Past Engagements


We’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most interesting technology firms in the world, engaged in a variety of exciting projects. The following is a sample of the kinds of work we've done.

Focus on a Niche to Achieve Greater Success

Originally designed as a document management product, InConcert had to be repositioned in order to achieve greater traction. We repositioned the product and company from a horizontal workflow toolkit vendor to provider of solutions for the telecommunications industry. This focused strategy achieved nearly 100% target market penetration within 1.5 years of introduction and lead to the purchase of the company by TIBCO.

Strategic Acquisitions Lead to Company Re-positioning

While other companies were hunkered down during the 2008-2009 downturn, Rogue Wave Software expanded their product portfolio through acquisition. This allowed them to enter a new market: High Performance Computing. We crafted the new corporate positioning, developed the materials to introduce the new Rogue Wave to the market through press, analyst and customer meetings, and drove the consolidation of four company websites into one.

Understanding and Catering to all Buying Influences in the Sales Cycle

When Spotfire, a top business analytics company was purchased by TIBCO, a large infrastructure vendor, their deals rapidly moved from departmental applications to large-scale enterprise sales. But with that change came new influencers in the sales cycle: their prospect’s central IT department. We created new positioning and sales tools to help the team convert those technical IT audiences from gatekeepers to allies.

Interim Marketing Management - Sometimes the Unforeseen Strikes

In the middle of a branding redesign and launch of their new website, TAGSYS a French RFID company lost the key marketing manager responsible for the project. At the same time, their design company lost their client liaison. The project was stalled. We came in and took over the project. We re-wrote substantial amounts of the web copy (and other collateral such as case studies) and worked with the design house to finish the site design. We brought in a graphic designer to lead the production of printed collateral, and an event planner for tradeshow management. Eventually, our client was able to hire a senior marketing manager to bring the work back in house and resume normal marketing operations.

Launching new Product Lines: Professional Services

When Lightbridge, a leading provider customer acquisition and risk management products for wireless telecommunications service providers wanted to create a new consulting service business line, they needed someone to convert the intellectual property in their consultants’ heads into service offerings. We created the marketing strategy and positioning for these offerings, then created the collateral and other sales tools needed to articulate the value of these offerings to the market. We then created and delivered sales training, leveraging the sales methodology (Target Account Selling) they had recently rolled out to their entire staff.

Enhancing the Alignment between the Marketing and Sales Teams

When an application infrastructure software vendor wanted to ignite its sales force, it brought in consultants from Miller Heiman to train the team in Strategic Selling. The result was a sales force with new techniques for acquiring new customers and a common language for discussing sales strategy. In order to make certain that the marketing organization was aligned with these new strategies, we uncovered the key Buying Influences, created messaging and sales tools appropriate to each Buying Influence and trained the demand generation on which roles would provide the best leads for their sales colleagues. The result was a marketing organization that acted in harmony with the sales team’s strategy.

Emerging from Stealth Mode

After spending several years developing its product, this unstructured data management company needed to create a public presence and come out of “stealth.” We formulated the messaging and positioning for company and its products, as well as creating vertical messaging to give prospects ideas of how the products could be applied to their specific challenges. We crafted sales tools and collateral, including the development of their first website, and performed sales training for an outsourced inside sales organization.

Position for New Markets and Acquisition

Our client was operating in a very crowded market. They needed to define a new market category in which they could claim thought leadership and market dominance. We studied the market, identifying buyers and their decision drivers. We scrutinized the existing messaging, as well as the company and product differentiators. We used this discovery to develop the positioning for a new market category in which our client would be the dominant vendor. This positioning made the company appealing for acquisition by a larger vendor.

Provide Strategic Counsel

In general, we operate as an adjunct to the most senior marketing leader in the company. So it’s always the case that our service includes a certain amount of strategic counsel. But sometimes, we do very little of the actual crafting of the marketing materials, and really concentrate on providing senior-level counsel to our clients.
Examples of this type of engagement have included:

  • Helping a European document management company assess how they should enter the US market.
  • Assisting in the development of the business plan for a data and process management start-up.
  • Providing guidance on the refinement of target markets and development of go-to-market plans (several companies).