A boutique investment bank. A Houston commercial real estate brokerage. A travel-industry M&A firm run by two partners who also host a podcast.
Different markets. Different buyers. Different deal sizes. On paper, they have almost nothing in common.
Then you look at what they built, and it's the same five things.
Oaklyn Consulting, RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group, and Travel Again Advisory didn't grow because they found a magic channel. Each of them installed the same growth infrastructure underneath a very different business. This post lines the three up, system by system, so you can see the pattern and steal it.
What growth infrastructure do these three firms share?
All three built the five systems in the 5-System B2B Growth Stack: Position, Generate Demand, Convert, Deliver, and Compound. Each firm started with Position, made the firm easy to find and easy to refer, stayed present between deals, and turned every win into fuel for the next one. The tactics changed by market. The infrastructure didn't.
It's the same architecture laid out in the growth systems for B2B service firms playbook. These are the receipts.
Meet the three firms
Oaklyn Consulting is a boutique investment bank led by Managing Partner Frank Williamson. The firm takes on high-stakes situations where a company needs fixing, selling, or both. Nearly all of its work arrives through referral partners: venture investors and lenders who see trouble before anyone else does.
RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group is a Houston commercial real estate brokerage led by Patrick J. Buckhoff, CCIM. The firm helps owners, investors, and businesses buy, sell, and lease industrial, retail, office, and land properties. It came into this work during one of the toughest stretches commercial real estate has seen since 2008.
Travel Again Advisory is a travel-industry M&A and strategic advisory firm led by Managing Partner Mike McCormick and partner Ed Silver. The partners have run travel companies, advised major brands, and closed well-known deals. The firm also ran a popular industry podcast, which created a problem we'll get to in a second.
The results, side by side
| Oaklyn Consulting | RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group | Travel Again Advisory | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline result | Gross profit up 93% YoY | Engaged web visits up 486% | Active engagements up 200% |
| Timeframe | FY2024 to FY2025 | Aug 2023 to Aug 2026 | Feb to Sep 2026 |
| Supporting result | Win rate 78%, up from 58% in 2022 | Inbound leads every week | Organic search visits up 1,011% YoY |
| Where new business comes from | Referral partners | Owners, CPAs, realtors, search, AI assistants | Search, LinkedIn, conventions, referrals |
Now the part that matters. How they got there.
System 1: Position that other people can repeat
Every one of these firms had the same starting problem. The work was excellent. The words describing it weren't doing the job.
Oaklyn Consulting's research made it painfully clear. Venture investors respected the team but struggled to describe an ideal Oaklyn Consulting project. One investor said it out loud: "I don't think [Oaklyn Consulting] sells the value creation well enough." So the firm repositioned as a strategic partner that solves a company's problems before selling it, in language a referral partner could say in one breath.
Travel Again Advisory had a louder version of the same issue. The podcast was so visible that people saw the firm as a media brand. Mike McCormick named it in our first conversations: "We're not putting front and center the thing that we actually make money doing." Before anyone touched a page, the partners defined their ideal client profile. Then the homepage started leading with advisory work and the podcast got its own space.
RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group sharpened its position with data. The firm added a data scientist and submarket-level analysis. Houston has 47 office submarkets, with vacancy around 14% in one and 47% in another. Patrick's standard for that content is the right standard for any firm: owners need "meaningful specifics, not wandering generalities."
The pattern: Position came first in all three. Nobody rebuilt a website until the firm could say who it serves and why it's the obvious call.
System 2: Generate Demand that doesn't wait on the founder's network
Referrals are great. Demand that runs only on referrals goes quiet when the founder gets busy. All three firms in this post are in businesses where the buyer might not need you for a year. Then they need you this week. So each one built two things: new sources of conversations, and a rhythm that keeps the firm remembered between deals.
Travel Again Advisory moved years of podcast episodes and articles off a platform search engines barely indexed and onto a fast site built for Google and AI answer engines. Organic search visits rose 1,011% year over year. The partners run weekly on LinkedIn, a newsletter, and a biweekly email. When American Express Global Business Travel announced it was going private, Mike posted his analysis within 20 minutes. It reached American Express's leadership team.
RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group built separate campaigns for owners, CPAs, and realtors. It launched the "Profits & Properties" LinkedIn newsletter, now past 6,100 subscribers, and a CPA newsletter built from scratch that hit a 40% peak open rate. Then AI search opened a new lane. In Patrick's words: "Recently I've gotten three calls inbound that people found us online. Two from chat, one from Claude." In 2025, social channels were offline for most of the year. Inbound kept arriving through the website, email, and listings anyway.
Oaklyn Consulting kept referrals as the main engine, then made the engine run on purpose. Marketing was built around how referral partners actually behave: who they are, what they need to hear, and how often. An email newsletter and a LinkedIn newsletter kept the firm in front of the investors and lenders who see deals first. New introductions rose 122%.
The pattern: Each firm added at least one source of new conversations that didn't depend on the founder picking up the phone, and a modest rhythm it actually keeps. For a deeper look, read how to build a sales engine that doesn't depend on you.
