and say the pitch back to Wally in his own words. Then dial.
Four scripts
Open“Jon Price with Next Mile M&A. I’m not calling to ask you to sell anything.”
Reason“We represent transportation owners on the sell side, only sellers, never buyers. We just took a company through a close this summer.”
Question“Have you given any thought to what happens to the business in the next few years?”
Value“We charge nothing until we sell it. So a conversation costs you nothing but the time.”
Close“Give me thirty minutes with Mike Bloss. He has done this for a hundred-plus owners. That call is where we decide together whether a real valuation is worth doing.”
Why thirtyFifteen is not enough to earn a valuation conversation. The intro meeting exists to set up the Evaluation call, and nothing else.
“Jon Price, Next Mile M&A, [number]. We represent transportation owners when they sell. Not a sales call, just wanted to put a name to the firm in case the subject ever comes up for you. I’ll send a short email. [number again].”
ThenEmail within the hour, same day, referencing the voicemail.
“I’m looking for [owner]. Jon Price with Next Mile M&A. We work with transportation owners on ownership transitions. Not selling anything, and I’m happy to call back at a better time. When does he usually take calls?”
NeverPretend to know him. Owners find out.
“You have clients who will exit in the next few years. When they do, that’s a moment where you either look brilliant or you look absent.”
“We represent sellers only. Your client stays yours. We keep you in the loop the whole way.”
“There’s a referral arrangement, and I’d rather walk you through it than email it.”
HoldDo not name compensation terms until Mike’s tiered structure is confirmed against what was said at the TIA show.
- “I’m not selling.” “Good. The owners who do best are the ones who started the conversation years early.”
- “I already have a banker.” “Then you’re ahead of most. Who are you working with?” Log the answer.
- “What’s it worth?” “I won’t guess, and anyone who does on a first call is selling you something. That is exactly what the thirty minutes with Mike is for.”
LinkedIn first, phone second
For sellers and COIs who have already engaged, a connection request lands better than a cold dial. An owner who will not take an unknown call will accept a connection from someone who spent thirty years in the industry. Run it alongside the phone, not instead of it.
- SELLERS · Nurture members scoring 15+ · they clicked something
- The COI list · 36 names, 10 priority
- Chicago and TIA contacts Wally or Mike met in person
Not cold ZoomInfo names. A connection request to someone with no shared context is the same cold outreach with worse odds.
With a real hook“We met at the Cottingham & Butler summit. Enjoyed the conversation about [thing]. Would like to stay connected.”
No hook, shared industrySend it blank. A note that tries too hard reads as a pitch and lowers the accept rate.
“Thanks for connecting. I won’t waste your time with a pitch. I spent thirty years in transportation, Roadway through YRC and BNSF Logistics, and I’m now with Next Mile M&A. We represent transportation owners when they sell, sellers only, never buyers.”
“Most owners we talk to are not selling today. They are trying to figure out what the business is worth and what it would take to be ready. If that is ever on your mind, I’m happy to be a resource.”
Then stopNo question, no ask. The message gives him a reason to reply and no reason to feel sold to.
They ask a questionAnswer it plainly, then: “Worth thirty minutes with Mike Bloss? That call is where we decide together whether a real valuation is worth doing.”
They name a painReflect it back, do not solve it. “That is the one that catches most owners.” Then the same ask.
They say not now“Understood. I’ll stay out of your way.” Log it, set a reminder, keep them in nurture.
- Sent from Jon’s personal profile, never automated. Automation tools get accounts restricted.
- Profile updated to Next Mile before day one, and a week of normal activity before the first request. A brand-new profile sending requests looks like spam.
- Roughly 100 requests a week is the practical ceiling. Watch the accept rate, not the send count.
- Log every accept and reply in HubSpot the same as a call.
Spoke runs paid ads and company-page content as Stage 01 campaign work. Jon runs one-to-one outreach from his own profile. Same platform, different jobs, and they should not collide.
Using our HubSpot data, write a one-page sales activity report for the week of [DATE], covering Jon Price only. Plain prose and short tables, no jargon. 1. LISTS Current size of these segments: Chicago / Cottingham & Butler (once built), Newly Engaged - TIA Feature Email Send, BBTC_2_Contacts - Active CRM, TIA CONF ATTENDEES - Full Import, and the current campaign responder list. Note the change from last week. 2. ACTIVITY Calls logged this week, with the company name and contact for each. How many reached a person versus voicemail. Emails sent and replies. LinkedIn: connection requests sent, accepted, and replied to. Show the accept rate and the reply rate, not just the totals. 3. MEETINGS Intro meetings booked this week, with company and date. Intro meetings actually held. Flag any no-show or reschedule. 4. MOVEMENT Contacts whose Lead Status advanced, and from what to what. Any Deal created at Evaluation, with amount and owner. This is the number that matters most: it is the only thing Jon produces that Mike can work. 5. NEXT WEEK The ten contacts Jon should call first, ranked, with one line each on why they are ranked there and what the next step is. 6. WHAT NEEDS ATTENTION Any contact with activity in the last 30 days and no scheduled next step. Any list that has stopped producing meetings. If a number is not in HubSpot, say so plainly rather than estimating it.
Marketing
Two engines run in parallel: sales sequences that nurture the pipeline with content that already exists, and marketing campaigns that reach the lists. Here is the story, the roadmap, and the options, where Spoke picks up and what it takes to get the first piece out the door.
Spoke · weekly status
Brand strategy wrapping up, sales deliverables moving into production
- HubSpot training, Jon. Completed with Ciara on 09/15. Calendar link, signature and the basics covered.
- HubSpot training, Mike. Rianna is finalising the full list of HubSpot to-dos; Ciara and Rianna then meet Mike together. Still outstanding.
- Buyer-to-seller workflow ready for testing. Match buyers to sellers · personalised email per buyer contact using approved copy with first name · track initial responses with message text and date · track Zoom meeting dates with comments · track NDA execution by both parties before the data room · track data room provision date and response timeline · track LOI issued · track LOI signed.
- Core Brand Strategy. Requested changes received and being incorporated; completed after this round.
- Two interim emails for Jon uploaded to HubSpot with PDFs, ready to launch.
- Journey map updated with Jon added, now with Next Mile for review.
- Sellers Landing Page moving into development as the first sales-team deliverable.
- One content piece, concept still being shaped.
- The rest of the sales deliverables start once this round is approved.
- The workflow is the real progress. Those eight tracked steps are the CIM ticket process that was blocked on a Service Hub subscription back in August. If it is moving, the seat question resolved, which also means Jon’s sales seat resolved. Confirm. The workflow maps onto stages 06 to 08: matching and outreach in Market Engagement, NDA and data room in Connected, issuance and signature in LOI.
- Ciara trained Jon, not Rianna. Worth knowing whether the handover slipped or she did it on her way out, because Rianna is the one answering his questions in three weeks.
- The two interim emails are undefined. Not the five-email seller sequence. Interim between what and what, to which list, signed by whom.
- The journey map now exists with Jon on it. Approving it makes a second model canonical alongside the eleven stages in this engine.
- The Sellers Landing Page is not the three-audience piece. Wally’s Chicago problem is still unanswered.
- Not mentioned at all: the five-email seller sequence, the four missing blog links its CTAs point to, the Campaign 1 pivot now that Fitzmark announced UTS first, and the SOW.
- On the brand changes, get explicit confirmation that 90+ successful exits is gone from every instance. UTS is the first closed deal, so it is not an unverified claim, it is wrong.
Everything the instance needs.
