Vertical is founded and managed by Cathy Bennett, a business coach and mentor with 30+ years’ commercial experience and a proven track record in business at all levels.
She has worked in corporate across a wide range of sectors including a major high street bank, an international forklift truck manufacturer and distributor and the UK’s largest retail motor group.
Vertical’s clients are mid-market family businesses and devolved corporates in the UK and internationally across industrial machinery, health care, scientific instruments, recruitment, publishing & media, specialist lighting, industrial products & services and commercial support services.
Her international business experience and second language allow her to work comfortably in multi-cultural and diverse business environments.
Cathy was nominated for the Business & Marketing Academy’s Best Implementer of the Year Award.
Cathy specialises in:
6 Reasons Why You’ll Love Working With Cathy
1
She has a laser focus on results, working to bring additional revenues in fast by identifying the areas that will have the greatest impact on revenues. She focuses on margins and profits as well as top line revenues, which means that all of the results she works with you to deliver flow right down to the bottom line.
2
Cathy has a unique combination of high-level strategic thinking with a streetwise practical approach, which means that your plans get off the whiteboard and put into practice.
3
Cathy’s unerring ability to unearth the real issues by listening to what is left unsaid, as much as what is said enables you to pinpoint areas which need change and guides you towards your own solutions. By not telling you or doing it for the change will last and the results will be sustainable.
4
She cares deeply about the owners and teams themselves in helping them achieve that success in a way that leaves them happier and less stressed. Cathy knows that to get great results you have to first get great people who are motivated, energised and not held back by any limiting beliefs and negative thoughts.
5
Cathy continues to develop herself through mentoring from thought-leading entrepreneurs, aiming to learn something new every day. She strives to always be bringing new approaches and successful methods to her clients to help them and their businesses navigate fast moving, turbulent and volatile markets and economic.
6
Her 7-Step proven formula is guaranteed to double your revenues in 12 months if you do the work and put it into practice. She is insightful, organised, practical, and focused to get you through the change and will be there every step of the way.
“Cathy is a first class sales coach who has done the job successfully herself. Her commercial and practical approach gives her credibility and is the reason she gets tangible results. I have worked with her in a variety of different companies, specifically to help us think through and implement a new sales structure, to coach newly appointed managers and to help us create a more customer focused sales process.”
Debbie Hewitt – Portfolio Chair
“I met Cathy whilst working in Sales for one of the world’s largest Materials Handling companies, she helped all of our sales teams and I had to stand up in from of the whole sales force for a presentation which Cathy was on hand for support, Cathy as well as helping us build up our sales helped me with the confidence and belief to get up and do a great presentation, I highly recommend Cathy to help your business as she did ours.”
Dave Everall, Technical Support
“Cathy has been instrumental in the success of our business. She helped us identify areas for change and navigate through our decisions and transitions that helped us highlight our values as a business and grow. We have come out as a better more focused operation with better processes and practices that make GO a great place to work and a trusted adviser for our clients. Part of working with Cathy is the education and “tool-kit” to deal with the future. Our recommendation comes with great thanks and a huge amount of respect for her expertise. We are very privileged to have worked with her. Don’t think we could have found someone more Insightful, organised, practical, and focused to get us through our change and was there every step of the way! She is quite possibly the best in the business.”
Minnie Russnak, Director
“I have had the pleasure of working with Cathy for over 6 months now. She brought great energy, content and context to our one on one coaching sessions. The techniques I derived out of my coaching sessions with Cathy enabled me to energize myself and our sales team, execute decisions better and increase the efficiency of our sales team immensely. During this time, we have been able to grow our business by almost 25% in successive quarters and also bring in some significant deals from new clients. I also find her to be approachable and very personable. I recommend her highly as a coach for sales leaders.”
Vinay Nair, Sales Director
“Once you have met Cathy you will know and understand the depth and level of her sales skills. With her compelling approach and her passion about sales Cathy has help my client to develop their sales strategy and works with the sales team to implement it. Cathy provides a unique combination of high-level strategic thinking with a streetwise practical approach. We have seen a major change in thinking from a very traditional sales approach to a solution customer focused technique that is winning us business at every level.”
Christine Rayner, Marketing Specialist
“As a coach I found Cathy to be highly insightful, possessing an unerring ability to unearth the real issues by listening to what was being unsaid, as well as what was said. She gently steered me to pinpoint areas which needed change by digging into previous experiences and personal values encouraging and guiding me toward my own solutions. Cathy’s calm, friendly and pragmatic approach revived my awareness of my true value both as an experienced professional and a person. It is clear she is very good at what she does and there is no doubt she made an impact on my career path. I would not hesitate to give her my strongest recommendation.”
Michael Ferridge, Commercial Director
“In our sessions you always say that sales people get orders all the time after a session with you. You can add another one to that list :). I have closed 4500 Euros on the event today and received the contract as well. Really appreciate your help and support.”
Vinay Nair, Sales Director
“When we planned to exit, we recognised that the development of product ideas, business and new sales strategies was a weakness. Cathy, Vertical Sales came in to work closely with our Director of Sales and Marketing to develop new product and market ideas which would stand up to the scrutiny of the M&A process. Cathy’s contribution was invaluable in developing key opportunities that not only led to a good plan but also led onto the development of a new product which has now been launched onto the market. We successfully exited the business in 2017. The work Cathy had done proved invaluable in the process by demonstrating a robust sales strategy. This showed me that there is in an important step for any business owner looking for an exit in preparing a strong sales plan before appointing a CF and beginning the exit process.”
Richard Glazer, MD
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Cathy for a little while now. What I love about her is that while she loves helping businesses achieve greater success, it’s very clear to me that she also cares deeply about the owners and teams themselves in helping them achieve that success in a way that leaves them happier and less stressed. While her knowledge around business growth is vast, the way she helps the people themselves is hugely commendable too.”
Dan Netting, Coach & Consultant to Online Course Creators
“Cathy came to help us drive sales growth, working to identify the areas that would have the greatest impact on sales revenues. She injected a level of energy and pace at every level in our business; training and coaching sales managers and sales people, defining our sales strategy and direction for the business and selecting and implementing a CRM system. The results were instrumental in turning the business from loss to profit in extremely turbulent economic times for us and the sector as a whole. I would recommend Cathy to anybody looking for someone to transform their sales division and grow their business. She is creative, commercially astute and delivers results.”
Richard Close, CEO
“As an external sales consultant Cathy is always focused on results, challenging us to change the way we operate, and taking time out to align her activities with the business goals. She has supported the sales team since 2010 and in that period has delivered some very powerful one on one coaching to our sales managers and execs. She has also delivered great operational practice from assessment to recruitment to induction. Cathy is a very professional and driven individual. She has been a pleasure to work with and I hope our paths cross again the future. ”
Nicola Orr, HR Manager
“Cathy is an individual who is highly focused and results orientated, her commitment, dedication and enthusiasm are complimented by her professionalism and versatility. I have no hesitation in recommending Cathy to anyone who needs to bring in additional high calibre resource that is focused on delivering success.”
Simon Boggis, Chief Procurement Officer