Co-Founder and Principal at Sky Lantern Enterprises | Sales & Development Leader | Revenue Forecaster | Business Consultant | Management Consultant | Strategic Planner | Keynote Speaker
The argument starts the same way in almost every boardroom. Sales insists the pipeline is strong. Finance is nervous. The CEO is caught between the two, staring at a forecast that nobody fully believes but everyone feels pressure to approve. The room debates the numbers instead of the decisions that depend on them.
By the time that meeting happens, the damage is already in motion. Deals have slipped quietly. Stages mean different things to different reps. CRM is more narrative than record. Leadership thinks they are looking at reality, but they are looking at opinion.
The Revenue Architect Who Sees What Others Miss
Matt Gerding is Co-Founder and Principal at Sky Lantern Enterprises, a Fractional CRO and Fractional VP of Sales practice that helps growth-stage companies build predictable revenue through greater visibility, accountability, and execution. He works directly with founders and CEOs who know they need experienced revenue leadership but are not yet ready for a full-time executive. What he gives them is something most have never really had: clarity.
From Financial Discipline to Franchise Networks
Matt did not arrive at that clarity by sitting in strategy sessions. He earned it in the field, starting with rigorous financial analysis at Fifth Third Bank after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Business Economics, emphasizing econometrics and finance. Working through the bank’s rotational associate program across investment advisory services, retail banking, and corporate accounting, he learned early that numbers had to mean something real.
“When people trust the information in front of them, they make better decisions, and they make them faster,” he explains. “When they do not, everything slows down, and everyone starts managing feelings instead of facts.”
That lesson followed him to Bandag, where he spent a decade inside one of the most complex account environments in North America. Matt managed one of the company’s largest national accounts, coordinating 103 franchised dealers serving UPS operations across 58 districts. The stakes were brutally simple: fleets either stayed on the road, or they did not. Every missed handoff, delayed retread, or operational breakdown carried real consequences for customers managing thousands of vehicles.
To grow revenue in that world, good intentions were not enough. He relied on structured account planning, consistent forecasting, and relentless field execution reviews that forced corporate, franchise operators, and field teams to work from the same picture of reality. Over three years, that discipline helped drive more than $13 million in growth.
“We did not call it a revenue operating system at the time,” Matt reflects. “We were just trying to make sure every part of the network saw the same data and knew who owned what. The structure is what made growth repeatable.”
Later roles stretched that foundation across different industries. At Western Union, he led the company’s largest retail partnership, directing a team of twelve Key Account Managers supporting Kroger’s grocery and convenience store operations, where small execution gaps multiplied across thousands of locations. At Plug Power, he drove adoption of hydrogen fuel cell solutions through long, complex sales cycles that demanded accurate forecasts to justify investment. As Regional Vice President at RE/MAX, he oversaw operational and financial performance of 137 franchised offices supporting more than 2,000 real estate professionals across three states.
In each context, the pattern held. When leaders had visibility into what was really happening, they could manage proactively. When they did not, they managed surprises.
Building Trust in an Age of Data Overload
Sky Lantern Enterprises grew out of a simple observation. Technology has improved dramatically, but visibility has not always improved with it. Organizations have more data than ever before, yet leadership teams still struggle to trust forecasts and understand what is actually happening inside the revenue organization.
“Visibility means leadership can trust the numbers and understand what is actually happening inside the revenue organization,” he says. “If I cannot help them get to that point quickly, nothing else I do really matters.”
In his first 30 to 60 days with a company, Matt focuses ruthlessly on the pieces that determine whether anyone should believe the forecast: pipeline stage definitions and exit criteria, forecast methodology and deal inspection, CRM data quality and adoption, weekly pipeline reviews, and KPI dashboards that track activity, conversion rates, pipeline health, and forecast accuracy.
“The goal is not simply more reporting,” he explains. “The goal is creating a shared understanding of reality so leadership can make better decisions and identify problems before they impact results.”
One recent engagement illustrated the stakes clearly. The organization had inconsistent CRM adoption, pipeline stages that meant different things to every rep, and leadership meetings that turned into arguments about which spreadsheet to believe. Matt did not introduce new software. He introduced structure: clear operating cadence, non-negotiable weekly pipeline reviews, standardized stage definitions, and strict expectations around CRM usage.
Within two quarters, something changed that did not show up neatly in a bar chart. The executive team stopped fighting the numbers. Forecast confidence improved. Pipeline visibility increased. Managers knew where to coach instead of where to hope.
“The biggest improvement was not a single metric,” Matt says. “It was leadership’s confidence in the information they were using to run the business.”
Many of the principles Matt uses today were ultimately distilled into The Revenue Operating System™, a practical framework for helping organizations improve visibility, forecasting discipline, accountability, and predictable growth. The book reflects lessons learned across decades of leadership experience spanning financial services, enterprise sales, franchise systems, technology, and growth-stage organizations.
The Contrarian Stance on AI and Revenue
In an era where AI is marketed as the answer to almost every commercial problem, Matt’s stance is deliberately contrarian. He is not anti-AI, but he refuses to let it carry blame for issues that start with human discipline.
“My advice is simple: fix the operating system before adding more technology,” he says. “If CRM data is unreliable, AI simply helps you reach the wrong conclusions faster.”
That sentence tends to land hard in rooms full of executives who have already approved AI budgets. It is meant to. Matt sees the same mistake repeatedly: leaders trying to solve execution problems with tools, hoping a new platform will create consistency that management has never enforced. Technology becomes a very expensive mirror, reflecting the lack of discipline they were trying to avoid.
For Matt, credibility with senior leaders comes from the places he is willing not to go. He does not promise that a fractional CRO can erase years of weak accountability in a quarter. He does not pitch AI as a shortcut to maturity. He keeps returning to the fundamental question that has followed him from commercial truck yards to executive boardrooms: Can you trust what your system is telling you, or not?
The boardroom scene at the beginning of this story still happens in companies that have not met him yet. Forecasts will continue to be debated. Numbers will continue to be questioned. AI will continue to be purchased for organizations that have not yet decided whether they care about the quality of the data it consumes.
Matt will keep taking calls from the leaders who decide they are done guessing.
Matt Gerding is Co-Founder and Principal of Sky Lantern Enterprises, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. He helps growth-stage founders, CEOs, and leadership teams build revenue engines with forecast confidence, real visibility, and accountable execution. To connect with Matt or learn more, visit www.skylantern.pro or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgerding/