System 3: Convert interest into signed work
A full inbox means nothing if the conversations stall at "let's stay in touch."
Oaklyn Consulting's redesigned website communicates outcomes and walks visitors to a conversation, with conversion paths that mirror how a referral becomes an engagement. Win rate climbed to 78%, up from 58% in 2022.
Travel Again Advisory's conversations started arriving already warm. In February 2026, a founder who had tried to sell her company on her own found the firm on Google and hired it. Mike's read on why: "Clearly, it spoke a language in terms of what she was looking for." Ed Silver had been the skeptic. He thought people don't buy advisory services through the internet. His verdict: "I thought it would be brand negative, but here we are."
RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group ran outbound campaigns to owners that produced new listings, and each listing became its own conversion engine. Patrick put the model in one line: "The listings properly marketed should generate inbound, which generates the buyers and tenants."
The pattern: Each firm built a clear next step for an interested buyer, so the conversation moves without the founder chasing it.
System 4: Deliver at a pace that fits a full client load
Most growth stories skip this system. These three firms built around it.
Travel Again Advisory's partners agreed on one consistent message and a publishing cadence that fits a full client load. That decision is the reason the presence held. A cadence the partners can't keep during a live deal is a cadence that dies in month three. The firm now has work booked through the first quarter of 2027.
Oaklyn Consulting's website handles the basics before the first call, so the senior team spends its time with qualified prospects and live engagements.
The pattern: Growth that breaks delivery costs you the clients you already have. Each firm built marketing around the reality of senior people doing client work.
System 5: Compound every win into the next one
This is where marketing stops being a cost and starts being a decision.
Oaklyn Consulting tied marketing activity to its quarterly sales funnel. Leadership reviews marketing output next to revenue, win rate, and acquisition cost. That review tells the firm what to repeat. It's a big part of why revenue grew 73% year over year and 115% from 2022 to 2025. Frank Williamson put it plainly: "What I like most is the connection of marketing to revenue operations. We've got better metrics than we had before. This is as organized a marketing agency approach as I have ever experienced."
RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group shows what compounding looks like under stress. In 2025 the firm's social channels were offline for most of the year. Inbound kept coming anyway, through the website, email, and listing marketing the firm had already built. Patrick summed up the firm's position coming out of a hard market: "We had our best year last year."
Travel Again Advisory tracks search clicks, sessions, and where each new engagement came from. Monthly Google clicks rose 233% from July 2025 to July 2026. More useful than the traffic number: the partners know which channel produced the sell-side client and which produced the qualified buyer, so they know where to put the next hour.
The pattern: Each firm can answer "where did this client come from?" with a source, and uses that answer to make the next win easier.
A worked example: how the five systems stack in one deal
Say a boutique advisory firm wants one sell-side mandate from a sector it knows well.
Position gives the firm a one-line description its CPA partners can repeat. Generate Demand gets that description in front of owners through search and a short outbound campaign, and puts a monthly note in front of the CPA network, so the firm is top of mind when an owner mentions an exit. Convert means the owner who calls gets a clear next step that week, from someone other than a partner buried in a live deal. Deliver keeps the senior partner on live deals instead of rewriting the website. Compound shows the mandate came from a CPA referral that started with a newsletter click, turns the closed deal into the next proof story, and tells the firm to send more notes to CPAs.
Pull out any one of those and the deal still might happen. It just becomes luck again.
That's what the three firms in this post share: a structure where each system feeds the next.
What this means for your firm
You don't need to be an investment bank, a brokerage, or a travel advisory firm. You need the five systems, built in the right order for your business.
Start with Position. Then pick the one system where your firm most depends on you. If you're not sure which one that is, take the Week-Off Test. Then come back to the growth systems for B2B service firms playbook for the full build.
Read the full stories: Oaklyn Consulting, RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group, and Travel Again Advisory.
Frequently asked questions
What growth infrastructure do successful B2B service firms share? Oaklyn Consulting, RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group, and Travel Again Advisory each built the same five systems: Position that clients and referral partners can repeat, Generate Demand that doesn't wait on the founder's network, Convert that turns interest into signed work, Deliver that fits a full client load, and Compound that turns every win into the next one.
What results did Oaklyn Consulting get? Oaklyn Consulting, a boutique investment bank, grew gross profit 93% year over year from FY2024 to FY2025, grew revenue 73% year over year, and raised its win rate to 78% from 58% in 2022. New introductions rose 122%.
What results did RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group get? RE/MAX Commercial Advisors Group, a Houston commercial real estate brokerage, grew engaged website visits 486% from August 2023 to August 2026 and now receives inbound leads weekly, including calls from buyers who found the firm through AI assistants.
What results did Travel Again Advisory get? Travel Again Advisory, a travel-industry M&A and strategic advisory firm, grew active client engagements 200% from February to September 2026. Organic search visits rose 1,011% year over year, and the firm has work booked through the first quarter of 2027.
Which growth system should a firm build first? Position comes first in all three stories. Each firm defined who it serves and why it's the obvious call before rebuilding a website or launching a newsletter. Every other system works better once people can repeat what the firm does.
Want to see which of the five systems your firm is missing?