Funded startups
Find product-market fit, sharpen your positioning and build the commercial infrastructure behind a repeatable pipeline.
Commercial strategist and hands-on operator
Commercial strategy that transforms commercial performance.
I am Helen Forsyth, a commercial strategist and hands-on operator. I work on retainer as an extension of your team, with funded startups, established SMEs that need to change, and enterprise teams with a specific commercial problem. I start with how the business runs today, then connect the commercial plan to the operational changes needed to reach the goal.
Book a free 30-minute call (opens Notion Calendar in a new tab)
Find the right help for your business
A first conversation about the challenge and whether I can help.
Which problem are you trying to solve?
Established SMEs
When growth stalls or the old approach stops working, find what needs to change and put the change into practice.
Enterprise teams
Solve a specific commercial problem, launch into a new space or get more from a product already in market.
Between the plan and the way the business runs.
Integrating operational and commercial functions.
A commercial problem rarely belongs to one department. It might start in the offer, show up in the pipeline and become harder to fix in delivery or internal decision-making. I work across those boundaries. I connect commercial strategy with operations, and with the systems and data that run them, then work with the team on what needs to change.
Most of my work is on a monthly retainer, working inside your team as fractional CCO or commercial lead. It can also be a focused piece of commercial troubleshooting or a wider transformation programme. The problem decides the role I take on.
How I work
Understand where you are now
Work out what is happening in the business today, and how it got there.
Define where you could be
Frame and size the opportunity, and build the evidence for what the best version looks like. The future version of the business is set to be ambitious and tangible.
Plan back from the goal
Build the plan to get there from where you are now, working backwards from the goal.
Work with a clear commercial context.
Data is key. You will have some, though it may be patchy in places. There is also a lot of market data on trends, competitors, white space and more. Centralising it and understanding the trends and opportunities is a key task that often drops off the internal team’s priorities, because they are busy with business as usual. When that happens, innovation can slip too. I can bring those insights to the table quickly, so change for growth gets back on the agenda.
Luxury bespoke stone and tile supplier · B2B
Qualified leads tripled and marketing acquisition costs fell by 50%
Both within 12 months, after buyer research, specific buyer profiles and a redesigned go-to-market approach.
Read the Luxury bespoke stone and tile supplier case studyInterior design consultancy · professional services
Annual revenue grew from £9M to £15M over two years
Alongside a threefold increase in qualified lead generation, after sales and marketing were restructured around the right decision-makers.
Read the Interior design consultancy case studyAuditBot · B2B SaaS · engagement ended May 2026
£40M+ unweighted and £8M weighted ARR pipeline
I designed the sales approach and led every sales meeting that built this pipeline across UK accountancy firms, before the product launched in July 2026. Most conversations reached a business case or proof-of-concept. These are pipeline values, not revenue won.
Read the AuditBot AI audit platform case studyWhat needs to change in your business?
Tell me where things are stuck, what you want to achieve and what you have already tried. We can start there.
A first conversation about the challenge and whether I can help.