Ryan Hall

Founder & Managing Director

Founder, Friday Solved | Building scalable, predicable and sustainable sales engines inside your business

I'm the founder of Friday Solved, a consulting company that helps businesses solve their sales problems with sustainable and scalable solutions. 

I've founded and been through two exits, through which my focus has always been about sales growth.

Over the last 20+ years of experience in positioning, proposition design, and sales strategy, I have helped leading global brands such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Sky, M&S, first direct, Trainline, Vodafone, The Independent, UBS, Bank of America and The Times buy market-leading solutions. 

My passion is to share my expertise and insights with other, founders, CEOs and business leaders who want to create a market position that stands out in a B2B market. 

I offer pragmatic frameworks, build sustainable sales engines inside your business, and coaching formats that create focus, drive accountability and scale sales results and my book guides readers through the growth process. Whether it is sales culture, sales engine, or go-to-market strategyI can help you find clarity, relevance, and value.

Coach & Mentor

As lead Coach and Mentor at Friday Solved, I work personally with you to create focus and accountability to help you unlock the challenges ahead of you.

My approach is highly pragmatic and based on a sleeves-rolled-up approach to getting the right solution for you. 

I pride myself on the way I work with those I'm coaching. Using a mix of structure and on-demand discussion, we get the focus and results you need.

It's a big week up north this week.

A couple of days in Leeds, seeing clients working on our own growth programmes with Natassia and meeting lots and lots of new brilliant people.

And what a way to kick the week off, with a founders' dinner on Monday.

It did everything you want for a strong start to the week.

Great people.

Great conversation.

Great food.

Big thanks to everyone who came. We'll definitely have to do more of those.

But don't forget Lets Taco'bout It will be coming to Leeds very soon! 🌮

Moving on to today, MadFest is about to kick off, and I'm over in Manchester for it.

So no doubt it'll be another two days of meeting good people.

Now, if Ben will just get his skates on,😂 we'll get cracking!

Twenty years of honing my positioning, proposition design, and go-to-market strategy skills haven’t dulled my enjoyment of what I do. I still love nothing more than bringing my expertise in business positioning, strategy, and revenue growth to the table for leading global brands.

Working with brands - I cure the growing pains of brands through my consulting services over at The Zeitgeist by solving problems and making sense of business. The Zeitgeist specialises in digital strategy, customer engagement and retention, as well as customer experience design.

Working agencies - with I also help agencies scale in the way they want through my 1-1 coaching services, which involves growth advising and sales ladder design. 

Taking my expertise DTC - Because I like to keep myself busy and scratch the business itch, I founded and launched a niche-luxury perfume brand, Scent Social. This is a retail and subscription service aiming to challenge the status quo in the perfume industry. This includes its own luxury perfume, Vaunt, as well as the Scent Social Editions range.

Sharing my learnings - Coming later this year is my book Architect, Acquire & Accelerate, which aims to guide founders and CEOs through the growth process.

Before going solo as a coach and founding my agency and brand, I led the Creative Products business at Karmarama. Here, I delivered best-in-class apps for clients such as Deutsche Bank, OSN, M&S Bank, Eurostar, News UK and UBS.

I co-founded Nice in 2009 before it was acquired by Karmarama. My joint leadership helped steer the agency through significant growth, starting from a blank piece of paper. Clients included Channel 4, first direct, Channel 5, Freesat, thetrainline.com, and The Times.

I'm the kind of guy that loves to meet new people, so drop me a message if you'd like to chat. Even if it's just for a coffee and a catch-up, let's talk.

Founder, Friday Solved | Sales systems that are scalable, predictable and sustainable.

International Women's Day is a great way to celebrate the brilliant women around you. 

But it's not just about one day for the Friday Solved team or me. 

Celebrating our brilliant women is not a one-day-a-year thing.

Thats not our culture. 

But it's a great chance to shout out some of the amazing things our talented women have achieved recently. 

Our Head of Creative Strategy Jasmeen, was promoted to her current role and now leads our creative thinking. She's enabled us to develop entirely new ways of thinking around leveraging marketing tactics inside our sales engine frameworks, blown our minds with her way around AI tools and has been pivotal in our biggest pitch ever at Friday Solved. 🤯 

Our Delivery Manager, Emily, was promoted to her current role and has created such a rigorous underlying operating model that not only keeps our business on track but is the catalyst for our ability to scale. And the things she's done with Notion, which has become the interface to our Business Operating System, is simply incredible. 🤓 

Our Demand Generation Consultant, Jeyda, has been at the forefront of us adopting, learning and operationalising the way we run CRM in our own business and that of the implementations we do for our clients. But she's also just become a mum, which is one of the most important jobs going. 🥳 

And last but not least, our Growth Executive, Natassia, has been an incredible backbone for our own sales engine, keeping the wheels turning, events organised, and multiple channels corralled and controlled. Not to mention keeping me in check! 💪

So a huge thank you. 

Not just because it's IWD. But Friday Solved wouldn't be the same without you.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast?

