In the World of Business, It’s Adapt or Die

Brad’s consulting and sales execution credentials include his role of President and COO of The Complex Sale, a global sales effectiveness consulting and training firm focused on the sales and marketing challenges of B2B selling helping companies drive revenue utilizing sales process, sales strategy, and messaging, which are critical in creating a competitive advantage.

Brad also used his knowledge of what makes salespeople “tick” to lead the successful development and implementation of a a pioneering effort in the integration of methodology and technology or sales effectiveness. Brad spearheaded the development and launch of the Global Planning for Sales (GPS) product suite of sales planning tools that integrate with major CRM systems which became the fastest growing segment of the business. Additionally, Brad effectively managed the company’s largest account (Oracle), which resulted in generating millions of dollars of revenue and 400 percent increase in overall company revenue from 1995 to 2000.

Brad’s corporate career includes his most recent role as EVP, Sales at nuBridges, an enterprise software company providing technology solutions for extended enterprises that share sensitive data and face complex security and compliance mandates In this role Brad exceeded plan in all revenue areas in 2010, notably grew software business by 29% year over year, increased average deal size by over 50%, successfully developed and implemented recruiting, hiring and onboarding processes for sales resulting in 50% increase in time-to­effectiveness for new sales team members, implemented a forecasting methodology resulting in greater accuracy in predicting revenue for license sales and adopted strategic sales approach resulting in higher win ratio and increase in average deal size. The culmination of these efforts led to a very profitable and successful exit through acquisition by Liaison Technologies.

Prior corporate executive management roles include Vice President & General Manager, D&B Software, where Brad directed all functional areas related to sales, professional services and support for the largest region in the company, significantly exceeding its established annual goal and recognized as the Number One Region in the company. Also significant during Brad’s tenure at DBS was his role as Vice President, Solutions Marketing. In this role he led the development of a global solutions strategy where his team developed a comprehensive product I solution marketing approach that led in the integration of all functions of the company including design, development, product certification and launch.

Brad has a B.S. from Georgia Tech, is a guest speaker at the Georgia Tech School of Management, and program facilitator for Georgia Techs’ Executive Program.

4043860132  |  brad.childress@techcxo.com |  www.techcxo.com

Chief Outsiders provides part-time marketing executives to growth and mid-sized businesses for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Most companies have focused the past few years on operational efficiency to survive. Now, as focus returns to growth, many companies lack the skills and resources to drive knowledge based, efficient growth strategies. Rather than take the significant financial risk to hire a seasoned senior marketing executive, companies can now engage a fractional CMO. We will talk about how fractional executives work – and how it can help you grow your business.

A global leader with a strong growth record in software, technology, consumer products and start-up organizations, Brian Sholly is passionate about building businesses. Sholly has proven his ability to drive growth and profitability at companies such as Procter & Gamble, GTE (Verizon) and his own start-up business. He defines aggressive but disciplined strategies and builds outstanding teams to establish share, volume and profitability growth quickly and efficiently. Sholly has established a strong reputation for his outstanding interpersonal skills, strategic thinking, leadership, collaboration and ethics.

Most recently, Sholly drove his division at Kaplan Learning Technologies from $5 million in revenue to more than $19 million. His two international acquisitions, internal B2B direct sales expansion, and key partnership development transformed the business from a stagnant IT test prep business into a global enterprise software company in the US, South Africa, England and Australia. Sholly also led the development of an innovative new technology called “PerformIT,” which delivers performance-based testing in a scalable, global platform. This technology is now being tested by two Fortune 50 software and Internet search companies. In late 2011/early 2012, Sholly led the successful sale of the division.

In his 15-plus years of senior level marketing at Procter and Gamble, GTE (Verizon) and Qwest, Sholly drove numerous innovative businesses-building programs. For Qwest he quickly turned around an underperforming $800M wireless business by redesigning the pricing strategy and prioritizing feature initiatives — reducing total price plans by over 30% and product features by 69% while delivering more than $8.5M in annual savings. At GTE (Verizon), Sholly pioneered GTE’s entry into e-commerce while leading a total marketing budget of over $160M for the Wireless, Small Business, CLEC and Internet divisions. He also led a national GTE agency review that yielded $10.5 million in annual savings.

At Procter and Gamble Sholly achieved a consistent record of share, revenue and profit growth for such products as Oil of Olay, Clearasil, Crest Complete, and Denture Care products. As brand manager of Denture Care products, Sholly managed the P&Ls of five separate brands with total revenue exceeding $75 million. In two years, he quadrupled total brand profits while increasing market share from 33% to a record 44%. He was awarded the coveted P&G World Class Advertising Award and the Health Care World Class Advertising Award for two consecutive years. Sholly was nominated to participate in the exclusive Agency Internship program where he worked on a creative ad team at a New York ad agency. Here he became the first P&G intern to successfully develop and sell a national ad campaign.

In addition to his experiences with large companies, Sholly also understands the unique challenges of building a successful small business, having successfully founded, built and sold his own start-up firm. He holds a BA degree from Grace College and an MBA from Ohio State University, where he graduated with top honors.