About

Built for the gap between strong products and the commercial performance they deserve.

Most PE-backed manufacturers are not commercially underperforming because of bad products or bad people. They are underperforming because commercial transformation is genuinely hard to execute from the inside. Post-acquisition integration, operational priorities, and market pressure all compete for the same attention. Townsend Franklin exists to close that gap.

Our Approach

We embed with the management team, not above it. That means working inside the commercial function, in real time, alongside the people who have to run the program after we leave.

Engagements are structured around outcomes, not hours. Every phase has a clear objective, a defined set of deliverables, and a handoff plan built in from the start.

The measure of a good engagement is not what we built while we were there. It is whether the team can sustain it two years after we leave.

What That Looks Like in Practice
  • Weeks 1 to 4: Diagnostic and alignment Understand the commercial gaps, align on priorities, and build the roadmap with the team that will execute it.
  • Months 2 to 4: Build and deploy Execute against the roadmap — strategy, process, infrastructure, and enablement in parallel where possible.
  • Months 4 onward: Embed and sustain Transfer ownership to the team, build the measurement systems, and shift from builder to coach.
Principal
Nina Snelling
Nina Snelling
Founder & Principal, Townsend Franklin

Nina spent more than a decade as a senior commercial leader inside PE-backed manufacturing. She was most recently CCO of a $500M precision components manufacturer, overseeing a 100-person commercial organization and working directly with the CEO and board on growth strategy and acquisitions. Before that, she was VP Marketing at an $800M global precision manufacturer operating across 19 countries. She completed the General Management Programme at Cambridge University.

That experience on the inside shapes how she works now. Townsend Franklin doesn't arrive with a predetermined playbook. Discovery comes first: time spent with your teams, learning the actual shape of the problem. The engagement is built from there, not the other way around.

The goal is a simple one. Less outside advisor, more embedded partner. Someone who is genuinely invested in the outcome, not managing to a deliverable.

Track Record

Selected outcomes from prior leadership roles inside PE-backed manufacturing companies.

8×

Pipeline expansion at a $500M precision components manufacturer after redesigning the CRM infrastructure, sales process, and pipeline methodology from the ground up. Win rates improved 20%. The approach was built for and deployed across a 100-person sales organization and remains its commercial operating standard.

$24M+

In digital-sourced new business generated annually across four global manufacturing brands, scaling from zero over two years. A second manufacturer's digital commerce and lead platform generated $5.1M in annualized eCommerce revenue and $10.7M in qualified lead pipeline per year from 8,500+ inbound inquiries.

24 brands

Acquired brands consolidated into a single unified commercial platform: brand architecture, positioning, messaging, and digital infrastructure built to support continued post-acquisition integration at scale across a multi-site manufacturing operation.

48%

Year-over-year revenue growth in an aerospace and defense vertical, driven by a deliberate segment expansion strategy. The vertical grew from a secondary priority to the company's second-largest industry vertical within a single fiscal year.

How We Work
01
Strategy without execution is a document.

Townsend Franklin is built to do both. Every recommendation comes with an implementation path and a plan to run it. We do not hand off a strategy and move on.

02
The work should outlast the engagement.

What we leave behind is more important than what we build while we are there. That shapes how we build, who we involve, and what we document at every phase.

03
Embedded means embedded.

We work inside the commercial function, in real time, with the team that has to own the outcome. Problems move faster than advisory relationships, and so do we.

Let's talk about what you are trying to build.

Whether you have a clear scope or just a sense that the commercial function is not where it needs to be, a 30-minute conversation is a good place to start.

Get in touch