Inversion Independent Technology Consulting - Fractional CRO
The Revenue Ceiling Every
Founder-Led Technology
Consulting Firm Hits
at $50-75 Million
SPR Consulting has built one of the most respected agile technology consulting practices in Chicago. The firm is founder-led, independent, and operating at the exact stage where the revenue system that built the business becomes the ceiling that limits the next phase of it.
The Founder-Led Revenue Ceiling
The System That Got You
to $50M Is the System
That Caps You at $75M
SPR Consulting built a strong agile technology consulting practice in one of the most competitive enterprise IT markets in the country. The Chicago market for technology consulting is deep, the enterprise buyer base is sophisticated, and SPR has earned a genuine reputation for delivery quality that is hard to build and easy to lose. The revenue system has not always matched the reputation.
Every founder-led technology consulting firm at the $50-75 million revenue stage has the same commercial profile: the founder and two or three senior people are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of new business revenue. The pipeline is built on relationships and referrals. The forecast is built on gut feel and relationship confidence. The ICP exists in the heads of the senior team but has never been written down in a form the next generation of business developers can use.
The ceiling is not a market problem. The Chicago enterprise technology market will support a $200 million agile consulting firm. It is a system problem. The revenue motion that generated $50 million in revenue ran on personal credibility and relationship maintenance. Those things are real assets - but they are not scalable in the way a system is scalable. The transition from a relationship-based revenue motion to a system-based one is the most important commercial event in the history of a firm like SPR.
The risk in making that transition is real. The relationships that built the firm are fragile in the sense that they depend on the founder's personal attention. A revenue system that feels too institutional to the existing client base can damage the thing it was supposed to protect. Kevin French has navigated this specific transition multiple times. The system gets installed without breaking the relationships.
What Kevin Brings to Chicago
I Have Competed for the Same
Enterprise Accounts That SPR Serves.
I Know This Market.
My engagement with the Chicago enterprise technology market goes back to my time at WPP and continues through my work at BairesDev and Globant - both of which competed directly for the same accounts that agile consulting firms like SPR serve. I know the procurement processes, the internal politics, and the decision criteria that Chicago enterprise technology buyers use when they are choosing a consulting partner.
More relevantly, I know what makes an agile consulting firm win a competitive evaluation against firms that are larger, better branded, or cheaper. The answer is almost never the methodology - most enterprise buyers assume agile competence at this point. The answer is the ability to diagnose the client's specific problem before the pitch and demonstrate in the pitch that the diagnosis was right. That is an Inversion Selling competency, and it is one that most agile consulting firms have not systematically built.
The $50-75M independent technology consulting firm is my core ICP. Not because it is the most prestigious client or the largest check - but because it is the engagement where I can see the largest delta between where the firm is and where it can be with the right revenue operating system. SPR has all of the underlying assets. The revenue system is the variable.
Signs Your Model Is Fighting Physics
Four Patterns.
Every One Is Present
at This Stage.
These are not theoretical. They are the specific commercial physics failures that appear in every technology services company and digital agency at this stage. The Growth Audit identifies which ones are acute within 48 hours.
Pattern 01
The AI Multiplier Trap
SPR is using AI to improve delivery velocity - automated code review, faster sprint tooling. That is the right use. The trap is when the business development team starts using AI to increase outreach volume rather than improve the quality of existing conversations. Volume is not SPR's constraint. Precision is.
Pattern 02
The Execution Paradox
The agile consulting firm at SPR's scale is typically organized as a delivery machine with a thin commercial layer on top. Principals who are excellent at delivery carry the new business responsibility as a second job. That structure caps commercial performance because judgment-heavy roles are doing double duty.
Pattern 03
The Billable Hour Anchor
SPR prices on project and retainer time - inputs. The enterprise technology buyers in Chicago who are SPR's ideal clients are under pressure to demonstrate that their technology investments produced business outcomes, not just on-time, on-budget delivery. The firm that prices on outcomes has a fundamentally different relationship with the CFO's office.
Pattern 04
The Discovery Gap
The Chicago enterprise technology buyer evaluating SPR has almost certainly worked with or evaluated agile consulting firms before. They know what agile looks like. A discovery process that explains agile to an experienced enterprise technology leader is running a 2008 motion in a 2026 conversation.
"Most technology services firms have revenue. They do not have a revenue system. The difference between those two things determines whether the next three years look like compounding or ceiling."