Rianna, Dan, Ciara and Maria. This is the detail list that used to clutter the leadership to-do’s; those are commitments the team holds each other to, these are the build.
| Owner | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rianna · Mike | Fix the deal stage order The sheet runs Diligence, Transition, Closed Won, Closed Lost. Transition belongs after Closed Won, because it is what happens once a deal is won. Agreed 09/15. | Blocking |
| Rianna · Mike | Move UTS/Fitzmark into Transition Follows the reorder. First deal ever to reach the stage, so it is the first chance to run the transition play rather than describe it. | Blocking |
| Rianna · Dan | Add an event lead source, starting with Cottingham Wally entered roughly ten summit contacts and there was no field to record where they came from, only TIA and ZoomInfo. Without it they never enter a campaign. Needs to work for any future event, not just this one. | Blocking |
| Rianna · Ciara | Confirm Buyer Type is multi-select, then document it Wally could not find where to mark someone a seller, COI or buyer, and Ryan Fraley at Halvor Lines is plausibly all three. Confirm the field allows it, then train Wally and Jon. | Blocking |
| Rianna · Ciara · Mike | Finish Mike’s HubSpot walkthrough Rianna is finalising the to-do list, then she and Ciara walk Mike through it. Lead tracking cannot be switched on until this lands, which is why the funnel still reads not tracked at the top two steps. | Blocking |
| Owner | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rianna · Dan · Mike | A process for updating contacts and assigning ownership The recurring failure across three meetings: a contact gets added, nobody records where it came from, nobody owns it, and it never reaches a campaign. The process needs to say who enters a contact, what fields are mandatory at entry (source, audience type, owner), who the owner is by default, what happens when a contact belongs to two people, and how ownership transfers when a deal moves between stages. It also belongs in the stage plays, so the rule is visible at the moment of the work rather than in a document nobody opens. | Write it |
| Rianna · Maria | Buyer matching and blast tracking, end to end The matching and the blast are built; two buyer emails went out on 09/15. What is missing is the tracking: responses with text and date, Zoom meeting dates, NDA execution both sides, data room provision and response timeline, LOI issued and signed. | In build |
| Dan · Rianna | Decide how the HubSpot to Claude connection gets used Jay has connected it. What Claude reads, what it writes back, how the pipeline refresh replaces the manual screenshot, and how Jon’s weekly report prompt runs against it. | Open |
| Rianna | Lead tracking so the funnel populates Leads and intro calls are the only two steps in the funnel with no number. Everything downstream of them is measured. | Open |
| Owner | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Jay · Rianna | A licence for Ron Ron has no seat. He works the buyer side and follows the pipeline, and he was the one who caught both data errors in the 09/10 deal review. Confirm which seat type he needs against what he actually does, and fold it into the existing quote rather than raising a second one. | New |
| Rianna | Add Jay to every HubSpot training call He asked to attend all of them, including as an observer. The 09/14 Jon transcript covers the one he missed. | New |
| Jay · Rianna | Confirm the signed quote covers everyone Two Service Pro seats for Jay and Mike for the CIM automation, plus a sales seat for Jon. Confirm what was signed and whether Ron fits inside it. | Open |
| Owner | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rianna · Wally | Import Wally’s LinkedIn and Outlook contacts Never done. A substantial LinkedIn network with real transportation owners in it, plus what Wally calls a gazillion Outlook contacts, none of which are in HubSpot. Rianna to reach out to him directly. | Assigned |
| Rianna · Mike | Add an On Portal field Agreed 08/24. No full portal pipeline until materiality is proven, but the field is needed now. Three companies have live access, with Cowtown and Al Kaos both agreeing to Silver. | Open |
| Rianna | Confirm the SELLERS · Nurture record count Deduped, with suppression rules for hard bounces, unsubscribes and anyone already in a live deal. Candidate sources are BBTC_2 Active CRM at 181, Newly Engaged TIA at 823, TIA CONF ATTENDEES at 425 and Past TIA Attendees at 1,487. | Open |
| Rianna · Dan | Build the Chicago list and a seller working list Neither exists. Across 37 segments there is buyer segmentation, deal imports, data hygiene and the TIA universe, but no seller call list. Jon has been working two weeks without one. | Open |
| Rianna | Engagement scoring and Jon’s Monday list Clicks and replies score, opens do not. Fifteen points or any reply puts someone on his list, rebuilt weekly, capped at ten. | Open |
| Owner | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dan · John K. · Maria | Review the email templates Reviewing what Ciara built rather than writing from scratch. Keep the stage-based naming Mike established. | Open |
| Natalie · John K. | Updated sell sheets Carried. | Open |
| Maria · Dan | The UTS announcement email Three versions, sellers, COIs and buyers. Changes agreed 09/15: fix the years-of-guidance paragraph, fix the UTC typo, new subject line options, test email to the team first. Out this week. | This week |
Two ways in
Same destination. One leaner, one that compounds.- Live seller campaign in about month one
- Leverages the plays and assets they already have
- Lowest cost, fastest proof of motion
- A reusable messaging + asset foundation
- One voice across buyer, seller & COI
- Cheaper per campaign after the first
Build once, flex many. One-offs pay for the same thinking four or five times; a shared core is built once and adapted per audience. Pricier month one, cheaper across the year.
One voice. Buyers, sellers, and COIs overlap, a COI knows a seller, a buyer becomes a referrer, so a shared foundation keeps every touch coherent.
Faster after the first. The framework is what makes campaigns two, three, and four quick to ship. More action over the year, not less.
But not before campaign 1. None of it is needed to launch the first campaign, that is Option 1. The whole view just changes the economics once you run several.
Most clients start from zero. Next Mile does not. Spoke leverages these, and the campaign draws straight from them, this is what is on hand today, not just the case studies and web content.
Cut from the six alumni interviews already captured. Each becomes a short video (the founder in their own words), a web case-study page (the full arc and the numbers), and a set of social posts (the pull-quotes and the moment). Capture once, run everywhere, the proof behind every campaign.
The M&A exit journey as a tangible, oversized foldout: direct mail to the cold sellers and a leave-behind at TIA. It maps the whole process and marks where the reader is standing, so an owner who thinks “I’m not ready” sees how far along they already are and what comes next. It turns an abstract process into a thing on their desk.
Three journeys, and what runs in each.
Spoke’s journey map, live in the engine. Switch audience with the tabs, then switch between the swimlane and the operational timeline inside each one.
Two things to check while you read it. The COI lane states 20% Year 1 and 10% Year 2 on a six-month attribution window, which is not obviously the same offer Bluejay were given on 09/14. And Spoke’s own pacing note says the buyer lane is the least verified of the three, with story and discovery still draft, which is the journey Ron argued gets the least attention.
Seller Journey — Founder-Led Exit
New Market Rollout Customer Journey
Named Campaigns · what actually runs
| Campaign / Motion | Runs at | Primary Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Outbound · Cold Targeted Sellers | Stage 01 | Wally |
| COI Referral Activation | Stages 01–02 | Wally |
| Post-TIA Reactivation | Stage 01 | Wally + Spoke |
| Engaged-Ready Nurture | Stages 02–04 | HubSpot |
| Engaged-Not-Ready Re-Engagement | Stage 03 | HubSpot |
| Alumni Referral Loop | Stage 11 | Wally |
| Portal Engagement · Sellers Database | Stages 03–04 | HubSpot |
NEWProposed Spoke assets — not yet built
| Asset Idea | What it is | Co-owner(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Valuation Report Design Template | A branded PDF template Mike fills in with the numbers, so the valuation range lands as a polished document instead of a spreadsheet screenshot. | Mike |
| Buyer FAQ One-Pager | A one-page leave-behind answering the questions buyers ask most before signing an NDA, so curated outreach feels buttoned-up from the first email. | Spoke solo |
| Mgmt Presentation Deck Design | A branded template for the deck sellers present in management meetings, built once and customized per deal. | Mike |
| LOI Comparison Explainer Graphic | A simple visual placing two or more LOIs side by side in plain language, so the seller sees the real trade-offs at a glance instead of parsing legal terms. | Wally |
| Diligence Progress Tracker (Branded Portal) | A lightweight branded status page showing what percentage of diligence requests are complete, easing the anxiety of a 60–90 day quiet stretch. | Spoke solo |
| Press & Social Kit (Pre-Built by Spoke) | A ready-to-customize kit — press release, social graphics, employee announcement email — so Announcement Day comms go out fast instead of being built from scratch after close. | Wally |
- Confirm stage, owner, and lead source on the record
- Lead with operator credibility — T&L-specific, no pitch in line one
- Run TIA email, LinkedIn social, and direct mail into one survey landing page
- Send the next thought-leadership piece to the pipeline list