And at Friday Solved, we take our culture very, very seriously.

Not only because we're a remote business, but we have to.

Or because most 'sales consultancies' are known for poor or toxic culture. 

Both are true. That is part of why we focus so much on culture.

But the real reason is that it's really important.

It creates better results.

Delivers a better customer experience.

But it's also what creates the heart of any business. 

It's soul. 

Without that, what are you really building?

So being awarded as one of the top companies to work for in 2025 is huge.

We're only a young business and there's a long road of growth ahead of us.

So this, for me, and the team, is really cool.

Thanks to the Friday Solved team who make it happen. 🙏 

Read more about this in the comments.

Well, that's MAD//Fest done. 

Brilliant couple of days. 

Loads of new faces and, importantly, some quality time with a brilliant little crew.

The event was pretty good. 

Excellent venue. 

Didn't get much of a chance to get to any of the talks, as Ben and I were too busy working hard 😆 

Now on the train back to London for Monkey Fingers! 🙉 🙈 🙊

No one is worried about pipeline when your inbound and referrals are working.

But when the market turns or the channels that ‘were’ working stop.

Everyone freaks out.

Panic sets in.

Reactive sales behaviours start.

“Let’s message loads on ppl on LinkedIn”.

But the damage is done. 

Knee jerk ‘action’ comes too late.

Reactive acitity doesn’t cut it.

The problem is you weren’t investing in the backbone of your sales engine.

There was no scale. 

Nothing to fall back on.

Which is why you need a broader focus than just channels like inbound and referral.

If any of this resonates, the place to start would be our book.

Don’t Sell.

It may well be the thing that changes your perspective and finally get sales working for you the way it’s meant to be.

Super excited to be talking for Bristol Creative Industries in a few weeks.

On what topic you say?

Well, sales of course!

My favourite topic! 

But for this talk, I’m specifically covering ‘Luck isn’t a strategy’.

So it has a big focus on systemisation, process design and how to create scalability.

That doesn’t mean we won’t be talking about the creativity and strategy behind sales.

But we will be talking about how to scale it.

Fancy joining?

It’s on Tuesday 17th March at 12:30.

See you there!

What a week!

Feels like I’ve covered a lot of ground.

And with all the travel and events, we rounded the week off with a good old Monkey Finger Meatup.

It was another night of good people, good connections and of course great food.

Scott at the brilliant team at Bloodsports were fantastic hosts as always.

And of course we do our usual thing and donated all of the leftover food to a local homeless charity.

Great night all round!

Referrals are not a growth strategy. 

They never were.

Most business leaders don't want to hear that. 

Especially when the phone is ringing, clients are arriving pre-warmed, and revenue is growing without anyone having to do anything as uncomfortable as actual selling. 

Referral-led growth feels like proof that you've cracked it. That your reputation is doing the hard work so you don't have to. It feels, in other words, exactly like success.

But feelings aren't forecasts. 

And what looks like a growth engine is often just momentum, the residual energy of good work done in the past, carrying you forward until, one day, it doesn't. 

The businesses that find this out the hard way all share the same blind spot.

They confused being chosen with being in control. 

This article is about the difference between the two and what it actually takes to build growth you can rely on.

Bad outreach is a hot topic at Friday Solved.

We even have a Slack channel to catch bad examples and catalogue the sloppy work that gives the profession a bad name. 

Why? 

Because it's important to see what the usual trash outreach looks like out there and help others understand that there is another way. 

And yes, I know, most of us have only seen the bad. And rarely the good.

And this example below? 

A very direct offer first message, no connection request, no context, no value, no differentiation. 

They've already intruded on my day. 

This is like the digital version of being approached in the street and asked to buy something. 

Then my favourite bit. 

Nothing for weeks, then "I would appreciate your response".

Terrible, passive-aggressive, sloppy work. 

This is a prime example of bad outreach. 

They've burnt me as a prospect. I'm dead data now. 

But it doesn't need to be like this.

You can try to add value. 

Not be so direct.

Take the time to get to know your prospect. 

There is a better way.

You don’t usually associate sales with a creative conference.

But you should.

Last week I was at Dopamine, the event run by Agency Hackers, an event built for creative leaders, creative directors, and people thinking deeply about the future of creative work.

On the surface, it’s about ideas. Craft. Storytelling. AI. Human creativity.

But what stuck out is that too often sales has a creativity problem.

We talk about process.
We talk about pipeline.
We talk about metrics.

All important.

But creativity?

Not neatly enough.

And yet, positioning is creative.

Value propositions are creative.

Messaging is creative.

Outbound that actually gets replies? Deeply creative.

Turning a sales conversation into a commercial story someone believes in? That’s craft.

The businesses that win aren’t just “better at sales”.

They tell better commercial stories.

They frame problems differently.
They challenge assumptions.
They create tension.
They make the buyer see themselves in a new light.

That’s not a script.

That’s creativity applied to revenue.

In a world of AI-written emails and automated sequences, the sales teams who stand out won’t be the most automated.

They’ll be the most original.

The most human.

