Craig Huston is the founder of Summit Achievers, a business advisory firm that helps owners of privately held, lower-middle-market companies achieve sustainable growth, strategic scale, and successful exits. With deep experience in leadership strategy and value creation, the firm focuses on helping business owners optimize enterprise value while ensuring smooth, regret-free transitions.
Business Challenges
When Summit Achievers was launched, the firm quickly discovered that differentiating its services from traditional business coaching was critical. Many business owners had prior experiences with consultants who failed to deliver measurable results, making them skeptical of advisory engagements.
Owners were often reactive rather than proactive, focusing on short-term problems instead of long-term value creation. Helping them see their business as a wealth-building asset, rather than just a source of income, required a fundamental shift in mindset.
Client engagement was another challenge. Business owners were overwhelmed by day-to-day operations and hesitant to invest in strategic advisory services. Without a clear framework to demonstrate tangible ROI, commanding premium fees was difficult. “Owners need to see how improving their business today directly impacts their future wealth,” Huston notes.
Why The Value Builder System™?
Summit Achievers integrated The Value Builder System™ with the Pinnacle framework to create a powerful, results-driven advisory approach. “Pinnacle provides the foundation for leadership, culture, and execution, while Value Builder delivers the data-driven insights that tie every strategic move directly to business valuation,” he explains.
Using the Value Builder Score, the firm provides business owners with a clear benchmark of their company’s strengths and weaknesses. “When owners see their score and how each improvement directly increases their business’s multiple, they start thinking differently about their company,” he says. The Pinnacle framework then helps drive execution by focusing on the key areas of People, Purpose, Playbooks, Performance, and Profit.
Pinnacle’s structured 90-day execution model aligns seamlessly with Value Builder’s data insights. “Every quarter, we focus on a Value Builder driver within the Pinnacle framework, ensuring that business owners are taking consistent, measurable action to increase their company’s value,” Huston shares. This integration enables a holistic advisory approach, balancing operational improvements with financial optimization.
Implementation and Impact
The adoption of The Value Builder System™ alongside Pinnacle transformed Summit Achievers’ advisory model. Previously, engagements were project-based or reactive. Today, the firm operates on a 90-day cadence, guiding business owners through quarterly strategy sessions focusing on measurable improvements in their Value Builder Score while implementing Pinnacle’s leadership and execution strategies.
This structured approach has allowed Summit Achievers to increase fees significantly. Where the firm previously charged lower monthly retainers, it now commands fees starting at $5,000 per month, with some clients paying up to $20,000 for comprehensive advisory services. “When you can show a direct link between your services and an increase in enterprise value, business owners see it as an investment rather than a cost,” he notes.
A Value Builder Success Story
One of Summit Achievers’ most impactful success stories involved a business owner struggling with owner dependence (low Hub & Spoke Score). By integrating Pinnacle’s leadership development strategies and Value Builder’s operational insights, the firm helped the owner transition responsibilities to a capable leadership team. Within two years, the company’s valuation increased significantly, making it more attractive to potential buyers. “Reducing owner dependence was a game-changer—it turned a business that wasn’t sellable into a highly valuable, scalable company,” Huston shares.
In another case, the Summit Achievers team worked with a commercial construction firm that lacked recurring revenue. By implementing Pinnacle’s structured execution model alongside Value Builder’s customer concentration insights, the firm helped the business secure consistent cash flow. “They moved from project-based revenue to a model that provided financial stability and significantly increased their valuation multiple,” Huston explains.
Conclusion
For Summit Achievers, The Value Builder System™, combined with Pinnacle, is more than a set of tools — it is the foundation of the firm’s advisory model. By integrating Value Builder’s data-driven insights with Pinnacle’s leadership strategies and execution methodologies, the firm delivers a structured, high-impact approach that business owners understand and value.
“Value Builder has allowed us to help business owners maximize the value of their greatest wealth-generating asset, while Pinnacle provides the framework to execute that vision,” Huston emphasizes. “For any advisor looking to increase their impact and fees, combining the structured execution of Pinnacle with the valuation insights of The Value Builder System™ is a game-changer.”