- Look up the company and person before the call
- Ask what changed recently, not “are you selling”
- No fees quoted, no portal pitch on this call
- Close with one next step: book Discovery, or a 30/60/90-day check-in
- Tag into the nurture track and set the cadence
- Send content that names the valuation gap honestly
- Offer a value-gap coaching call
- Keep a quarterly “Stay Connected” check-in — no pressure
- Collect financial intake: 3-yr P&L, balance sheet, returns
- Run the valuation engine; score red flags
- Deliver an honest range, never a flattering one
- Sign the engagement agreement if advancing
- Build the CIM so it sounds like their business
- Build the blind teaser; score the buyer list strategic vs. financial
- Coach the seller for buyer-facing meetings
- Get seller sign-off before going to market
- Send the blind teaser sequence to the curated list
- Manage NDAs and data-room access control
- Run 15-min intro Zooms as a strategic-fit filter
- Send weekly seller updates explaining the silence
- Prep the seller for management presentations
- Run presentations with multiple qualified buyers
- Debrief after every meeting
- Request IOIs post-presentation
- Capture the seller's must-haves before reviewing offers
- Build the LOI comparison matrix
- Translate LOIs into plain English — don't anchor to the headline number
- Negotiate, set a walk-away threshold, sign exclusivity eyes-open
- Stand up the VDR; track diligence requests per buyer
- Coordinate responses across seller, buyer, and attorneys
- Defend valuation against re-trade attempts
- Run closing-day prep and get to wire
- Run the integration checklist: ops, finance, HR, customers
- Deliver Announcement Day comms
- Run the 90-day post-close check-in
- Request the seller recommendation letter
- Quarterly personal touchpoints, not a form letter
- Genuine 30-day “how's the transition going” check-in
- Ask for the referral 30–90 days post-close
- Request a case study or testimonial; loop back to Engagement
COI Journey — The Referral Engine into Sellers
Centers of Influence Referral Journey
Named Campaigns · what actually runs
| Campaign / Motion | Runs at | Primary Owner |
|---|---|---|
| COI Outreach · Targeted | Stage 01 | Wally |
| COI Conversation Activation | Stage 02 | Wally |
| Engaged-COI Referral Cadence | Stages 03–04 | Wally + HubSpot |
| First-to-Know COI Activation | Stages 01–02 | Wally |
NEWProposed Spoke assets — not yet built
| Asset Idea | What it is | Co-owner(s) |
|---|---|---|
| COI One-Pager: Why Partner with Next Mile | A leave-behind card for TIA-style events explaining the referral program and economics in under a minute of reading. | Spoke solo |
| Partnership Explainer Video | A 60–90 second video walking a COI through how the referral relationship works — a video companion to the “How the 20% Works” one-pager for people who’d rather watch than read. | Spoke solo |
| COI Spotlight Feature (LinkedIn + Newsletter) | A short feature story on the COI themselves, posted on LinkedIn and in the newsletter, giving them visibility in return for the referral, not just a fee. | Wally |
- Open with the 30-second conversation script
- Peer-to-peer voice, not a pitch
- No transactional pressure on first contact
- Ask how their clients navigate the exit conversation today
- Let them do most of the talking
- Listen for client volume, size, and existing advisor ties
- Confirm the 20% Year-1 / 10% Year-2 economics and 6-month attribution window
- Send the handwritten note plus a small personalized gift
- Log the referral in HubSpot; hand off into Sellers at Engaged Early
- Use the closed-deal intro script as social proof
- Ask for a case study or testimonial
- Keep a quarterly newsletter in their voice, not a generic blast
Buyer Journey — Demand & Comparables Engine
Strategic & Financial Acquirer Journey
Named Campaigns · what actually runs
| Campaign / Motion | Runs at | Primary Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Known Database · Monthly Color | Stage 01 | Mike + Spoke |
| Met at TIA · Onboarding | Stage 02 | Mike |
| Engaged-on-Current-Deal | Stage 03 | Mike |
| Buyer-side Referral Capture | Stage 04 | Mike |
NEWProposed Spoke assets — not yet built
| Asset Idea | What it is | Co-owner(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer Deal Portal (Branded Microsite) | A simple branded page where known buyers can browse current blind teasers without waiting on an email, reinforcing Next Mile as a steady source of deal flow. | Mike |
| Buyer Welcome Kit | A short intro packet for a newly introduced buyer covering who Next Mile is, how deals get sourced, and what a sample deal sheet looks like. | Spoke solo |
| Interactive Deal Room / CIM Video Summary | A short video walkthrough of the CIM a buyer can watch before diving into the full document, cutting the time to a first informed response. | Mike |
| Buyer Success Story / Case Study | A short case study on a buyer’s completed acquisition — useful as a reference for future buyers and as social proof sellers can see during Preparation. | Mike, → Sellers Pipeline |
- Send monthly market color and deal sheets
- Tag by mode, size, and geography (pending database health audit)
- Meet at TIA or via a buyer-side COI warm intro
- Onboarding call to capture the buy-box: size, mode, geography
- Execute the NDA
- Review the blind teaser and CIM
- Grant data-room access; fast response strengthens seller leverage
- Send deal sheets and comparables on an ongoing basis
- Capture buyer-side referrals into other acquirers
All vendor contracts and tool subscriptions in one matrix, with amounts from the Records. Figures are quoted, not estimated; blanks are flagged.
| Vendor · engagement | Period | Scope | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor engagements | ||||
| Story on Purpose · Instant Clarity | Late 2025 to Apr 2026 | 90-Day Revenue Execution Sprint: alumni interviews, Hero's Journey, brand & positioning, ICP & 4-play architecture, seller tiers, 11-stage journey, TIA readiness | $24,000 | Complete |
| Story on Purpose · TIA show floor | Apr 2026 | John + Dan on the floor at TIA Capital Ideas: COI conversations, live deal-flow signal-capture | $5,000 | Complete |
| Story on Purpose · Constant Clarity | Current | Bi-weekly engine iteration, leadership cadence, ongoing narrative + strategy, this document | $4,500 / mo | Active |
| Spoke Marketing · Sales Hub stand-up | May 27 to Jun 30, 2026 | Phase 2 build: 10-stage pipeline, custom properties, 3 record layouts, email templates, lead routing, Mike-first + Wally training, 60-day adoption support | $15,000 | In build |
| Second Mile · Marketing Pro + Roadmap | Mar to Apr 2026 | Phase 1 marketing layer: HubSpot Marketing Pro implementation + roadmap, 9-segment TIA campaign, ~3,471 contacts deployed | $13,475 | Complete |
| Natalie Nicole · Brand identity | Feb to Mar 2026 | Brand identity system, positioning, visual language for nextmilema.com and all tradeshow materials | To verify | Complete |
| Tools & subscriptions | ||||
| HubSpot | Ongoing | Sales Pro + Marketing Pro · 7,000 contacts | $1,282 / mo | Active |
| Claude · Anthropic team | Ongoing | 5 seats (Mike, Wally, Jay, Ron, Dan) | $20 to $125 / seat | Active |
| WhatConverts | Ongoing | Call tracking on the website | Not stated | Active |
| ZoomInfo | Ongoing | List data for cold outreach | Not stated | Active |
What we watch once campaigns are live; numbers populate from HubSpot. Pending until then.
| Campaign | Key metric | Current |
|---|---|---|
| Cold | Meetings booked | TBD |
| Nurture | Re-engagement rate | TBD |
| Pipeline re-engagement | Opens / responses | TBD |
| COI | Referrals received | TBD · 5 active |
| Buyer | Teaser opens / NDAs | TBD · Phase 3 |
| PR | Placements / reach | TBD · post-win |
| Content | Pieces live | 1 |
Playbook
For leadership and marketing. Next Mile's plays are audiences, not verticals: Sellers, COIs, and Buyers. Each opens to a two-column contents index on the same 00 to 11 outline, then the full sections. Leadership drills in from the summary; marketing builds the assets from here.
Groundwork
The engine's memory and foundation in one place: how we got here, who is at the table, the decisions on record, and the research the plays are built on.
What's inside.
Groundwork is the engine's memory. Browse a collection or open any item. Interviews and calls are also reachable from the plays and the meeting where they are referenced.
Who we're representing.
The narrative spine every play traces back to. Source: Hero's Journey, Story on Purpose, Mar 2026.
The transportation lifer. A founder who built a T&L business over 20+ years and is somewhere on the exit-contemplation spectrum. They are buying clarity, not just a transaction.
Time, pressure, and the wrong M&A firm. They have been pitched by advisors who did not know their business, and they fear making the wrong move with a once-in-a-lifetime decision.
Operators who have sat in the seat. 90+ years combined T&L and M&A experience, sell-side only, on the owner's team.
Financial legacy. Peace of mind. Freedom of time. Concern for employees and the legacy they leave behind.
From plan to live engine.
Three phases brought the Revenue Execution Engine to where it is today.
Foundation Shipped
- Hero's Journey + VOC
- Brand identity (Natalie)
- TIA Capital Ideas campaign
System Stand-Up
- HubSpot Sales Pro build
- CIM ticket engine
- Bloom Weekly cadence
Full Engine Running
- COIs play activates
- Buyers play activates
- 12 closed deals / year
Completeness map.
Some sections are complete and validated; others are structurally in place but awaiting content from the call-analysis loop. This tells you what state each section is in.
Overview (six alumni + Hero's Journey), the Master Flow, all 11 stage cockpits, the plays cross-references, the Sellers narrative spine and Cold Outbound play, the Portal section, the Operating System, the O&O log, and the Appendix.
