Your pipeline problem is usually a decision that was never made.

Four decisions and a plan. Segment priority and the ideal customer profile, meaning which customers the company is built for and which are declined; positioning and messaging, meaning what you are against the alternatives buyers actually consider; channel roles, meaning what each channel is for across a long committee-driven cycle; and budget and measurement, meaning owners, spend by quarter and the metrics leadership and the board review. The output is a written marketing plan, not a workshop summary.

An agency executes a plan. This engagement writes one, and because we take no execution work inside it, the plan is free to say that two channels should be cut and one segment should stop being marketed at all. The deliverable includes a one-page brief written so any agency, contractor or in-house team, including your current one, can deliver against it. Execution is scoped separately afterwards if you want us to do it.

A fixed fee quoted after a scoping call, with deliverables and dates written down before you commit. It varies with the number of segments, products and regions in scope and the state of your CRM, analytics and product data, so publishing a rate would mislead most readers. For budget context, The CMO Survey puts marketing at 9.0% of company revenue on average, with software companies typically well above that. Book a meeting for a scope and a number.

Yes, and it usually matters more, because product-led companies accumulate two motions without deciding which one leads. The plan states what self-serve acquisition is for, where sales assistance begins, which segments are only ever served self-serve, and how activation and expansion are marketed. Benchmarkit's 2026 data showing usage-based pricing at 108% net revenue retention against 95% for seat-based is one reason that decision belongs in the strategy rather than in the roadmap.

Only if the evidence says so. More often the position exists inside the company and has never been written down or agreed, so different teams describe the product three different ways. We test the current claim against win-loss reasons, customer interviews and the alternatives that genuinely appear in deals, then either sharpen it or replace it, and always with the evidence attached so your leadership can argue with the reasoning.

Yes, within the agreed scope, and it is usually the highest-value hour of the engagement. Customer interviews show which outcome buyers actually bought, and recently lost prospects explain what the messaging failed to answer. We agree the list with you, keep the interviews short and confidential, and feed findings into the positioning platform rather than publishing them.

We work from financial and CRM records first, reconcile analytics against them, and label which findings are solid and which are directional. Validity's 2026 research found 62% of organisations losing revenue to poor CRM data and 67% having campaigns delayed or scrapped because of it, so imperfect data is the normal starting point. Where tracking is genuinely absent, part of the plan is the minimum change that makes next quarter reportable; marketing operations consulting is the engagement that implements it.

Two places, both practical. First visibility: buyers now research through AI answers as well as search, so the plan specifies the content, documentation and third-party evidence that gets a product cited and compared accurately. Second internal use, where the risk is a short-term bias — 71% of leaders in the Haus 2026 index said their AI tools favour short-term performance. Readiness, use cases and policy are scoped in AI marketing advisory rather than here.

Different question. SaaS growth consulting looks for the commercial constraint on growth wherever it sits, including pricing, packaging, retention and the sales system. Marketing strategy consulting takes the commercial model as given and answers what marketing should do about it: segments, positioning, channel roles, budget and measurement. Companies that already know their constraint usually want this one.

A sponsor, usually the chief executive or founder; the sales leader; someone from product or customer success who can speak to what customers actually keep using; and whoever owns marketing today. Expect around two hours of interviews each in week one and a half-day decision session in week three. If the sponsor cannot attend that session, we move it rather than run it without them.

No, this is a good moment for it, because the plan becomes the brief for the hire and stops the new leader spending a quarter rediscovering your data. Where the question is really about structure and sequencing, marketing team advisory covers it, and where you need someone to lead the function in the meantime a fractional CMO is the engagement. Both are quoted separately and neither is required to use the plan.

Sometimes, and always with the numbers attached. The common finding is not that the budget is wrong in total but that it is spread across too many segments and channels to reach effect in any of them. With a blended customer acquisition cost ratio of $1.30 and median payback at 16 months in the 2026 benchmarks, concentration usually beats coverage. Your leadership makes the call; we make the trade-off visible.

Yes. The parent engagement is marketing strategy consulting, and the same method runs in other verticals with the buying mechanics changed, for example industrial marketing strategy consulting and ecommerce growth consulting.

Your team runs it, and every workstream has a named owner on your side. Many companies book a review at ninety days to check the leading indicators and adjust the sequence, which takes half a day and is optional. Where you want a standing numbers habit instead, scorecard advisory sets one up and hands it back by week eight. Execution, if you want us to do it, is scoped separately.

Because it is built on your cohorts, your win-loss reasons and your interviews, and it names your segments, competitors and product lines. A template cannot say which of your four segments should carry next year's budget or which proof point closes your enterprise deals. Every recommendation carries the evidence it came from, so your leadership can disagree with the reasoning rather than with the conclusion.