Value-First Team — Client Relationship

The Abs Company

Fitness-equipment manufacturer rebuilding operations around HubSpot and their ERP — theabscompany.com

Active client · AI-Native Shift Phase 1 · weekly coaching

Snapshot

What they do

Manufactures abdominal and glute training equipment for home and commercial gyms. ~50 employees. Sells through territory reps, key accounts (universities, YMCAs, health clubs), dealers, and a replacement-parts e-commerce line.

Engagement

AI-Native Shift Phase 1 — CRM–ERP integration, delivered as weekly coaching with Chris Carolan.

Systems

HubSpot (their own portal), Xorosoft ERP, Shopify, Monday.

Delivery

Co-delivered by Value-First Team and USS.

The relationship

  1. Company record opens in the Value-First portal; first shared-selling work together.

  2. First deal closes.

  3. Engagement begins — first working call with Alexia Petrakos.

  4. Value-First Scoping activated.

  5. UI Extensions activated.

  6. AI-Native Shift activated; Phase 1 opens as a tracked project.

  7. Weekly coaching cadence, 15 sessions documented end to end.

Where they started

For years the company sold the way its market rewarded: territory reps on the road, relationships held in person, presence and persistence doing the work. Then the buyers moved — they began researching in places the company had no presence, and a motion that had always produced stopped producing at the same rate.

Underneath the sales question sat an operating one. The customer-facing system and the ERP held two separate pictures of the same business, and people carried orders between them by hand, checking each one line by line against the other. Every hour spent reconciling was an hour not spent with a customer.

What we delivered

Delivered

  • Value-First Scoping — the engagement's shape and priorities
  • UI Extensions built into their HubSpot portal
  • Client portal delivered
  • Trip Desk activated — the first proof that letting AI carry the low-signal work moved the team faster
  • 15 documented weekly coaching sessions

In progress

  • Phase 1 — connecting HubSpot to the Xorosoft ERP as one operating picture
  • The purchase-order bridge into the ERP
  • Install-program workflows
  • Quoting adoption inside sales coordination

Planned next

  • Mid-August milestone, committed to their leadership
  • State reviews
  • All-company rollout
  • Training video hosting

What changed

The two pictures became one, and the hand-carrying between them went with it. But the change that matters most is the one that outlives the project: capability moved inside the company. The Trip Desk was the first proof that letting AI take the low-signal work made the team faster — and the pattern held. Their Director of Finance now builds the company’s internal employee portal herself, releasing modules to the whole company as they land.

The engagement has crossed from building to switching on. Activation is planned whole-team rather than person by person, with support on either side of the switch-over, so the people who have been doing this work manually are carried through the change rather than surprised by it.

In a sentence

The Abs Company’s market moved out from under a sales model that had worked for years, and their customer and ERP systems held two separate pictures that people carried between by hand. We made them one picture, put AI on the low-signal work so the team could stay on the signal, and coached weekly for fifteen sessions — and the clearest proof it landed is that their Director of Finance now builds their internal operations portal herself.

At a glance

Engagement

Phase 1

AI-Native Shift

Cadence

Weekly

coaching

Client since

Nov 2025

record opened Jan 2024

Sessions

15

documented end to end

Key contacts

Alexia PetrakosDigital Operations Manager — build owner Eleni GagnonDirector of Finance Cindy RamosVP of Sales and Marketing