The most thoughtful.

Creativity isn’t separate from sales.

It’s the multiplier.

So that makes me curious ... do you see creativity as part of your sales strategy?

Or is it still sitting over in “marketing”?

Pitching horrors.

We've all been there.

The mistakes.

The clangers

The faux pas.

The turning up to a presentation naked.

No? Well, there's a story for you.

But it's not always us, because sometimes it's the buyer.

And let's be honest, they can be dicks too.

The time wasters.

Tyre kickers.

The toxic behaviour.

But you know what, it's not talked about enough.

Where are the therapy sessions for pitches that went wrong, other than in the bottom of a wine glass?

Well we're here to help.

We've assembled a group of experts to share their horror stories.

Warts and all.

The skeletons are coming out of the closet.

Next week, we're recording the first session of Smack My Pitch Up.

Get ready for some brutal honesty and some cringe moments.

Watch this space.

We're one week out from the The Wow Company Benchpress event. 

And guess what, yours truly will be sharing his thoughts on sales. 

But next week, we're not just talking about sales.

Tell me more Ryan, iI hear you say 😆 

Well, most businesses think they have a sales problem.

Not enough leads.
Not enough pipeline.
Not enough activity.

So they try to fix it the obvious way.

More outreach.
Heavier-handed follow-ups. 
More pressure on the sales team.

But in many cases, the real issue isn’t activity.

It’s alignment.

Marketing is optimising for leads.
Sales is optimising for revenue.
Content is saying one thing.
Sales conversations are saying another.

And the result is predictable. And not in a good way.

Marketing celebrates MQLs.
Sales complains about lead quality.
Buyers struggle to understand the real value.

The pipeline leaks.

The deeper problem is that most businesses design sales and marketing as separate functions, when in reality they are two parts of the same system.

Because sales today isn’t really about selling.

It’s about buyability.

A concept that I've lived by for 23 years. 

And it's seen me right for at least £100m in closed revenue.

How? 

Before a buyer ever speaks to a salesperson, they are already asking themselves questions:

Do we know this company?
Do they understand our problem?
Do they have a point of view?
Do we trust them?

Marketing plays a critical role here.

Done well, it builds familiarity, credibility and authority long before a buying moment appears.

But that only works if marketing is rooted in the same problems, insights and conversations that sales teams are having with buyers every day.

When that happens, something interesting occurs.

Content stops being marketing output.

It becomes sales infrastructure.

It helps sales teams open conversations.
It answers objections before they arise.
It demonstrates expertise before a pitch is ever needed.

Now marketing isn’t just generating interest.

It’s helping to make the business buyable.

Because the business designed sales and marketing to operate as one revenue engine.

Simply put.

Marketing builds buyability.
Sales converts buyability.

Alignment is when both are built as one system.

So if you're joining Peter, Rory, Chloe and me next week, you're going to get the answers to how this pairing really works.

The unicorn salesperson doesn't exist.

And if your growth depends on finding one, you've already lost.

The businesses winning in sales right now aren't relying on raw talent.

They're relying on systems.

Strategy. Process. Rhythm. Methodology. Momentum.

That's the formula for deal flow that compounds over time.

Drop a comment or share if this hits home 👇

Heading to MadFest in Manchester this week?

Well, why not drop by the independent agencies section and come chat with the Friday Solved team and me.

We're here to give advice, guidance and insights on how to solve sales.

Oh, and of course, we're happy to tell you all about the Don't Sell Skool.

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Everyone has an opinion on sales. 

Fewer have the scars to back it up.

After 23 years in the agency world, I founded, scaled, and led two exits, including an acquisition by Accenture. 

I've made enough mistakes to fill a book. And maybe that's the next one I write. 

And enough hard-won wins to know what actually moves the needle.

So guess what. Sales is tough. 

That's not a controversial take. 

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or hasn't been at it long enough. 

Winning work is rarely about the best pitch deck or the most polished credentials. 

It's about something far less glamorous.

Persistence, effort, and genuinely giving a shit.

What follows are five real client wins that shaped how I think about sales. Not because they were easy. But precisely because they weren't.

I spent 23 years watching great businesses struggle to grow.

Not because their product was wrong.

Not because their team wasn't trying.

But because the way they were approaching sales was working against them. And nobody had told them.

That's what pushed me to write Don't Sell.

The problem is that most B2B businesses are running a sales playbook that's outdated, misaligned with how modern buyers actually make decisions, and creating more friction than it removes.

And the worst part?

It feels normal.

Because everyone around them is doing the same thing.

I've seen it in boardrooms, in pipeline reviews, in the gap between marketing and sales that nobody wants to talk about. The harder teams push, the more resistance they create. The more they "sell", the less they win.

Don't Sell isn't about being passive. It's about being smarter. It's about building the kind of demand, positioning, and systems that make buyers come to you and want to stay.

If you're a founder, sales leader, or revenue owner and something about your pipeline feels off, but you can't quite put your finger on why, this book was written for you.

I'd love to know what the one thing about how your business sells you'd change if you could?

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