Sellers Plays B to F placeholders, the COI named plays, the Voice-of-Prospect bands in each stage, the during-call checklists, and specific KPI targets. These fill from the 18 recorded calls and ongoing conversations.
The Buyers named plays, the 300+ buyer database migration into HubSpot, Portal Population B productization, and buyer-side voice-of-customer interviews.
Who's at the table.
Next Mile M&A is a sell-side advisory for founder-led Transportation & Logistics businesses. A small internal team, supported by external partners.
Strategy and deep-seller calls. With Wally, 90+ years combined T&L and M&A experience (Yellow Freight / YRC, Echo Global Logistics, decades operating asset-based and non-asset businesses).
COI lead and the relationship voice. His own exit (Freight Solutions) is the peer-credibility unlock for first-time sellers.
Web and tech. Approves vendor and tech proposals; owns the infrastructure decisions.
The analyst seat. Reviews outbound before deploy; data-room support on live deals.
Story on Purpose (John Knicely) owns the Voice of Customer and the Hero's Journey. Dan Klein Consulting facilitates the bi-weekly cadence, builds and maintains this document, and drives campaign strategy.
Natalie delivered the brand identity. Spoke Marketing (Ciara Brewer) is the active HubSpot Sales Hub build partner. Earlier, Second Mile (Sara Wolfe Vaughan) delivered HubSpot Marketing Pro and the TIA email campaigns.
Decisions log.
The decisions the team has made and the reasoning behind them. The auditable record; full detail lives in the Drive record folder.
Referral & fee terms.
The fee structure the COI play and the Portal run on. Referral and engagement agreements are in approval (owner: Dan).
20% of the Next Mile fee in Year 1, 10% in Year 2, on closed transactions. A 6-month attribution window, with a portal exception.
A qualified seller introduction attributed to the referring COI in HubSpot, run through the Sellers tier mechanics from Engaged Early onward.
The Customer Portal is a paid monthly subscription; on an eventual sale, the fee is the greater-of, at close. Three monthly tiers.
A handwritten thank-you note plus a small personalized gift per COI introduction. Owner, funding, and spec are open (O&O #06).
Decks, one-pagers, and templates.
The brand and sales assets, resolving to the latest version. Most are built by Natalie and the content resources; the demand-engine build-list lives on the Marketing tab.
The Next Mile M&A brand identity and website (Natalie), plus the tradeshow materials produced for TIA.
The leave-behind used on the TIA floor: where the owner is, what opens the conversation, and where Next Mile fits.
The COI credibility piece: why a COI partners with Next Mile, the four reasons, and the 11-stage journey showing where a referral plugs in. The duffel-bag piece (one-pager + cards) is still needed (O&O #46).
Cover, exec summary, financials, growth thesis. Runs through the HubSpot ticket engine (see Coach tech stack).
John's content backbone. "The Top Ways Transportation M&A Deals Get Blown Up" is live (May 26); seller fatigue is next.
Story on Purpose has six case-study drafts in project, cut from the six alumni interviews.
Past meeting recaps, filed.
Every issue's post-meeting recap lands here, dated and matched to its issue. The current one is live on Leadership · Recap; older ones file away below as the volumes add up.
Six customer journeys.
Verbatim quotes from alumni, captured in interviews. Roughly 40 to 50 content pieces trace back to these six. The voice underneath every script and asset in the document.
Seller fatigue; a partner's death; a 4-year journey. "I wrote Black Belt a letter at the end. I said, you saved me more than your fee."
CFO point of view; $130M; 13 terminals; the "abnormal asks" the advisor caught. "A partner that was fighting for us."
Faith and grit; the client-to-partner arc. "Somebody that actually had lived it and breathed it."
First deal fell through; the second closed. "Having somebody on your team really allowed us to sleep at night."
Cultural fit; compressed diligence. "It was all about being able to trust the person representing us."
Founder dependency. "The business was me."
Recorded sales calls.
The full call records from the calibration loop, plus the seller and COI matrices, duplicated from the Records section. Mike and Wally review each for corrections; what is heard in the field rewrites the scripts, the loop that closes the playbook.
UTS closed live on the call. Ciara is leaving Spoke. The funnel math settled how Jon gets managed.
He went direct and got retraded 27% down. The fee is $100,000, not $45,000. Best proof story the firm has.
Raise escrows in the LOI to kill them before the purchase agreement. Front-loading, proven live.
A buyer priced our unmarketed asset at $20K to $60K a deal, and confirmed buyers sit on passed-over sellers.
Leads live in Education, not the pipeline. Jon’s reporting line was asked here and never answered.
Constant Clarity · 09/01.
82 minutes. Wally, Ron, Jay, Dan, John K. Mike absent, which mattered, since several items concerned him.
The funnel math resolved a management argument. Mike wanted a structured training plan and performance metrics for Jon; Wally and Ron pushed back on micromanaging a fifty-year-old self-starter. Wally’s resolution was to use the backed-in numbers: “we’re going to be able to see what he’s doing, but it’s not like I’m going to be micromanaging him.” That makes the dashboard a visibility tool, not a supervision tool.
The first closed deal.
Ron opened with “we got a deal to close today,” Wally confirmed “today, UTS closed.” Bruce had texted at 12:08 that it went well and the wire was coming. Jay was checking for it live. Note three close dates are now in circulation: this call, HubSpot’s 09/10 record, and Wally saying “last week” on 09/10. Ron quoted $280,000 against HubSpot’s $275,000.
Handled well, and worth keeping handled.
She finishes what she started and is available on a consulting basis after, with Spoke paying that fee, not Next Mile, because Dan and John brought Spoke the opportunity on the strength of her being on it. Wally’s concern was losing informal access; John K.’s clarification answered it.
Process is the through-line.
Dan pushed back on one blended piece as diluting the seller message. John K. surfaced the existing TIA one-pager. Dan’s conclusion: “anything that talks about your process feels like a real differentiator here and valid to all three audiences.” So the answer is updating the asset that exists, not building a new one.
Ten warm contacts, uncategorised and unrouted.
He added roughly ten Cottingham & Butler contacts and messaged none, because Lead Source offered only TIA and ZoomInfo with no other option, and he could not find where to mark someone seller, COI or buyer. Dan did not know either. Dan’s line: “if you or John or anybody doesn’t properly list it, it’ll never make any of those campaigns.” Wally: “that’s vital.”
The Fathom privacy problem and the Drive route, the lead-source and audience-tagging to-do, the Bruce testimonial, the T&L book-of-lists research, and the October growth plan session. Also Wally’s constraint for any event strategy: he will not speak on stage.
Freight Logistics · the re-engagement.
Internal strategy call, 46 minutes. Wally, Mike, Ron. No Chad in the room. Follows Wally’s call with Chad half an hour earlier.
This is the firm’s own pitch proven in public. A seller left, went direct, and got retraded. Mike named the testimonial value himself. It is a better story than the UTS announcement because it has a lesson.
He went direct and got exactly what we warned him about.
Chad severed the relationship and went to Dynamic Connections, who flew four people out and ran a full quality of earnings he praised: “they knew more about my business than I know about my business.” Freight Logistics then lost a top-five customer to FedEx. Dynamic retraded 27% down and moved the earn-out from one year to two. Chad backed away, is being pressured to sign on the reduced terms, and called Wally back apologetic.
$100,000, not $45,000.
Mike opened at “the most we’ll make is $45,000,” taken from 25% of $6.1M trailing revenue. Wally corrected the basis: 1% of trailing twelve or 2.5% of enterprise value, which at a $4M enterprise value is $100,000. A deal that looked marginal is worth pursuing. It produced a to-do to rename the column heading on the deal analysis sheet.
Dynamic took more than the loss justified.
Working from the customer file, the second-largest account is about $500K, roughly 20% of revenue, against a 27% cut. Wally: “because they can, because they already went through another one that they backed out on.” Mike: “and they know that Chad doesn’t even know.” Ron: “he doesn’t even know what pro-rata or ratable means.”
Bruce does not like electronics recyclers.
A friend of his was sued after information got out and had to close the business. Three of Freight Logistics’ top seven customers are electronics recyclers. Mike’s counter is that during earn-out it stays its own company in Bruce’s facility. Wally’s is that Bruce now wants growth for a bigger second bite. Unresolved.
The agreed sequence, which is reusable: Mike calls Richard at Fitzmark, short and factual, no selling, because Richard wants the information whether he pursues it or not. If he is in, Wally writes to Chad with a new engagement agreement covering all buyers including Dynamic, and Mike reviews the letter before it sends. Then a four-way call to sell it. Nuvo Cargo is the reserve buyer.
Rock · LOI negotiation.
