Fractional Executive · Import & Sales Operations
Running the Business, Not Just Advising It, Behind a New Import and Sales Operation
- Client
- A pest control services company (Greece)
- Service area
- Fractional Executive Management · Sales Team Build · Call Centre Setup · Import & Logistics Launch
- Consultant
- Think Growth Consulting (Dr. Antonios Michail, in an interim operating capacity)
The Challenge
This pest control services company had an opportunity most businesses in the sector never get: the chance to move upstream from providing services to actually importing and supplying the chemicals its own industry runs on. But turning that opportunity into a functioning business meant building several things at once, from nothing, at the same time.
There was no structured call centre: sales and customer contact ran without defined monthly goals or a system to work toward them. There was no import business: sourcing pest control chemicals from international suppliers meant building an entirely new import operation, including the logistics of bringing product in from Italy and Turkey. And there was no dedicated sales team: growth depended on whoever was available to sell, rather than a recruited, structured sales function built for the new business.
This wasn't a case that called for a strategy document handed to someone else to execute. It called for someone to actually run it.
Our Approach
Think Growth Consulting stepped into an interim, hands-on management role rather than a purely advisory one, taking direct responsibility for building and running the operation across every function it touched.
The engagement covered four connected areas:
- 1
Call centre setup: building the operation around defined monthly goals, so sales and customer contact activity had clear, measurable targets to work toward rather than running informally.
- 2
Launching the import business from scratch: standing up a new chemical import operation sourcing pest control products from suppliers in Italy and Turkey, covering everything from supplier relationships to the logistics of getting product into the country.
- 3
Recruiting the sales team: building the function from the ground up rather than inheriting or reorganizing an existing one.
- 4
Running day-to-day management: taking direct operational responsibility across sales, operations, logistics, and the chemical import pipeline, rather than designing a plan and stepping back.
This was an interim operating role, not a set of recommendations: Think Growth Consulting was directly accountable for running these functions day to day, not just for designing them.
The Solution
The result was a functioning, multi-part business built and operated directly, not just planned on paper:
A goal-driven call centre: replacing informal sales contact with a structured operation working to defined monthly targets.
A live import business: sourcing pest control chemicals from Italy and Turkey and integrating that supply chain into the company's operations.
A built, recruited sales team: giving the company a dedicated sales function where none had existed before.
Unified, hands-on management: across sales, operations, logistics, and imports, ensuring all the new moving parts worked as one coordinated business rather than several disconnected initiatives.
Why It Matters
Some engagements call for a plan. This one called for someone to actually run the business while it was being built, because launching a call centre, a sales team, and an international import operation at the same time isn't something a company can simply be handed instructions for and left to execute alone. By taking direct operational responsibility rather than staying at arm's length, this engagement turned a genuine growth opportunity into a working, revenue-generating part of the business.
Think Growth Consulting takes on fractional and interim executive roles for businesses that need more than advice, hands-on leadership to build and run new operations, from sales and call centres to international sourcing and logistics. Get in touch to talk about what your business needs.
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