- Kevin French - Inversion GTM
The Engagement Arc
What the First 90 Days
Looks Like at a Company
Like SPR Consulting
This is not a consulting engagement with a final presentation. It is an operating role. Every step produces something that works without me - a criterion, a process, a scorecard, a habit in the team.
Days 1-15 The Chicago Market Growth Audit
Not just a pipeline review - a market positioning audit. Where is SPR winning, where is it losing, and what do the lost deals have in common? The Growth Audit for an independent consulting firm maps the revenue system to the competitive market it operates in.
Days 15-45 ICP Codification and Qualification
The ICP that lives in the founder's head gets written down, tested against won-deal data, and turned into MATH qualification criteria. The senior team stops being the filter and the criteria become the filter.
Days 45-75 Pipeline Stage Installation
A six-stage pipeline model gets installed. Every current deal gets assigned to the right stage. The forecast becomes a stage-probability calculation rather than a confidence rating. The founder can see the full revenue cycle for the first time.
Days 75-90 Transfer to the Next Generation
The most important output of the engagement is not the revenue system itself - it is the fact that the next generation of business developers at SPR can run it without the founder. The documentation, training, and transition protocols get built in the final 15 days.
Is This the Right Conversation
You Should Call Kevin If -
The Growth Audit is $2,500-$3,500 and takes 48-72 hours. It produces a written diagnosis of exactly where the revenue system is breaking and what needs to be fixed. There is no obligation to continue. Most clients say it is the most useful commercial conversation they have had in years.
The founder is in every deal above a threshold size
This is the most common signal for a firm at SPR's stage. It is not a failure - it is a description of where the revenue system's ceiling is. The Growth Audit identifies the threshold and builds the system that raises it.
The forecast has been wrong in the same direction for three or more consecutive quarters
Consistent forecast error in the same direction is a qualification problem, not a luck problem. MATH qualification changes the inputs to the forecast, which changes the accuracy of the output.
The firm is PE-ready but has not been valued yet
An independent technology consulting firm that is thinking about its first institutional capital raise needs a revenue operating system that demonstrates to investors that the pipeline is real and the forecast is math. The Growth Audit builds the data room for the commercial side of the business.
New business wins feel inconsistent relative to the firm's reputation
When a firm with SPR's reputation loses deals to firms that are objectively less qualified, the issue is almost always in the pitch process rather than the capability. Inversion Selling is built specifically for this - it changes the conversation before the pitch happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions About Fractional CRO
and CGO for Companies Like SPR Consulting
What does a fractional CRO engagement look like for an independent firm that is not PE-backed?
The engagement model is the same but the incentive structure reflects the fact that there is no PE board. Kevin's performance fee is tied to revenue metrics the founder cares about - pipeline growth, close rate improvement, revenue against plan. The Growth Audit is the starting point regardless of ownership structure.
How does Kevin work with a founder who is also the primary business developer?
This is the most common engagement configuration at the $50-75M stage. Kevin's job is not to replace the founder in new business - it is to build the system that the founder is currently carrying alone. The founder's time gets redirected from doing the revenue system's job to doing the things only the founder can do.
What happens to the firm's culture when a formal revenue system gets installed?
The firms that resist formal revenue systems most often do so because they associate 'system' with 'impersonal.' Kevin builds systems that codify the judgment and the relationship intelligence that built the firm - not systems that replace those things with process theater. The culture gets stronger, not weaker.
How is Inversion Selling different from other sales methodologies an agile consulting firm might have tried?
Most sales methodologies were designed for product companies. They were adapted for services firms and they show the seams. Inversion Selling was designed from the ground up for B2B technology services - specifically for the buyer who enters the conversation already knowing more than the methodology assumes. It is not adapted from somewhere else.
Does Kevin work with firms outside of the Chicago market?
Kevin is based in Philadelphia and works with firms across the country. Chicago is a market he knows particularly well from his time at WPP and his competitive exposure to the Chicago enterprise IT market through BairesDev and Globant. The in-person engagement is typically one to two days per month with the rest of the work remote.
Ready to Find Out
What Is Actually Wrong?
The Growth Audit is 48-72 hours, costs $2,500-$3,500, and tells you exactly where the revenue system is breaking - with no obligation to continue. Most clients say it is the clearest diagnosis they have ever received on their commercial operation.
856-418-0502 - Philadelphia, PA - Max 3 active engagements