Live client call, 25 minutes. Mike leading, Jay, Ron and Wally present. Buyer contact is Trevor. An active LOI negotiation on a deal not currently on the pipeline board.
The escrow sequence is the front-loading differentiator, captured in a live negotiation rather than described in a brochure. It belongs in the seller-facing material and it is the kind of proof the brand document is missing.
Steady baseline, lumpy projects.
The Nigeria project for Shell Nigeria runs roughly $6M revenue at about 30% margin in the worst case. Around a third of the bid work is shifting to Oman and Korea and probably will not come to them, and Shell Nigeria has taken over ocean freight chartering. Rock: “it’s just an animal that keeps warping.”
Smoothed baseline, full cash up front.
The buyer smoothed EBITDA across years excluding projects, applied a multiple, and pays that entire amount in cash at closing, then a percentage of gross profit on the Nigeria project separately. They wanted to keep extending the trailing twelve to closing while backing Nigeria out each time, which complicates verification at exactly the wrong moment. Resolved by basing it on trailing twelve through July.
Owner comp worth roughly $50K to EBITDA.
Salary $114K, about $120K all-in with payroll taxes. The buyer will pay $70K, so the spread adds back and gets multiplied.
Raise it in the LOI to kill it.
Mike’s explanation is playbook-grade: escrows typically are not mentioned in the LOI and then appear in the purchase agreement as a 10% holdback plus working capital and indemnity escrows. By raising it up front he got agreement to none, with any money owed pulled from future payments instead. “It is extremely rare escrows are ever used.”
To-do for Mike: the July income statement, Nigeria by month, and owner comp detail, then a revised LOI and the data room. Mike wants it closed inside this fiscal year. Also an open question for the board, since this deal is not on it.
Bluejay Capital · Christopher Doyle.
Buyer reconnection call, 27 minutes. Mike, Jay and Ron on the Next Mile side. Several deals worked together over the years, none closed, one came close.
The strongest unmarketed asset Next Mile owns is the automated quality of earnings, and a buyer put a dollar figure on it unprompted: $20,000 to $60,000 a deal. It appears nowhere in the brand strategy or the competitive landscape.
Independent sponsor, T&L only.
Founded 2021 by two college friends, one of whom grew a trucking business from two trucks to 200. Six platforms, thirteen add-ons, all exclusively transportation and logistics. Majority stakes. Portfolio spans environmental and infrastructure construction, a Canadian short-line railroad, a Grand Rapids temperature-controlled carrier at roughly $10M EBITDA in healthcare biologics, and a Minneapolis courier business.
$5M EBITDA floor, $10-15M fairway.
Platform economics need $5M+ because they raise capital deal by deal. Add-ons any size; their latest was about $1M. Asset deals welcome, not just asset-lite. Mike noted the Denver deal fell under their floor so they never received that CIM.
The automated quality of earnings.
Chris volunteered that Bluejay pays $20,000 to $60,000 for third-party quality of earnings after LOI, sometimes forced to a brand name by their capital partners. Mike then demonstrated a fully automated QoE generated from the Next Mile system, plus a 47-page operational analysis, a heat-mapped scorecard and receivables with DSO by month. Chris asked to see it with his partners.
Every buyer holds a pipeline of passed-over sellers.
Asked what happens to companies they pass on, Chris said banked processes they simply exit, but on proprietary deals they keep the owner in their CRM and circle back when the fit changes. That is Ron’s 09/01 argument stated by a buyer without prompting.
Two to-do’s for Mike, emailing the COI referral agreement and updating Bluejay’s CRM parameters. Two O&Os: the referral terms now stated externally as “up to 20% of whatever we make,” and the unmarketed QoE.
Pipeline architecture · Mike, Jay, Dan, Ciara.
Working session, 44 minutes, on where leads live, how the portal is tracked, and what HubSpot seats are needed.
Jon Price’s reporting line was asked here and never answered. Jay: “who will John Price report to?” Mike: “I would think you, for now. I don’t know.” It was asked again on 09/01 and he has now started.
Engaged contacts are a lead status, not deals.
The roughly 300 to 325 engaged contacts belong in Education as a lead status, not in the deal pipeline. Deals run Evaluation to Closed, leads are tracked separately, tickets carry the CIM process. Dan conceded the point to Mike on the call.
The ones we know and the ones we don’t.
Dan: “it’s definitely a tone change when you know them already versus not know them. That’s a key list differentiation.” That is the argument for Jon working engaged lists before cold, stated three weeks before he was hired.
Three live, pricing unconfirmed, and Mike is pitching it.
Three companies have live system access. Cowtown want to wait until January and Mike intends to put them on the portal in the meantime with the cost credited against any closing fee. Electra has a load-data versus financial discrepancy that must be fixed before market. Pricing is $500 and $1,500 a month, but neither Jay nor Ron could reconstruct their own pricing discussion on the call.
HubSpot cannot know whether the data already arrived.
Mike’s reminders fire on the 24th because data is usually ready around the 21st. A blind reminder makes the client say “you didn’t get what I sent.” Variation is high: Sutton insist on their own data room behind Microsoft authentication, while FAST EXACT emails files on the eighth of every month without fail. Jay offered a Dropbox watcher that only fires if the upload is missing.
The HubSpot seat and Service Hub question originates here, which is the quote that went to Jay for signing and gates Jon’s access. Also the On Portal field, the portal pricing confirmation, and the Transport Express buyer-matching review scheduled for after 09/12 that has since gone overdue.
Call 01 · UTS · Bruce Parsons.
Seller call. ~60 minutes. Stage Evaluation → Preparation. Mike + Wally on Next Mile side. Substantial soft-side / culture-fit conversation. Bruce came in with prior M&A scarring (3 transactions + 1 acqhire, "Texas was a mess"). The conversation went further than the framing suggested · this was not a meet-and-greet, it was deep evaluation.
Culture-first founder.
LTL / asset-based trucking. "I am nobody from nowhere. The bigger we get, the smaller I feel." Father worked too hard, didn't leave money · Bruce values balance for his team. Motivation: protect what he built, not headcount growth. Has acquired and integrated three companies + one acqhire (Charlotte, Chicago, Texas). Sees acquisition as a sports-team metaphor: "You got your starters, you got your second string."
Soft-side framing resonated.
Mike's and Wally's emphasis on personalities, cultures, skill sets, care · landed with Bruce. His responses were lengthy, personal, emotionally grounded. Wes's AI-narrative functioning as objection pre-empt for "M&A has gone poorly before."
Multiple UTS-Bruce transcript files exist in Drive (7 visible in May 22 screenshots). Whether these are duplicates from the rebrand naming change (Black Belt TC → Next Mile M&A) or distinct sessions is unresolved. Full Call-01 analysis may be incomplete pending resolution.
Call 02 · Freight Logistics · Chad & Jeff.
Seller call. ~65 minutes. Stage Education → Evaluation. Mike + Wally + Ron on Next Mile side. Chad has a competing LOI from Dynamic Connections (via Copper Run intro). This call is the live "alternative-to-single-buyer" pitch in action. Wally's full exit story (~7 min from min 10:54) was the central trust-builder.
Lifestyle / baton-handoff.
Non-asset, multi-modal niche. ~$7M revenue, $1.9M GP, 33% margin, $825K owner draws. No TMS system. 5 employees including Chad (60) + Jeff (60, 40% owner, 23-year partnership starting in high school). Customers since 1990 still active. Motivation: "We don't want to keep working the rest of our lives. We don't really have a succession planned."
Wally's exit story + live comparable.
Wally's full exit narrative landed. Mike's reference to the current Denver seller with 8 interested buyers landed as proof of buyer-database depth. The "no TMS" structural issue handled gracefully · Mike: "We have sold some companies that could not generate TMS data."
Dynamic Connections (DTS, Toronto) presented an unsigned LOI March 19. Steve Frankhill (PE guy, Internal PE backing out of Chicago) + Greg Dark are the buyer-side principals. Mike knows the company well · "they took a look at one of our current sellers." The Denver-based current Next Mile seller has 8 interested buyers from TIA · potential alternative for Chad if FL fits any of them.
Call 03 · Tenstreet · Kevin Nadeau.
COI call. ~53 minutes. First documented end-to-end execution of the TIA → post-show 20-min commit motion. Kevin volunteered a referral mid-call (the hardware-based transportation tech opportunity) after the 20% fee disclosure landed. Bidirectional relationship · Tenstreet itself is an acquirer (~2 deals/year).
Operator-vendor + strategic acquirer.
