Gary Goddard
- Specialism: Field sales & new business development; territory and account growth; sales training and floor-coaching for frontline teams; pricing, quoting and margin control; commercial turnarounds in volatile or difficult trading periods. Sectors: food & hospitality, SaaS, renewable energy.
- Track Record: Director of Sales at Bidfresh (13 years, Devon & London); Commercial Director at Wright Brothers, Paignton; Head of Commercial (Sales Director) at Rekki, London; Managing Director at Mole Energy. 25+ years across food, SaaS and renewables, from office-house junior to board level.
- Offer: Senior commercial leadership that stays close to the ground. I shape the strategy, set the pricing and territory approach, then get hands-on with the team to make sure it actually gets delivered. Comfortable sitting in on customer meetings, coaching reps live on calls, and stepping into pricing or account conversations directly when it counts, rather than managing purely through reports from a distance.
- Gary says: “I set the strategy, then stay close enough to the ground to make sure it lands.”
- Try me: garygoddardcoaching.com
After 25 years building revenue for other people’s businesses, climbing from office junior to Director of Sales, then Commercial Director, Head of Commercial and Managing Director, I reached a point where board-level strategy meant I was getting further and further from the customers and the number. I wanted to go back to my passion: setting the commercial strategy and staying close enough to the ground to make sure it lands, without being locked into one company, one product or one team. Portfolio work lets me do that for more than one business at a time.
That next chapter started when I set up Gary Goddard Coaching in early 2025 while still working, as proof to myself that I could build something from scratch again: product, marketing, sales and delivery, all done personally with no team behind it. That reminded me how much I enjoy building rather than just running what’s already built. Around the same time, I stepped back from the MD role at Mole Energy, and it became clear that the next chapter wasn’t another single full-time seat. It was taking that commercial instinct and putting it to work across a few businesses at once.
One of my first real successes was rebuilding an underperforming Devon territory for Wright Brothers from nothing, creating a £2 million pro rata portfolio through cold outreach and personal account development, with no back office to hand any of it to. That’s the pattern I’ve repeated every time I’ve walked into a difficult trading position: work the accounts, rebuild the trust and get the numbers moving again.
Through that experience, I’ve learned that deals get won or lost in the field, not the boardroom, but the boardroom is where you decide which fights are worth having. I’ve learned to trust a team to deliver once the strategy and pricing are right, rather than doing it all myself. I’ve also learned that staying close enough to sit in on a customer meeting or coach a call live is worth more than any report.
It’s working for me now because I’m not trying to be everything to one business anymore. I can bring 25 years of commercial leadership across food, SaaS and renewables into a business for exactly the problem it has, then move on to the next one, without the politics or the slow burn of a single permanent seat.
Looking ahead, I want to build a small portfolio of clients I can commit to properly rather than spreading myself too thin. I’m particularly interested in businesses going through the kind of commercial turnaround or growth push I’ve handled before, where a senior hand on the strategy and a bit of time in the field with the team can make a real difference, fast.