For CHROs · Distribution CEOs · Executives Stepping Up

Three Programs.
One Advisor.
Thirty Years in the Seat.

C-Suite or CHRO Sponsor — Executive Accelerator: built to shift your identified high potentials from operator thinking to executive leadership. CHRO or Global Mobility — HQ Gap: protect the assignment before the executive boards the plane. Distribution CEO or VP of Sales — DSM: your team needs to sell through the channel, not just into it.

Talk with Chip is a professional advisory practice offering three executive programs built on 30 years of operating experience in sales, distribution, and international markets. The programs are bought by CHROs managing international executive assignments, by distribution company CEOs and VPs of Sales who need their teams to sell through the channel, and by Directors and newly appointed VPs who have hit a ceiling or been handed a role bigger than their experience. The work is direct, applied, and built entirely from real operating practice.

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30 Years. Every Level.

Programs

Three Ways We Work

Three distinct programs built on the same foundation: 30 years of operating experience across industries, countries, and every level of leadership.

Executive Development

The Executive Accelerator™

You have identified them as high potential. They are great operators. The Executive Accelerator is built to make one specific shift: from running the work to leading it strategically. Five competencies. Nine sessions. Twelve seats per cohort, by application. Sponsored by the company or enrolled individually.

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International Advisory

HQ Gap™

Assignment protection, not training. 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. Engaged through the CHRO or global mobility function.

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Distribution

Distribution Sales Mastery™

Nine modules. Two days. One sales team that sells through the channel. Built specifically for CEOs and VPs of Sales at wholesale and specialty distribution companies where standard sales training was never designed to fit.

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The Executive Accelerator™

Your best operators are not automatically your next executives.

Most organizations have them — the high potentials. Great at executing, trusted to deliver, already identified for the next level. What most organizations do not have is a program built specifically to make that shift. Not leadership coaching. Not a seminar series. A structured development program designed to move a strong operator into strategic executive thinking.

Who This Is For

The sponsor is a CEO, C-suite executive, or CHRO who has identified high potential operators in their organization and wants to invest in closing the gap between where they are and where they need to be. The participants are Directors, Senior Directors, and newly appointed Vice Presidents who are excellent at execution and have not yet completed the shift to strategic executive thinking. Seats are limited to twelve per cohort and filled by application. The program can be sponsored by the company or enrolled individually.

Cohort 1 — Founding

October 6 – December 8, 2026

Nine Tuesdays at 4:00 pm Eastern. Twelve seats maximum. All participants on camera. Sessions are not recorded.

The Investment

$5,500

Founding Cohort price per participant — individual or corporate. Comparable programs at major business schools run $10,000 to $20,000.

Enrollment

By application. Four questions, reviewed personally in the order received. A seat is held only once the signed enrollment agreement and payment are both received.

The Five Competencies

Decision Clarity — knowing which decisions are yours and how much information you actually need.

Financial Fluency — reading financial signals as decision inputs, not reporting outputs.

Strategic Perspective — seeing what most executives miss from operational altitude.

Organizational Influence — moving organizations through enrollment rather than authority.

Personal Leadership System — a built system for who you are under pressure.

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HQ Gap™

Assignment protection, not training.

You have covered housing, immigration, and language. You have not covered 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.

Who This Is For

Executives at Director level and above who are heading into a foreign operation, either as the leader of that operation or as a senior contributor stepping into a role that reports to a foreign boss. The program is typically engaged and funded through the CHRO or global mobility function. The work is done directly with the executive. It is particularly effective for assignments into Latin America, where the gap between HQ expectations and in-country reality is most pronounced.

Two Ways Into a Foreign Operation

Leading the Operation

Executives taking on a leadership role, managing down into an unfamiliar workforce and culture with P&L accountability from day one. The challenge is not competence. The challenge is context.

Fitting Into the Operation

Senior Managers and Directors stepping into a foreign operations unit, reporting to a foreign boss, navigating authority and relationships without the home-field advantage. A different problem with different stakes.