Tenstreet: largest ATS in transportation (~5,000 trucking clients), 20 years old, PE-backed (Providence Equity), ~500K monthly active drivers on Driver Pulse mobile app. Kevin: 30 years industry, founder of True Load Time (exited to Tenstreet 4 years ago), now senior leadership + strategy / partnerships / M&A scouting. Decision chain above Kevin: Tim Crawford (CEO/co-founder), Brian Riddle (co-founder, tech), Shannon Wheeler (in-house counsel).
Operator credibility + disclosure timing.
Mike's full operator pitch (6 min from min 31:11) landed because Kevin is also an exited founder-operator. 20% fee disclosure timing (min 38:20) was post-rapport · Kevin received it as bonus, not lead. Portal as long-game retention message landed unexpectedly clearly on a COI: "Even if the company owners aren't interested in selling next month..."
Kevin defined the routing mechanic on the call: ping Kevin with vertical / general fit → Kevin pings Tim Crawford via Teams → if interested, intro to Tim + Shannon Wheeler → Kevin steps back. This is gold for PE-backed strategic acquirer COI patterns generally · not just Tenstreet-specific.
At call min 44:05, Kevin volunteered: serial entrepreneur contact, hardware-based transportation tech, ~8-figure ARR, looking to exit to free up capital for new AI venture. Tenstreet passed because they're software-only. Verbal referral, no paperwork · live test case for verbal-first attribution policy (see O&O #28).
Call 04 · Armstrong & Associates · Evan Armstrong.
COI call. ~12 minutes (truncated). Mike's Zoom connection dropped twice from bandwidth issues. Ron carried the substantive pitch from min 11:14. Call ended with Mike trying to reach Evan by cell phone · substantive partnership conversation likely happened off-recording. Data quality is thin; most findings flagged as needing follow-up.
Market-research authority + buy-side advisor.
Armstrong & Associates: industry-standard market research (top freight broker list, top warehousing list, top lists for Logistics Management magazine, Air Cargo World). ~4,000 company profiles. ~4,000 buy-side outreaches last year. Self-described: "Most of what we do is on the buy side." Currently working 4 active buy-side deals (2 in freight brokerage). Source of intro: Todd (last name unknown · open ID).
Ron's process pitch carried when Mike dropped.
Bidirectional complementarity landed fast (min 4:30): "Most of what we do is on the buy side, so it's good to be working with you guys." Ron's pitch (min 11:14) on TMS integration, automated CIMs, vetted financials · first non-Mike credibility carry on a recorded call. Different brand voice than Mike's biography, but it worked.
Evan at min 2:16: "I haven't gone for a few years. I used to speak there and then I just got tired of drinking beer with freight brokers. So I decided not to go. We have three events of our own. So those tend to be more fruitful." One COI disengaged from TIA. One data point. Worth tracking against future COI conversations · if 2-3 more say similar things, TIA channel thesis needs revisiting.
Did the cell-phone follow-up complete? Was 20% fee disclosed? Was bidirectional buy-side / sell-side fit explicitly surfaced? Who is Todd (the introducer)? Without these answers, the relationship status is ambiguous between Tier 2A (first contact) and Tier 2B (engaged after first conversation).
Call 06 · Xtreme Trucking · Travis & Marty.
Seller call. ~47 minutes. Stage 04 Evaluation · live valuation walk-through with real numbers on screen. Mike struck $20.5M EV initially, revised to $27.7M after Travis surfaced Q1 lift data and Mike re-ran the math live in 90 seconds. Travis verbally committed to next step: "So here we go. Yeah. Let's do it." Household-alignment gate still pending · Travis hadn't told his wife at call's end.
Identity / next-chapter, experienced acquirer.
Refrigerated, asset-based, Wisconsin. 22-25 local trucks + over-the-road. 100 trailers in local pool. Flat-floor reefers, TK thermal pings, Great Dane brand (premium resale spec). Cayman-domiciled captive insurance ($1.8M value). Travis: 41 years old, "I need to have some sort of purpose." Has bought 6 companies · experienced acquirer. Knows earn-outs, employee retention risk, deal structure.
TTM EBITDA $3.4M → $4.2M.
Initial: $3.4M EBITDA × 5-6x multiple = $20.5M EV. Owned net property ~$1M. Captive insurance $1.8M. After Q1 lift: +$450K/month positive trend through Jan-Feb → +$700K floor adjustment → ~$4.2M revised EBITDA → $27.7M EV. Cash at close estimated 70% (favorable risk profile, refrigerated mode). 2-year earn-out typical. Platform-company candidate.
Travis at min 25:03 explicitly named Mike's pushback as the right posture: "That's why early on in this call, when I kind of pushed back, I'm like, hey, we are doing a lot of things to make changes in our network and our margin improvements. And I think you responded well, every owner says that and thinks the market's going to save them. But we're actually doing some hard stuff out there grinding to fix what we have." This is the cleanest validation of the Doug Hazen 2022 posture · four years apart, same response.
Min 18:59 · Ron interjected with a technically correct, well-timed question on captive-insurance equity treatment: "On the margin, if he's been pumping sort of equity into the captive, will that come back as a normalized expense? Because someone else could technically have a lower insurance expense going forward if they weren't sort of beefing up their captive equity?" First documented analyst-seat moment on a recorded prospect call. Validates the Mike-Wally-Ron division of labor (O&O #30).
"How do you think she'll respond, Travis? ... That's why you've been the success you have, brother. Don't ever · Seriously, you're only as good as your wife, so make sure she knows that."
Operator-to-operator coaching that a banker M&A advisor cannot deliver. Belongs in the playbook as canonical script for the Stage 04 household-alignment moment (see O&O #22).
Call 07 · Cottingham & Butler · Chris Vogel.
COI call. ~55 minutes. First post-calibration recorded call · the inaugural entry under the new analysis cadence. Wally + Mike + Ron on Next Mile side. Chris Vogel (runs C&B transportation insurance, 23 years tenure, 45 signature clients, 300 people on trucking, largest trucking broker in the US) and Chris Williams (benefits side, met Wally at TIA Phoenix) for C&B. The structured COI conversation that came out of TIA. Vogel asked to be sold to · requested concrete materials he can carry and share. Tenney Group surfaced as the named competitor.
Largest trucking broker, deepest distribution.
C&B: 138 years old (founded 1887), Dubuque IA-based, largest trucking insurance broker in the US. Transportation is their largest profit center. ~300 people work nothing but trucking. Vogel runs the transportation business · 23 years at C&B, 45 "signature clients" with multi-year tenure. Williams: legal background + benefits side, 6-month interest in the M&A intermediary space (post-C.H. Robinson case). Both met Wally at TIA Phoenix; Wally was Vogel's client at SuperVan and then Freight Solutions years ago.
Pre-existing relationship + embedded credibility.
Vogel and Wally have history. Williams pitched the M&A interest first; Mike's operator-pitch carried the technical narrative; Wally's exit story (Freight Solutions → eShipping, 4-year earnout, $500M → $2B during earnout) anchored the "we've been on your side" frame. "We charge nothing until we sell" landed · Vogel's "Got it" arrived right after the fee disclosure (min 28:30). Ron's PE-buyer credibility carry (min 30:40) reinforced Mike's value prop on the buy-side. Tone was warm, not transactional.
At min 54:33, Vogel: "Why don't you look at that website I sent you? And then, like Chris said, I'd love to see the output of what you guys have. And I mean, I'd love to have what I could put in my duffel bag and show people when... these are impromptu conversations at dinner or whatever, and be like, hey, here's these guys. I'd love to get some business cards from you or whatever you want me to share." A COI saying give me ammunition to refer you. Not "let me think about it." That's "what do you want me to carry around." Highest-intent COI ask documented in the call library.
(1) CIM example. Vogel + Williams both want to see the rendered output. Send a redacted CIM from a closed deal.
(2) Portable share piece + business cards. A one-pager Vogel can carry plus updated business cards. Open: do current Next Mile-branded cards exist yet under the new identity? See O&O #46.
(3) Deals where C&B was the seller's insurance broker. Vogel at min 45:32: "if there were any deals that you guys were involved in that you knew we were behind the scenes on, I think having that example and those references would help us go get you guys, you know, more leverage." He wants proof points to use internally at C&B · pre-selling for Next Mile to his colleagues. Requires cross-referencing the 90+ alumni database against C&B's book.
Reference Alumni are network anchors, not just stories. At min 13:15, Vogel volunteered: "So you guys on your website have a dude named Ross Bodenheimer who does, he's got a testimonial video on your website. Ross and I are college buddies. That's how small this world is." Vogel didn't say "interesting testimonial." He said "I know that guy." That's a different kind of asset than the playbook had been treating it as. The Reference Alumni in Sellers Section 2 aren't just credibility content · they're embedded relationship anchors. This is a fundamental insight for how to position alumni-based content going forward.
