Consultancy, Mentoring & Fractional Leadership

Working with Stewart, directly.

Not every business needs another agency. Sometimes it needs an experienced person in the room. There are five ways to do that, and they are genuinely different things — so here they are side by side, with what each one costs.

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Five ways in

Pick the one that matches the problem.

The difference isn't how often we speak. It's who owns the thinking, and who carries the outcome.

Comparison of five ways to work with Stewart Armstrong
Compare	Sounding board	Coaching	Most popularMentoring	Consultancy	Fractional leadership
What it is	A thinking partner for whatever is live this week. No plan, no homework.	Structured support to hit a specific commercial target.	Developing you as an operator, not just fixing this quarter.	A proper diagnosis of the business, and the plan that comes out of it.	I hold the seat — Commercial Director or Sales Director — and carry the numbers.
Whose agenda	Yours, entirely.	Mine — an agreed plan with numbers against it.	Yours, with me shaping the direction of travel.	Mine, driven by what the numbers say.	The business's.
Who's accountable	Nobody. That's the point.	You are, to me. The accountability is the product.	You are, to yourself, over a longer horizon.	I am, for the recommendation.	I am, for the function's performance.
Cadence	On demand.	Fortnightly or weekly, over 12 weeks.	Fortnightly or monthly, six months minimum.	A time-boxed project.	Committed days each month, ongoing.
What you get	Clarity, and a second opinion from someone who has seen it before.	KPIs, a working rhythm, and measurable progress against the target.	Judgement, perspective, and twenty-five years of having already made the mistakes.	A written commercial diagnosis and a prioritised plan you can run.	A senior commercial leader in your leadership meetings without a senior salary.
Price	£150 per session, or £250 a month for ongoing access.	£450 a month, 12-week minimum.	£750 a month.	Commercial Diagnostic £1,500 fixed. Larger strategy work by proposal.	From £1,900 a month for two days.

Sounding board

What it is: A thinking partner for whatever is live this week. No plan, no homework.
Whose agenda: Yours, entirely.
Who's accountable: Nobody. That's the point.
Cadence: On demand.
What you get: Clarity, and a second opinion from someone who has seen it before.
Price: £150 per session, or £250 a month for ongoing access.

Coaching

What it is: Structured support to hit a specific commercial target.
Whose agenda: Mine — an agreed plan with numbers against it.
Who's accountable: You are, to me. The accountability is the product.
Cadence: Fortnightly or weekly, over 12 weeks.
What you get: KPIs, a working rhythm, and measurable progress against the target.
Price: £450 a month, 12-week minimum.

Mentoring

What it is: Developing you as an operator, not just fixing this quarter.
Whose agenda: Yours, with me shaping the direction of travel.
Who's accountable: You are, to yourself, over a longer horizon.
Cadence: Fortnightly or monthly, six months minimum.
What you get: Judgement, perspective, and twenty-five years of having already made the mistakes.
Price: £750 a month.

Consultancy

What it is: A proper diagnosis of the business, and the plan that comes out of it.
Whose agenda: Mine, driven by what the numbers say.
Who's accountable: I am, for the recommendation.
Cadence: A time-boxed project.
What you get: A written commercial diagnosis and a prioritised plan you can run.
Price: Commercial Diagnostic £1,500 fixed. Larger strategy work by proposal.

Fractional leadership

What it is: I hold the seat — Commercial Director or Sales Director — and carry the numbers.
Whose agenda: The business's.
Who's accountable: I am, for the function's performance.
Cadence: Committed days each month, ongoing.
What you get: A senior commercial leader in your leadership meetings without a senior salary.
Price: From £1,900 a month for two days.

The difference people ask about

Coaching is about the work. Mentoring is about the person.

A coach holds you to a plan you agreed and asks whether you did it. A mentor lends you a road already travelled, so that over time you become someone who makes better decisions without me in the room. Coaching is performance this quarter. Mentoring is capability over a year.

The simplest test: a coach can coach in a field they have never worked in. A mentor can't. Mentoring only works if the person has actually been there — which is the whole reason it costs more.

“The barrier to starting a business is now zero. But a lot of people don't yet have the mindset, the personality or the experience to know what they're actually doing. That's what mentoring is for.”

Why this is credible

Twenty-five years of commercial leadership.

Stewart has spent his career building and fixing the commercial side of businesses — sales teams, campaigns, pipelines, retention and the numbers underneath them. Senior leadership at LexisNexis, part of RELX, running multiple teams including trainers and quality assurance. Before that, building sales operations from nothing across telecoms, data and insurance. Since 2012, consultancy, sales training and director-level mentoring in his own right.

25 years in commercial, sales and marketing leadership
Senior leadership at LexisNexis (part of RELX)
5,000+ sales professionals trained
Hundreds of managers and directors mentored
£100m+ in revenue generated or influenced
Founder of Pure Elite — launched from scratch, exceeded year-one targets by 300%+

Also available

Sales team training and capability building.

Workshops and training programmes for sales teams and commercial managers — pipeline discipline, conversion, retention, KPIs and the conversations that actually move deals. Delivered in person or remote, priced by proposal.

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Working with Stewart

Start with a conversation.

A 30-minute call, free, and not a pitch. We'll work out which of the five actually fits — and if none of them do, I'll say so.

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