Five Subjects Covered

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

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The Cost of Getting It Wrong

40%

Assignment failure rate, unchanged for 40 years

$1.25M

Average cost of a failed international assignment

$311K

Average annual expat package at risk

Six Weeks Before

Pre-Departure Advisory

Six structured sessions covering operational reality, authority and relationships, the predecessor dynamic or the new-boss dynamic, headquarters expectations, and the judgment calls most companies never prepare the executive to make before they board the plane.

Six Months After

Deployment Advisory

Ongoing biweekly advisory through the first six months in-country, the period when the assignment is most at risk. Real-time guidance tied to what the executive is actually navigating on the ground. Engaged through the CHRO or global mobility function.

Distribution Sales Mastery™

Sell-in fills a warehouse. Sell-through builds a business.

Nine modules. Two days. One sales team that sells through the channel. Most sales training is built for direct sales, not for how distribution actually works. DSM is.

Who This Is For

The CEO, owner, or VP of Sales of a wholesale or specialty distribution company with a sales force of 5 to 200 people. Revenue growth has plateaued despite a capable team. Standard sales training has been tried and it did not hold because it was not built for the way distribution actually sells. The program is bought by the CEO or VP of Sales. The work is done with the people doing the selling.

Who It's For

The CEO, owner, or VP of Sales of a wholesale or specialty distribution company. A sales force between 5 and 200 people. Revenue growth that has plateaued despite a capable team. The program works directly with the reps, the inside-outside pairs, and the branch-level managers and builds the management framework so results hold after the engagement ends.

Nine Modules. Two Days.

Channel Economics

Sell-Through Execution

Segmentation

Metrics and Accountability

Territory Management

Value Selling

The Purposeful Visit

Modern Distribution

Manager Track

Documented Return

Conservative scenario

38x

Aggressive scenario

Return on engagement cost from documented client scenarios. Results depend on team size, existing sales process maturity, and market conditions.

Built for the Way Distribution Actually Sells

Most sales training programs are built for direct sales organizations. The examples do not fit. The language does not fit. The metrics do not fit. Distribution companies that try to apply them spend half the session time translating.

Distribution Sales Mastery was built around the branch model, the inside-outside rep relationship, the counter session, the vendor program, the service expectation, and the price pressure that define distribution selling. The result is a sales capability that stays inside your organization long after the engagement ends.

What Changes

Before	After
Reps segment by volume and serve whoever asks loudest	Reps segment by behavior and invest time where strategic return is highest
Visits happen by habit and convenience, not strategic priority	Visits are planned with purpose and closed with a specific mutual commitment
Counter training is a product presentation, not a behavior change session	Counter sessions are targeted at changing one specific recommendation behavior
Price objections get managed with concessions or avoidance	Price objections are diagnosed by type and answered with the Landed Cost Quick Check or full TCO
Managers coach activity because they lack a skill coaching framework	Managers run structured observation ride-a-longs with a skill focus and a debrief framework

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Chip Carlson

Executive · Advisor · Consultant

30+

Years of Experience

Continents Operated

Languages

1.5M+

Miles Traveled

About

Thirty Years. Every Level.

Chip Carlson is an executive advisor and consultant with 30+ 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 held President and VP-level roles with direct P&L responsibility, led international market entry and expansion, and built sales forces, distribution networks, and operations teams across the American Continents. He currently runs CIMA International, a consulting and M&A advisory firm serving automotive and industrial clients across the Americas.

Chip is bilingual in English and Spanish, bicultural across the U.S. and Latin America, and has logged more than 1.5 million actual flight miles operating across markets throughout North America, Central America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The three programs he offers — DSM, the Executive Accelerator, and HQ Gap — are built directly from that experience.

Get in Touch

Three Programs. One Advisor. Thirty Years in the Seat.

Three Ways We Work

Your best operators are not automatically your next executives.

The Five Competencies

Assignment protection, not training.

Two Ways Into a Foreign Operation

Sell-in fills a warehouse. Sell-through builds a business.

Built for the Way Distribution Actually Sells

What Changes

Thirty Years. Every Level.

Start with the situation, not the program.

Three Programs.
One Advisor.
Thirty Years in the Seat.