"We charge nothing until we sell" continues to be the highest-leverage line. Both Wally and Mike returned to it; Vogel's affirmative response landed right after. This validates the Stage 02 / 03 / COI scripts that lead with success-fee alignment.
The COI conversation has an asset gap. Mike has the CIM (seller-facing). Website has Exit Readiness content (prospect-facing). No COI-facing one-pager exists. Vogel's "duffel bag" request makes this gap concrete. See O&O #46.
Three separate references during the call. Tenney sponsors C&B's annual Transportation Summit (Aug 26-27 in Schaumburg). Vogel at min 52:17: "that would be competition for you, probably." Wally surfaced a prior history at min 52:25: Mike had tried to set up a collaboration with Spencer (Tenney) years ago, and "their people kind of killed the deal, because they saw us... as competition." Mike's positioning landed: "They're not transportation guys. They're just finance guys." · but only as a verbal aside. Worth formalizing the positioning. See O&O #47.
C&B Transportation Summit: Aug 26-27 in Schaumburg (near O'Hare). ~450-500 trucking executives. Every insurance carrier sponsors. ~$600K event. Vogel calls it the best industry event of the year. Vogel said Next Mile probably can't register normally (vendors aren't allowed except as sponsors) but he can "help circumvent the boot you're gonna get from one of my ladies in marketing." Awkward optics given Tenney sponsors. Three paths: (A) attend as Vogel's guest, (B) sponsor and compete with Tenney directly, (C) sit this year out and build the C&B relationship through Vogel's three asks first. See O&O #48.
Wally's portal pricing was inconsistent at min 18:10: "$6,000 annually. Or actually it's 5,000 if they pay upfront or $6,500 monthly installments if they want to use our portal." That math doesn't work as stated ($6,500/month = $78K/year). The canonical pricing per the May 12 Vache call resolution was flat $5,000 OR $500/month with 1-year minimum. Pattern reinforced · the canonical pricing doc still isn't crystallized. Cross-reference to O&O #11.
C&B advances Cold Targeted → Engaged Early. Three deliverables owed within the week (CIM example, portable piece + cards, deals search). Summit decision needed before mid-July. The first true validation of the call-flow loop documented in The Stack · Call Flow · recording → transcript → this analysis → playbook updates.
Call 08 · HubSpot review · Ciara Brewer.
Internal HubSpot Sales Hub review with Spoke Marketing. ~96 minutes. Dan, Mike, and Jay on Next Mile side; Ciara Brewer leading. Dan drops around min 22 to leave the working session to Mike + Ciara. The call surfaces a foundational architectural insight (documented after the call in Ciara’s July 6 packet, now Appendix H): HubSpot is built as three connected objects, not one linear pipeline. That insight resolves the confusion Mike surfaces repeatedly on the call about mixing “CRM” and “CIM” processes · they ARE two different layers, and the build already separates them.
The pre-cutover working review.
Follows Mike’s June 30 CRM data export. UTS deal loaded as the pilot. Ciara walks the ticket flow for UTS, then the deal record, then the CRM contact-level view. Purpose: check what’s loaded, spot gaps, agree on cleanup approach before the remaining six seller CIMs get imported. Mike stays for the full session with Jay observing (Dan steps out at min 22).
The pilot exposed the right things.
Loading UTS first was the right call · it surfaced (1) duplicate company records from prior ZoomInfo imports, (2) an LOI-Issued-date mapping error (Cohn-Resnick / FUSE / Shipover stuck in Data Room Access), (3) the need for a “Due Diligence” stage after LOI to signal buyer selection, and (4) Mike’s core mental-model confusion between CRM lead tracking and CIM campaign management. All of these needed to surface before six more seller imports.
At min 108:00, Mike surfaces the core issue: “It sounds like we’re mixing buyer, seller, in general, and COI, I guess now. We’re mixing that in with CRM, which is going to get us into trouble. The CRM is specific · the comments, the person that we have to communicate with. It’s not, we’re going to communicate with four different people in ABLE just because we have four different names as contacts within ABLE. The CRM is different.” Mike is right, and Ciara’s architecture (documented after the call in Appendix H) shows the build already implements exactly the separation he’s describing: Lead Status on Company for CRM tracking; Deal + Ticket layers for the CIM process. The confusion isn’t in the build · it’s in the mental model bridge from Mike’s old system. Ciara’s July 6 packet exists to close that gap.
(1) Duplicate company cleanup. Ciara to segment ZoomInfo/LinkedIn duplicates, export for Mike/Dan review, then merge or delete per decision. Estes cited as the case study · two buyers (Estes Express Lines and Estes Forwarding Worldwide) legitimately distinct; three “general” records to reconcile.
(2) LOI Issued date backfill. Fix the mapping so Cohn-Resnick, FUSE, and Shipover advance out of Data Room Access into LOI Issued.
(3) Due Diligence ticket stage. New ticket stage after LOI Issued, with a Due Diligence Date field. Signals the LOI has been accepted and this is the matched buyer. Other buyers still at LOI Issued remain open until final decision.
(4) CRM comments + Last Call / Next Call import. Not yet loaded. Ciara to import comments as notes on contact records; Next Call as a task; Last Call as a completed task · so the timeline view populates correctly.
(5) Per-deal CIM tracking views. Ciara to build a saved view per active deal so Mike can navigate quickly.
(6) Wednesday afternoon working session (Jul 8). Mike + Ciara to walk through the CRM process together with Mike driving. Purpose: verify tasks show up correctly, notes flow through, CIM process navigates cleanly.
(7) Remaining 6 CIMs uploaded · deferred until UTS pilot signs off and Ciara confirms mapping is correct.
Mike’s frame is right; the mental model bridge is missing. On the call Mike repeatedly said “the CRM is different from the CIM,” and he’s correct. The confusion was that HubSpot appeared to him as one system while the build actually separates the two layers · he just couldn’t see the separation yet. Ciara’s July 6 packet (Appendix H) is the architecture document that makes the separation visible.
Old-system pattern recognition works against Mike. Mike kept looking for what he expected from his prior CRM (comments, primary contacts, next-call fields visible on the company screen). HubSpot shows the same information but in different places. This is normal for a CRM cutover but it’s worth explicitly naming for the training sessions · the muscle memory needs rebuilding, not just the interface tour.
Working-contact convention matters. Ciara implemented the “working contact” as a filterable property on Contact rather than as an association label · because labels can’t be set by workflow, filtered as “is not,” or surfaced in list views. This is a small but real design choice worth Mike understanding on Wednesday’s session.
The 11-stage RES journey vs the 3-object build. Not surfaced explicitly on the call, but documented afterward in Ciara’s packet. This is the reconciliation the leadership team needs to align on. See O&O #49.
The July 6 review surfaced work to do before Jul 15 cutover: duplicate companies from ZoomInfo imports (Estes example), companies without domain names to cross-check, primary-contact reconciliation where two names exist per company (ABLE example: TIA import brought James Barker in; Mike’s primary is Liz Wayne), CRM comments not yet loaded, and Last-Call/Next-Call fields not yet mapped to task objects. Ciara has a first-pass cleanup file coming Jul 8. Cutover sign-off remains a Jul 15 goal pending Mike + Dan review.
UTS pilot live in HubSpot. Six remaining CIMs deferred pending mapping verification. Wednesday Jul 8 working session with Mike driving. Full cutover target Jul 15. Priority leadership decision: reconcile the RES 11-stage narrative with the actual 3-object architecture (see O&O #49). The second true validation of the call-flow loop documented in The Stack · Call Flow · recording → transcript → this analysis → playbook updates.
Seller Matrix · Side-by-Side.
