Russell Scherwin
I have spent twenty years answering one question, and it is not a rhetorical one: why won't the field carry the message?
- $2.6M to $14.1M
- an application business, as its product and marketing lead
- $45M to $77M
- a distribution business, as its business unit executive
- $324M to $394M
- a commerce business, as its CMO
Those are here for one reason. I have written the deck that the field ignored, and I have been the executive whose number depended on the field carrying it. Almost nobody who sells sales training has sat on both sides of that, which is why almost nobody looks at what sits between them.
PRODUCT MARKETING › SALES › SALES LEADERSHIP › CMO › CRO › B2B TRACKS
The question
In 2007 I was a freshly minted MBA running product marketing at Sterling Commerce, and I ran my first real go-to-market launch. The strategy was researched. The message was vetted. My team believed it and so did I.
The field did not pick it up.
I thought that was a complaint. Then I realised it was a question, and that I did not know the answer, and that nobody in the room where we built it knew either. So I went and asked to carry a bag. The leader I asked put me in charge of a new product sales organization instead, which turned out to be the better answer, and I stayed in the field for twenty years.
What twenty years of answering it looked like
Product marketer, then seller, then first-line manager, then running both sides. Sterling Commerce into IBM through the acquisition, and eventually CMO of a $400M division. Then chief revenue officer at FPX, a turnaround that ended in a sale.
The change lives in three seats. I have sat in all of them.
MESSAGINGALIGN
Product marketing, then CMO.
I have written the message with product and marketing, and watched the field ignore it. I know what it takes for every function to own it.
SALES EXECUTIONENERGIZE
Individual contributor, first-line manager, then CRO.
I have carried the number and coached the people who carry it. I know what survives contact with a buyer, and how to teach it so it does.
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGESUSTAIN
CMO, CRO, and the MBA classroom.
I have led the change from the top, and I teach leadership in the MBA program at the University of Georgia. I know why programs die in month four, and what keeps them alive.
What happened anyway
Thirty six companies' go-to-market transformation workshops facilitated, most of them alongside Force Management, running Command of the Message and Command of the Sale. monday.com, Figma, Gainsight, Okta, Synopsys, Fiserv, Chainalysis, Mark43, AlertMedia. My own clients directly: Energage, where the work went from customer-success coaching up into go-to-market leadership, and enVista, where it went from a go-to-market audit down into segmentation and territory design.
All of it by word of mouth. No website worth the name, no outbound, and not one intentional ask. That was a choice at the time. It is not the choice any more.
What I actually do
High Integrity Selling.
A go-to-market system for negotiating value
I help organizations nail and scale the story, powering profitable predictable growth.
- ALIGNTHE ORGANIZATION
- One compelling message that executes the strategy, aligned across every function.
- ENERGIZETHE GO-TO-MARKET TEAM
- Delivered consistently in every pre-sale, post-sale, marketing and product conversation.
- SUSTAINTHE BEHAVIORS THAT BUILD CULTURE
- Coached into habit by trained managers, and by an AI coach built on your message.
What it is like to work with me, in other people's words
“I had the privilege to work with Russell 3 times. After many years of selling and sales leadership where I have been trained at Solution Selling twice, Customer Centric Selling 3 times, Sandler once, Force Management 3 times, I can easily say that Russell is one of the best facilitators of sales training I have met. His ability to lead a room with 2, 3 or 400 people is absolutely incredible. Russell has this gift of feeling the energy of the people he interacts with and can instantly adapt his speech to them; Russell has an extremely strong psychology and can really lead and inspire others through a shared objective. Last point that really inspired me when I was working with him is that Russell enjoyed so much what he does that it is contagious with everyone and make them enjoying learning.”
Michelle Demarco, CFO, enVista
“I loved working with you. You were great. I could see why you're teaching, because you're a great teacher.”
“You will not find somebody who has the skill to be both an advocate and to challenge you at the same time, in a way that you don't even realize until after you're three steps down the road. Not only is he going to challenge you to elevate your thinking, think two roles ahead of where you are today, but then bring it back around to explaining the why and the impact.”
Fran Orlando, marketing leader, Energage “Not only is he somebody with integrity and with real care, but he treats you as an equal even when you're not. While he knows a lot more than you, he doesn't talk down to you.”
Fran Orlando, Energage “Russell’s ability to coach somebody and elevate their thinking, to be a more effective decision maker is transformative …. We have a higher level of rigor in discovery, which has led to better deal qualification, the ability to track deal quality objectively, and a shared language between all go-to-market teams.”
Fran Orlando, Head of Marketing, Energage “That has always stuck with me. You have got to whittle it down to where you actually have a right to win. I have taken that methodology and brought it to some of my other clients, and now in my new role at First Merchants I just did the analysis again.”
Michelle Demarco, CFO. She was brought into an enVista engagement because nobody there could do the analysis. She has run the method at two companies since.
What I will tell you that most people selling this will not
When I should not take your money.
If the work you are asking for will not move the outcome you are paying for, I will say so before we start, not after the invoice. I would rather lose the engagement than run one that cannot work.
That the engagement is designed to end.
If your managers still need me in year two, I did it wrong, and I will have written that into the scope before we start.
Why I do it from outside now
After FPX sold, my wife pointed out that I had been telling everyone my kids were the priority while they spent a year watching me be somewhere else. She was right. I was burned out and had not noticed.
So I built this to be present while my sons still want me around, and I have organized the work around that ever since: fixed scope, a defined end, and engagements designed so that nobody is waiting on me.
Outside this
I live in Atlanta with my wife and two sons. Most years I take the boys up the Tuckerman Ravine trail on Mount Washington, which is where I learned at fourteen that complaining does not get you up a mountain. I keynote when somebody asks, and I enjoy it more than is probably reasonable.
If you want to know whether I am the right person for what you are dealing with, the fastest way to find out is thirty minutes.
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