Customers

Our Customers - Growth Sales & Marketing Case Studies

Imagine a market development methodology that's focused on the needs and wants of your best customers. Now, visualize a marketing process that's oriented outside-in -- from the B2B buyer's perspective -- not inside-out. We've helped our Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) vendor clients reorient their strategic communications narrative to become a trusted and influential advisor.

The following testimonials describe our founder's expertise.

"Working with David is an exciting opportunity, as it forces you to think and to act Client first. David is bringing a tremendous experience from his past (as an Analyst) and helped us a lot to think and to act in the shoes of a Client. David is not just a good writer, putting the words nicely together. David has the expertise to establish the connection between Client needs to the technology, to connect the pains to the Solutions." -- Pierre @IBM
"David is unmatched in his ability to help clients by sharing insights, enabling them to harness today's digital growth opportunities. He is quickly able to understand the market requirements for digital transformation projects and tailor those to fit the information and guidance needs of CIOs and CTOs. He's researched digital business applications that are disrupting traditional industry business models and upsetting the legacy status quo." -- Cynthia @Deloitte

The following summaries are examples of our customer success stories.

Interim Content Strategist - 6-month Assignment

Our Customer: Global Service Provider and Enterprise Networking Company

Their Clients: All the Fortune 100, 500 and 1000

Contracted to study the evolving market for hybrid cloud computing services, software defined networking, network functions virtualization and their customer's growing demand for associated professional services. We enabled the client to reach and engage senior executive decision makers that previously had not considered them as a qualified resource to address their digital business transformation requirements.

The client needed to gain mind-share quickly, to counter competitor attempts to characterize them as a legacy technology player that was late-to-market with their solution. Based upon the client's stated marketing communication goals, we created recommendations for a market development approach, then executed and managed all the tasks including:

Reviewed all relevant third-party market research from analysts
Produced a strategic communications plan to meet the client's needs
Delivered a proposal to develop a thought-leadership editorial series
Selected topics and wrote the draft copy for business-centered stories
Published, syndicated, and promoted each of the final editorials online
Reached and engaged the key market stakeholders, including influencers
Reduced the paid media spend by utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Interim Strategy Consultant - 12-month Assignment

Our Customer: Enterprise Software, SaaS, and Professional Services Company

Their Clients: AT&T, Verizon, Bell Canada, Telus, BT, Virgin Media, Telefonica, Softbank BB

Retained to guide collaborative innovation thought-leadership, expand professional service offerings, and thereby evolve customer relationships -- to go deeper and broader within their major accounts. By engaging new executive stakeholders, we increased their exposure and enabled them to become strategic advisors.

This engagement initially focused on sales support and individual account development activities and then transitioned into broader IP NGN market development planning. The role required that we act as the primary customer experience advocate, service delivery platform SME, and guide their "customer council" collaboration activities. Consultant tasks included:

Write use cases for software to reduce consumer electronics UI complexity
Build value proposition messaging for Software as a Service (SaaS) offers
Assess the market for IPTV and multimedia mobile device management
Create presentation materials, customized proposals, and sales tools
Author editorial content for marketing stakeholders and launch microsite
Develop word-of-mouth campaign, and search engine optimization (SEO)
Influence demand generation, business ROI and user adoption metrics
Enhance customer portal with Web 2.0 features to increase interactivity
Lead broadband service provider customer care website redesign project
Design user research, test product concepts, draft personas and scenarios
Leverage customer experience center, usability lab, and strategic partners

Interim VP & General Manager - 8-month Assignment

Our Customer: Training and Consulting Professional Services Company

Their Clients: IBM, Northwestern Mutual, Cisco Systems, Fair Isaacs, Wellpoint, State Government

Hired to lead the sales, business development, and marketing teams at this boutique IT training, mentoring, and consulting company. Initially worked on short-term tactical activities including:

Mentoring sales, marketing, and operations staff with formal processes
Planning and execution of value proposition messaging development
Media relations, advertising campaign development, article placement
Exhibitor attendance at three high-profile IT enterprise software conferences
Assess and implement sales force automation, with custom sales letters
Created boilerplate proposal text, updated website, white papers, newsletter
Arrange executive introductions at accounts like IBM, Intel, and Home Depot
Submitted and approved on the "preferred contractor" list with public sector agencies

We completed a comprehensive Strategic Marketing Plan to extend their OOAD, UML, Java, and .NET core competency. Assessed the global IT training market and identified specific opportunities to complement existing instructor-led training (ILT) with additional e-learning (synchronous and asynchronous platforms), and blended learning delivery modalities. Interviewed IT training industry analysts (IDC and Gartner) that cover the U.S., EMEA, and Asia-Pacific markets, and completed competitive analysis. Profiled new IT training professional service opportunities including:

IT service management (ITIL project governance)
Managed learning services (partial or total outsourcing)
Business skills for technical leaders (business/technology alignment)
Courseware licensing, distribution, and sales to developing markets
Student assessment and remediation (skills inventory & gap analysis)
Open Source Software (OSS) courseware development and delivery
Measure the progress and results of the sales funnel growth metrics
Explore Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), OSS/J, and AJAX trends

Interim Strategic Relations Director - 10-month Assignment

Our Customer: Retail Systems Integrator and Managed Service Provider

Their Clients: Walmart, ASDA, Eckerd, Kohl’s, Blockbuster, Autozone, and Starbucks

This ten-month project started by drafting a high-level role description for multiple consultants, and a 30-60-90 day schedule of milestone activities that documented the roadmap for their journey to an agreed-upon destination. We then conducted a situation analysis of the company's customer-facing business processes, by interviewing a cross-section of their front-line employees. This exercise resulted in a summarized and actionable execution plan for their executive leadership team. Our project activity schedule also incorporated the following tasks that we produced and executed:

Describe a core value proposition that all employees could learn and recite
Suggest organization changes to establish a proactive sales hunter role
Create sales and marketing objectives for increased market awareness
Select, procure, integrate, and deploy a sales force automation (CRM) system
Build a database of five thousand North American major retailer executives
Replace obsolete marketing collateral, proposal boilerplate, and website
Develop vendor channel partnerships, structure co-op marketing budget
Launch in-store Wi-Fi hotspot and VoIP systems integration services
Launch in-store digital media (audio/video) network promotions service
Productize existing and new value-added professional service offerings
Design and execute a comprehensive market development campaign
Measure the progress and results of the campaign against a benchmark