The three sellers analyzed in Phase 1, compared on financial and qualitative dimensions. Surfaces the patterns that anchor O&O #20 (Experienced Acquirer Dimension) and #21 (Motivation Archetypes). "·" means not on transcript record; "(need)" means partial data, worth chasing.
| Dimension | Bruce / UTS | Chad / Freight Logistics | Travis / Xtreme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | · | 60 | 41 |
| Mode | LTL / asset-based trucking | Multi-modal non-asset (ocean, customs, reverse logistics, e-waste) | Refrigerated asset-based + local |
| Revenue | (need) | ~$7M | Implied $20M+ EV basis |
| Gross margin | (need) | 33% | (need) |
| EBITDA | (need) | ~$825K owner draws (approx) | $3.4M → $4.2M revised |
| Strike EV | (none yet on transcript) | Competing LOI from DTS (terms undisclosed) | $20.5M → $27.7M live revision |
| Multiple | (need) | In assessment | 5-6x |
| Acquisition experience | 3 transactions + 1 acqhire (as buyer) | None | 6 acquisitions (as buyer) |
| Motivation archetype | Legacy / Culture-protector | Lifestyle / Baton-handoff | Identity / Next-chapter |
| Exit type sought | (under exploration) | 100% sale, open to second bite | Open to both; platform-co candidate |
| Spouse / co-decider status | · | Co-decision w/ Jeff (40% partner, 23 yrs) | Hadn't told wife at call end |
| Tech / operational stack | Custom-built software (Wes / Bruce technology) | No TMS · manual ops | Standard TMS, sophisticated equipment spec |
| Stage at call | Evaluation → Preparation | Education → Evaluation | Stage 04 Evaluation · complete analytical, pending household |
| Stickiest line | "I am nobody from nowhere" | "Hand the baton off" | "I need to have some sort of purpose" |
Three sellers, three motivations, three acquisition-experience levels · same engagement-tier framework can't capture all of it. Supports O&O #20 (add Experienced Acquirer dimension) and O&O #21 (document Motivation archetypes). Empty cells ("·" and "(need)") are the work list for the next round of seller intake · the dimensions we don't currently capture but should.
COI Matrix · Side-by-Side.
The two COIs analyzed in Phase 1, compared on archetype and operational dimensions. Surfaces the patterns that anchor O&O #25 (COI Archetype Framework) and #29 (Directional Tracking). Note: only 2 COI calls in calibration set; matrix should expand as more COI calls come in.
| Dimension | Kevin / Tenstreet | Evan / Armstrong |
|---|---|---|
| COI archetype | Operator-vendor + strategic acquirer + network-density node | Market-research authority + buy-side M&A advisor |
| Canonical category? | No (not attorney/CPA/banker/wealth mgr/insurance) | No (not attorney/CPA/banker/wealth mgr/insurance) |
| Source of intro | TIA Capital Ideas floor (Apr 15, 2026) | Todd (last name unknown · open ID) |
| Directionality | Bidirectional (refers sellers + Tenstreet is an acquirer) | Bidirectional (refers sellers + represents buyers via buy-side advisory) |
| Network density | Very high · ~5,000 trucking clients, ~500K monthly active drivers, hosts ~500-client user conference | Very high · ~4,000 company profiles, ~4,000 buy-side outreaches/year, industry-standard top-list publisher |
| Decision authority | Limited · routes to Tim Crawford (CEO) + Shannon Wheeler (counsel) | Owns the firm |
| Current acquirer appetite | ~2 acquisitions/year, constrained near-term by internal AI focus | 4 active buy-side deals (2 in freight brokerage) |
| 20% fee disclosed? | Yes (min 38:20, post-rapport) · received as bonus, not lead | Not on recording (likely off-call follow-up) |
| Structured ask asked? | No | No |
| Live referral surfaced? | Yes (hardware deal, min 44:05) · volunteered | No (4 buy-side mandates not surfaced as buyer-database matches) |
| TIA sentiment | Active attendee, met Mike/Wally there | Disengaged · "tired of drinking beer with freight brokers" |
| Tier classification | 2B trending to 2C (volunteered referral + handoff protocol agreed) | 2A (first contact, partnership-fit conversation incomplete due to truncation) |
Both COIs analyzed are non-canonical (not in the Mar 16 canonical list) and bidirectional (refer sellers AND represent buyers). This is the data anchoring O&O #25 (widen archetype framework) and O&O #29 (HubSpot directional tracking). Sample size is small · only 2 COI calls · so the framework recommendations are directional, not definitive. Worth expanding the matrix as Phase 2 brings more COI calls in.
Where the best deals come from.
The TIA campaign was the first big narrowing motion. Post-show, the names with engagement signals are the warm wedge into next-stage conversations.
Current Pipeline (151), Buyers List (295), TIA Attendees (426), Past TIA Shows (1,809), Past Clients (16), Engaged (~230), LinkedIn (715), Friends & Family (219), COIs (36 across 5 tiers).
300+ strategic and financial transportation buyers in Mike's system, migrating to HubSpot in Phase 3. Health audit needed before scaled outreach.
36 identified COIs, 10 must-meet Tier 1 and 2 targets: insurance and finance (Reliance, Roanoke, Gallagher, Triumph, Gulf Coast), staffing/BPO, data/compliance, freight tech, TMS.
ZoomInfo waves (Apr 22 / 29, May 6) are optional, activated only after list validation and warming through other channels.
Coach
The toolkit for running and feeding the engine: the rules, the 3D prompts, the cadence and reminder email, what to upload, and the tech stack. Everything the coach collects here also lands in Groundwork.
Everything the facilitator needs.
This area is for Dan and John, not the client. It holds the rules the engine runs on, the 3D prompts to facilitate with, the bi-weekly cadence and reminder email, the upload checklist, and the tech-stack reference. Robust on purpose, but meant to stay simple to use.
Dan Klein Consulting (facilitation, campaign strategy, and building this document) and Story on Purpose / John Knicely (Voice of Customer and content). The client team never has to think about this layer.
Collect it, run the meeting with it, and file it. Uploads and call analyses flow into Groundwork so the engine stays current and auditable cycle over cycle.
How the engine runs.
What to say, step by step.
The prompts also appear inline when Coach mode is on in the header. 3D is Discover, Discuss, Decide.
Bi-weekly, with a 72-hour nudge.
Meetings run every two weeks on Tuesday. Dan sends the reminder 72 hours out so the room walks in to current numbers.
Standing up a new client.
The facilitator's intake before the engine goes live: what they run on, what tools and data exist, what to ask for, and the access we need. The questionnaire a coach follows to open up every opportunity.
Feed & uploads.
The single most important operational discipline: every external call recorded and routed, so the playbook rewrites itself from the field.
Tech stack.
How the revenue engine is wired: three audiences flow into one engine, get nurtured in HubSpot Marketing Pro, convert into the pipeline in HubSpot Sales Pro, and feed an analysis loop that updates the playbook every two weeks.
- Portal is live. Mike working in it actively.
- Migration complete. HubSpot is being actively updated and now has the most accurate data.
- Core Sales Hub build is done: properties, the deal pipeline, lead config, views, workflows.
- The CIM buyer-matching layer is built and in use.
- Finishing the CIM automation (company list to contacts to tickets). Approach agreed, build in progress.
- Wally's hands-on onboarding kicks off. Mike's training continues on live deals.
Sources (Sellers, COIs, Buyers) → Entry (nextmilema.com, forms) → Capture → Nurture (Marketing Pro) → Pipeline (Sales Pro) → Intelligence (calls + Claude) → The Playbook. Dashed lines are bidirectional: the Portal feeds back when a not-yet seller is ready; Claude reads HubSpot and writes back into the doc.
As built by Spoke Marketing: a Company / Lead Status object, a Deal object, and a Ticket layer. The pipeline narrative uses 11 stages; the HubSpot build implements a connected 7-stage Deal object plus tickets. Reconciliation is O&O #49.
The ticket engine that runs buyer outreach: each buyer-deal pair becomes a ticket, tracked through teaser, NDA, and data-room access. The UTS pilot ran 146 tickets for buyer-matching.
Fathom / Read.ai record calls and auto-route to the HubSpot record. Claude (Team) reads HubSpot, analyzes the calls, and updates this document every two weeks. This is what makes the playbook sharpen with every call.
What we actually deliver.
The sell-side engagement end to end, the way Next Mile runs it. The coach's reference for what happens at each step and what the team produces.
What to get, and what to ask for.
The checklists behind the process. Empty boxes are things to collect or ask for on the next call.
Bloom Growth OS.
Next Mile runs its leadership rhythm on Bloom Growth, not EOS. The Bloom Weekly meeting is the heartbeat; the language below is what the tabs use.
The recurring leadership meeting: check-in, KPIs (the Score), deals and pipeline, to-do's, O&O worked through 3D, and a wrap-up. Next Mile runs it bi-weekly.
Discover, Discuss, Decide. The way an O&O (Obstacle & Opportunity) moves to resolution: find the root cause and owner, discuss once, decide a permanent solution that becomes a to-do.
The Growth Plan and the Goal. The 3-year target: 12 closed deals a year by 2029, $10M+ revenue, ~$40M average deal size.
Growth Plan, Quarterly Priorities, KPIs, the O&O list, the To-do list, and the Meeting rhythm. The Leadership tab runs this end to end.
The diagnostic method.
How Next Mile sells: operator-to-operator, diagnostic before prescriptive, trust before transaction.