Craig Huston is a seasoned business advisor and leadership strategist with extensive experience guiding business owners toward sustainable growth, strategic scaling, and successful exits. As the founder of Summit Achievers, Huston specializes in working with privately held, lower-middle-market companies to help them optimize their business value while ensuring a smooth and regret-free transition.
Business Challenges
When Huston launched Summit Achievers, he found that differentiating his services from traditional business coaching was crucial, as many owners had prior experiences with consultants who failed to deliver measurable results. Many business owners were 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.
Another challenge was client engagement. Business owners were often overwhelmed by daily operations and hesitant to invest in strategic advisory services. Without a clear framework for demonstrating tangible ROI, it was difficult to command premium fees. “Owners need to see how improving their business today directly impacts their future wealth,” Huston notes.
Why The Value Builder System™?
Huston 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.
By using the Value Builder Score, Huston 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 Huston’s advisory model. Previously, his engagements were project-based or reactive. Now, he 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 Huston to increase his fees significantly. Previously charging lower monthly retainers, he now commands fees starting at $5,000 per month, with 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 Huston’s 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, Huston 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, he worked with a commercial construction firm that lacked recurring revenue. By implementing Pinnacle’s structured execution model alongside Value Builder’s customer concentration insights, he 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,” he explains.
Conclusion
Huston’s adoption of The Value Builder System™, combined with Pinnacle, has redefined his advisory practice, allowing him to offer a structured, high-impact approach that business owners understand and value. By integrating Value Builder’s data-driven insights with Pinnacle’s leadership strategies and execution methodologies, he has built a model that delivers measurable results.
“Value Builder has allowed me 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.”
