BTG, Inc needed a Fractional CSO
BTG, Inc
When BTG’s revenue began slipping and customers started leaving, a fractional CSO rebuilt the sales discipline and delivered nearly 40% revenue growth in six months.
When BTG’s revenue began slipping and customers started leaving, a fractional CSO rebuilt the sales discipline and delivered nearly 40% revenue growth in six months.
“In just three months, we saw significant improvement, ultimately growing sales almost 40%.”
— Rick Dunlop, President, BTG Americas
Overview
BTG is a multinational provider of specialized process measurement, control, and optimization solutions for the global pulp and paper industry. Founded in Sweden in 1921, the company now operates worldwide, with North America functioning as an independent business unit responsible for its own sales, marketing, service, and support.
Despite a long history of technical leadership, the North American business began experiencing declining revenue and rising customer churn. Competitive offerings had improved, sales performance had weakened, and turnover within the sales team further strained results.
A newly appointed President was brought in to stabilize the business and restore growth. While his expertise was rooted in service operations, he recognized that revitalizing the sales organization would require experienced outside leadership.
Challenges
BTG’s North American business was facing a combination of market pressure and internal execution challenges.
- Revenue was declining as customer churn increased
- Competitors were gaining traction and replacing existing accounts
- Sales team turnover had weakened consistency and accountability
- Seller performance and territory alignment required evaluation
- The organization lacked a disciplined opportunity pursuit process
Leadership wanted both quick wins and structural improvement to stabilize the business and rebuild long-term growth.
Goals
To reverse the downward trend and strengthen the commercial organization, BTG needed to:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of its sales organization and channel partners
- Identify the root causes of customer churn and lost opportunities
- Clarify the competitive advantages of BTG’s solutions
- Implement a more disciplined sales process to improve win rates
- Deliver near-term revenue recovery while building sustainable revenue growth
Solutions
BTG engaged TechCXO Partner Bruce Kopkin as Fractional Chief Sales Officer to assess the situation, develop a focused recovery plan, and drive execution.
Working closely with company leadership, Bruce conducted a comprehensive review of the commercial organization and implemented a structured approach to improving sales performance.
Key initiatives included:
- Evaluating customer satisfaction and conducting detailed win/loss analysis
- Assessing seller performance, territory coverage, and channel effectiveness
- Leading a Competitive Solution Selling workshop to uncover the true operational and economic value of BTG’s solutions
- Conducting interviews and surveys to understand why customers were leaving and why prospects chose competitors
- Implementing a new opportunity pursuit framework including Steps to the Order and Checklist for Success
These changes brought structure, clarity, and accountability to the sales process while helping sellers better communicate BTG’s differentiated value.
As fractional CSO, Bruce Kopkin rebuilt BTG’s sales strategy and execution framework, turning insight into action and stalled opportunities into measurable growth.
Partner, Fractional CSO
Bruce helps companies strengthen commercial performance by improving sales strategy, seller effectiveness, and opportunity execution to deliver sustainable revenue growth.
Outcome
The impact of the changes was immediate.
Sales territories were rationalized to align sellers with the customers and markets they served. This improved customer retention by seven percentage points and increased upsell and cross-sell activity by 30 percent.
Several stalled deals were revived and closed, and customer cancellations were reversed as relationships strengthened.
Within three months, BTG began seeing meaningful improvement in sales performance. Within six months, overall revenue had increased by nearly 40 percent, demonstrating both rapid recovery and the effectiveness of the new sales discipline.
Retention restored…
Territory realignment and stronger seller accountability increased customer retention by seven percentage points.
Revenue rebound…
Revived opportunities and disciplined sales execution drove nearly 40% revenue growth in six months.
“Our sales performance was severely underperforming. We engaged with Bruce to evaluate our sellers, organization and partners. In just three months, we saw significant improvement, ultimately growing sales almost 40%.”
- Rick Dunlop President, BTG Americas
