EXECUTIVE ADVISORY, BUILT FROM OPERATING EXPERIENCE
Real experience, applied directly to the decision in front of you.
Three programs built on thirty years of operating experience in sales, distribution, and international markets. Bought by CHROs protecting an international assignment, by distribution CEOs whose teams need to sell through the channel, and by executives who have been handed scope larger than their experience.
THIRTY YEARS. EVERY LEVEL.
30+
YEARS OPERATING
3
PROGRAMS
2
LANGUAGES
1.5M
MILES IN MARKET
01 / THE THREE PROGRAMS
Three ways the work gets bought, one foundation underneath it
Each program was built for a specific buyer and a specific failure. None of them is a seminar. All of them are applied to real decisions, real numbers, and real teams.
DISTRIBUTION
Distribution Sales Mastery™
Eight modules over two days, plus a manager track. Built around the branch model, the inside and outside pair, the counter, and the vendor program. Bought by the CEO, owner, or VP of Sales.
2 DAYS · ON SITE
READ MORE
EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Executive Accelerator™
Five competencies across nine live sessions. For the executive who is capable and depended on but not yet operating at the level the title suggests. Twelve seats, filled by application.
COHORT 1 · OCT 2026
ENROLL
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY
HQ Gap™
Assignment protection, not training. Six pre-departure sessions and six months of in-market advisory, for the executive leading a foreign operation or stepping into one. Engaged through the CHRO.
1:1 · 6 MONTHS
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02 / DISTRIBUTION SALES MASTERY™
Sell-in fills a warehouse. Sell-through builds a business.
Most sales training was built for direct sales. The examples do not fit, the language does not fit, and the metrics do not fit. Distribution companies spend half the session translating. DSM was built around the way distribution actually sells.
WHO THIS IS FOR
A wholesale or specialty distribution business with a sales force of five to two hundred people, where growth has plateaued despite added headcount, where the inside and outside relationship is not functioning, and where the owner is compensating for the sales team rather than building on it. The buyer is the CEO, owner, or VP of Sales. The participants are the reps, the pairs, and the branch managers.
EIGHT MODULES, TWO DAYS, PLUS A MANAGER TRACK
Channel economics
Sell-through execution
Segmentation by behavior
Metrics and accountability
Territory management
Value and price defense
The purposeful visit
Modern distribution
DOCUMENTED RETURN
Return on engagement cost from documented client scenarios on a shared baseline. Results depend on team size, the maturity of the existing sales process, and market conditions.
7x
CONSERVATIVE
38x
AGGRESSIVE
Two-day intensive, delivered on site. Program materials and the manager framework included.
$22,500
03 / THE EXECUTIVE ACCELERATOR™
Five competencies. Nine sessions. One executive.
For the executive who is clearly capable but is not yet operating at the level their title suggests, or at the level they are heading toward. They are known for getting things done. Nobody has given them the specific tools to make the shift from operational thinking to executive thinking.
THE FIVE COMPETENCIES
01
Decision clarity, knowing which decisions are yours and how much information you actually need.
02
Financial fluency, reading financial signals as decision inputs rather than reporting outputs.
03
Strategic perspective, seeing what gets missed from operational altitude.
04
Organizational influence, moving an organization through enrollment rather than authority.
05
Personal leadership system, a built system for who you are under pressure.
COHORT 1, FOUNDING
October 6 to December 8, 2026
Nine Tuesdays, 4:00 to 5:30 pm Eastern, Thanksgiving week skipped. Twelve seats. Everyone on camera. Sessions are not recorded. Certificate issued for comprehension, not attendance.
THE INVESTMENT
$3,500
Founding cohort pricing, every seat, individual or corporate. Comparable business school programs run $10,000 to $20,000.
ENROLLMENT
By application. Four written questions, reviewed personally in the order received. A seat is held once the signed agreement and payment are both in hand.
04 / HQ GAP™, THE COUNTRY MANAGER'S EDGE
You covered housing, immigration, and language. You did not cover the judgment.
A 1:1 advisory engagement for the executive heading into a foreign operation, whether they are leading it or stepping into one as a mid-to-senior contributor. It covers the weeks before they leave and their first six months in market. Delivered by someone who has held the seat.
LEADING THE OPERATION
Managing downward into a workforce, culture, and set of business relationships they have not operated within before, with P&L accountability from day one. They were chosen because they are proven. The assignment will test that in ways they did not anticipate.
FITTING INTO THE OPERATION
Senior Managers and Directors stepping into a foreign operations unit now have a foreign boss, a foreign peer group, and no home-field advantage. Building credibility and earning influence there takes a different kind of preparation than leading does.
THE ENGAGEMENT ARC
01
Expectation versus reality
02
The first ninety days
03
Managing HQ from two thousand miles away
04
Local team dynamics, authority, and trust
05
Real-time advisory through months one to six
THE COST OF GETTING IT WRONG
40%
Assignment failure rate, unchanged for forty years
$1.25M
Average cost of a failed international assignment
$311K
Average annual expatriate package at risk
HQ Gap is engaged through the CHRO, global mobility, or the assignee's direct manager. This is not cultural sensitivity training. It is operational preparation for the dynamics that decide the first six months. Particularly effective for assignments into Mexico and Latin America.
Chip Carlson
EXECUTIVE · ADVISOR · OPERATOR
30+
YEARS
3
CONTINENTS
2
LANGUAGES
1.5M
FLIGHT MILES
05 / ABOUT CHIP CARLSON
Thirty years. Every level. A practitioner, not a certification.
Chip Carlson has thirty years of operating experience across sales, marketing, operations, and distribution, from hands-on operating roles through Vice President and President-level positions in the United States, Mexico, and Latin America.
He has carried direct P&L responsibility, led international market entry and expansion, and built sales forces, distribution networks, and operations teams across the Americas. He currently runs CIMA International, a consulting and M&A advisory firm serving automotive and industrial clients across the region.
He is bilingual in English and Spanish, bicultural across the United States and Latin America, and has logged more than 1.5 million flight miles working in market. All three programs are built directly from that experience, which is the whole point. He has actually held the seat.
06 / GET IN TOUCH
Start with the situation, not the program.
Tell me the assignment, the sales problem, or the executive you are trying to develop. If one of the three programs fits, I will say which one and why. If none of them fits, I will say that too.
EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE
Program sheets, the podcast, and the application. Scan or ask and I will send the PDF.
TALK WITH CHIP
Executive advisory · Talk with Chip LLC
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