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. Open with the North Star, the math, and the plays, then step through the Bloom Weekly. The sub-navigation is the agenda: run it in order and the engine runs your bi-weekly Revenue Leadership meeting. Off-track KPIs auto-flag into the O&O list, worked through 3D.
Where we're going.
Bloom's Growth Plan cascades from a longer horizon down to the current year. Next Mile has the 3-Year Target locked; the 5-Year Vision and the 2026 one-year cascade are open. Blanks below are honest, not omissions.
- Owner: Mike + Wally working session
- Bloom prescribes scale plus a qualitative element
- Implicit working horizon is the 3-Year Target
- 1 active deal in pipeline (deck, Mar 30)
- 11+ deal gap to annual cadence
- Fuller operational picture not yet locked
- Not yet set with leadership
- Tracked as O&O #07 · 1-Year Goal Cascade
- Needed before the Growth Plan 1-Year card finalizes
How the numbers work.
Working backwards from the 3-Year Target to weekly activity. Some operators are still TBD and need leadership input, flagged inline. Source: deck v3 scoreboard, not yet pressure-tested with closed-deal data.
From close cadence to LOIs
- 12 closed deals / yr
- ~90% LOI to close (TBD)
- = ~13 LOIs / yr needed
- 50 new leads / mo × 15% response
- → ~8 calculated (deck says 12) intro calls / mo
- × 40% → ~5 qualified opps / mo
- × 80% go → ~4 engagements / mo
The three audiences, and how each is tracking.
Next Mile's plays are audiences, not verticals. Sellers is the primary game; COIs is the highest-leverage assist; Buyers is the demand side. Each opens to its full detail in the Playbook.
Sellers
COIs
Buyers
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.
The numbers, this issue.
Read the scoreboard, calling each metric on-track or off-track. Anything off track becomes an O&O worked through 3D. The scoreboard is transitioning from scaffolding to live as the HubSpot Sales Hub build lands.
The 3-Year Target
Live pipeline · from HubSpot
Due before the next meeting.
Per Bloom, the goal is 90% completion every 7 days. To-do's are the most sacred promises the leadership team makes between meetings.
Feed the engine · standing weekly
What needs working.
Off-track numbers and open questions surface here. Each entry moves through 3D: Discover the real issue and its owner, Discuss it once, then Decide with a permanent solution that becomes a to-do. At least one O&O per team member; the team works the top three by importance.
Close the meeting.
Recap and rate.
Confirm the new to-do's captured this meeting, decide what cascades to the wider team, then each member shares the most valuable part of the meeting and one thing to do better next time. Rate the meeting so the cadence keeps improving.
- ✓ New to-do's from the 3D session confirmed, each with an owner and a due date before the next meeting.
- ✓ Decided O&Os archive to the Decisions Log in Groundwork.
- ✓ Each member: most valuable part of the meeting, and one thing to do better.
Meeting recap.
What came out of the last Bloom Weekly, the way the Bloom software recaps a meeting. This is the post-meeting version of the engine: the O&Os and to-dos are marked solved or done, and the ratings are in.
"Happy we've moved out of a solid-out phase to actively marketing the business. Keep the meeting more controlled, less tangents."
Mike Bloss
"I get something out of all these meetings. I learn from Mike."
Ron Buesinger
"I was hearing value for the whole team that speaks to the revenue and sales process."
John Knicely
- The HubSpot pipeline is built and working; Mike now runs his CRM from HubSpot tasks.
- Transport Express is next to market; three buyer-matching templates are built (revenue min/max, asset type); waiting on the CIM and a walkthrough with Ciara.
- Fathom is decided for call recording, auto into HubSpot; manual notes until it is wired.
- Get the engine onto Next Mile's Claude (needs a nextmilema.com email and a seat) and hook HubSpot to Claude so the pipeline flows in.
- Nurture and campaign plan by next Tuesday (Dan and John); the first campaign launches within two weeks.
- Freight Logistics loss post-mortem, new rule: a seller who already has a buyer forfeits negotiating to Next Mile, and that buyer joins our process.
- The portal connection fee ($3,000 vs free) was tabled to a four-person follow-up call.
- UTS is closing around Aug 15; map the post-close campaign (announcement, a Bruce testimonial video, celebration dinner, a gift).
- A bespoke, anonymized market-data index is on the roadmap.
- Cottingham & Butler event at the end of August; send outreach pieces after.
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.
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.
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.
Campaign 1 · The Close
Anchored on the mid-August deal-sold announcement. One story, told to every audience, across every channel, a fresh theme built on the seller, buyer, and COI plays already in the engine.
The year · the ideal flow
August through December, the way it should run if nothing held us back: two themes, every channel, every list, integrated. Not the scoped minimum, the full picture, so Wally sees where this goes.
Most exits are reactive, rushed, and forced by a health scare or burnout, and they leave value on the table. This is the other kind: a founder who was ready, well-represented, and got full value and the right buyer. The mid-August close is the living proof, and it is the mirror of Life doesn’t wait, the good exit is what preparation earns you.
- Sellers: here is what a good exit looks like, and what made it good.
- Buyers: well-prepared companies are coming to market.
- COIs: you helped a client get a good exit, who else deserves one?
You are not ready to sell, until life decides for you: health, a partner, burnout, a market shift. The best exits are planned years before you need them. Built on John’s exit-readiness library.
- Sellers: plan before you have to, the readiness checklist.
- COIs: the life events that should trigger a referral.
- Educational, not salesy, "Top Ways Deals Get Blown Up" and seller fatigue.
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.
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.