ABOUT US
Berry Partners was established to help accelerate the time taken to implement effective sales transformation that drives business growth for Private Equity invested software companies. The motivation was based on actual experiences at several software firms throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas.
Sales Enablement Is A Benefit, An Opportunity And A Challenge
As a benefit, when done well, sales enablement can be a massive competitive differentiator as well as contributing significantly to the revenue, profitability and valuation of a vendor.
As a frequent challenge, the sales enablement function can:
- Be a huge investment with poor returns;
- Lead a company into a false sense of security
- Reinforce poor practices that constrain performance.
Berry Partners turns challenges in to opportunities:
- Identify your vision of an ideal future state;
- Determine your current position;
- Plot a path from current to future state.
Berry Partners has worked with several top names in technology, as well as partnering with world-class training organisations. From significantly raising productivity per seller with a reduced number of accounts, to directly impacting overall company valuations, Berry Partners has delivered the insight, tools, processes and mentorship needed to achieve ambitious financial goals.
Guest Speaker at the 2025 Sales Enablement Collective Summit at the O2 Arena, London.
Supporting endurance racing teams commercially and strategically.
Recognised throughout the industry as a successful and accomplished leader in sales transformation, Michael Fox established Berry Partners in 2024, as an evolution of Open Think Consulting.
Michael has worked on successful strategic sales transformations directly at Business Objects (leading to its acquisition by SAP), Lotus Development Corporation (during its acquisition by IBM), Embarcadero Technologies, Lansweeper, Intel, Dell Technologies, VMware (leading to its acquisition by Broadcom) and Proofpoint.
As well as being a highly regarded, top-scoring, award-winning sales enablement and sales transformation leader, Michael is a seasoned sales director, coach, people manager and company executive, Michael brings clear, direct and practical insight that is motivated by a personal need to help others be successful. Each engagement is tailored to a client’s current state and desired outcome.
Having managed and worked with several world-class professionals in the fields of business development, leadership, education, marketing, product development and value engineering, Michael brings a powerful network of collaborators to your software company portfolio.
VMware
Started when the company was counting $1m deals every quarter. Introduced sales tools and behavious, including sales management standards, supporting the effective execution of value selling tactics. Achieved double digit growth over 10 quarters and built sales teams delivering $5m, $10m and even $100m deals.
SAP Business Objects
Established the Business Objects Professional Services Organisation market presence, transforming sales motions to integrate compelling PSO offerings, driving up company valuation leading to acquisition by SAP.
Embarcadero Technologies
Transformed inside and field sales teams, growing average deal sizes by 75% and effectively introducing sales teams to a consultative selling style.
Lansweeper
Introduced value-focused sales motions that were adopted across the organisation. Accelerated growth of revenues and overall company valuation. Continues to advise sales leaders and sales teams. Recently learned that an account manager who had previously been regularly selling $30k deals (the company’s ACV) had closed a $1M enterprise deal.
Proofpoint
Transforming sales motions and GTM from transactional tactics to strategic and value-based customer relationships. Driving global programs that improve pipeline quality, forecasting accuract and customer retention including sales manager disciplines.
The motivation for Berry Partners came from my recognition of common opportunities and challenges that exist when a private equity firm attempts to introduce a sales transformation strategy.
The initial investment in sales enablement is intended to optimise seller performance, put a larger percentage of a product portfolio into the market, increase average contract values, and multiply overall company valuations. But large variances in sales enablement strategies and the quality of execution results in a journey of traps, roadbumps and pitfalls that drastically slow progress, fail to meet full seller potential and can significantly increase sales operating costs.
I was convinced there had to be a better way and Berry Partners was established.
Berry Partners draws experience from a broad network of sales performance professionals, several from the companies we have worked for and others from our partner relationships.
We bring tried, trusted and proven resources to each of our engagements while putting the needs of our clients first rather than trying to force fit your situation into our templates.
MANAGEMENT CONSULTING RESOURCES
AWARD-WINNING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
FULLY CERTIFIED EXECUTIVE COACHING
HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL SALES LEADERS
Management consulting expertise brings world-class skills and repeatable success factors along with high quality guidance to your sales transformation strategy.
Innovative and highly experienced instructional designers are focused on ease of consumption for target teams. We prioritise relevance and applicability in everythihng we create.
Several of our former colleagues have gone on to become fully certified executive coaches, working with company leaders in small, medium and enterprise-sized software organisations.
Our network includes several very sucessful sales leaders who bring their best practices and battle scars to your engagement, accelerating your time to success.