PitchMaps helps CEOs, VCs, and PE firms find a more compelling go-to-market message for the companies they lead and own. The results? More organic revenue growth. Greater employee engagement. Higher valuations.
Todd Ablowitz (Co-CEO, Infinicept) describes struggling to explain what you do when you’re “a niche, within a niche, within a niche, within payments.” After seeing the new messaging, their CFO said, “We could’ve spent double, and it would have been worth it.” (PE firm: MissionOG)
Debbie Schultz (CEO, Totem) discusses the impact of working with PitchMaps – how it was “one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made” and that “ROI is out of the ballpark.”
Sanjay Shah (CEO, Vistex) talks about recasting their pitch after having grown to over 1,600 employees and 20+ years in the business. When the leadership team first saw their new message, “there was stunned silence ….” (PE firm: Accel-KKR)
>> Click here for more CEO videos
So, this is what we do
We use in-depth qualitative research, simple frameworks, and proven methodologies to find a more compelling go-to-market message for your company. And we do this for clients across North America, in South America, and in Europe ranging from lower middle-market B2B companies to Fortune 500s.
Here’s our three-step process:
Step 1
Uncovery™
Uncover Your Cause
We drill down to the heart of what you should be known for (with an executive strategy session, a competitor message analysis, and stakeholder interviews). Then we express it in a sticky, customer-centric rally cry – your Cause.
Step 2
PitchMap™
Create Your Pitch
We create your new go-to-market message based on the Cause. Then, we map it to everything from selling conversations … to the words on your homepage, a whiteboard sketch, answers to pushback, case stories, and more.
Step 3
Activation
Prepare Your Launch
We give you an action plan to align your organization around your Cause, get everyone on message, and get your new message out to the marketplace.
*Findings from a CSO Insights survey of companies with world-class sales messaging
When you and your competitors are saying so many of the same things, it’s hard to tell you apart.
By reframing your messaging around your Cause, we elevate the conversation from the solutions you offer … to the calling you serve. This naturally brings more authenticity and passion into your marketing messages. Your people get more excited about telling your story. And your customers and prospects have something more meaningful to remember you for. Sure, you still need to describe your solutions. But framing them inside your Cause makes them more valuable. Competitors may copy your service offerings or technologies. But no one can can copy your Cause.
“It’s not what you make (i.e., your products and services), it’s what you stand for.”
— Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great
Findings:
Organizations driven by purpose and values outperformed their competitors by six to one.
— According to Jim Collins & Jerry Porras, authors of Built To Last
Organizations focused on improving people’s lives through their higher purpose [their Cause] grew 3X faster than their competitors.
— According to Millward Brown Optimor’s 10-year growth study of over 50,000 brands (in partnership with Jim Stengel “Grow”)
Salespeople driven by a sense of purpose wildly outperformed those driven by quotas.
— According to McLeod & More in a six-month study of top-performing salespeople
Why PitchMaps?
Well, for one thing, it’s time someone put as much specialist expertise, rigor, and creativity into things like a B2B sales message as ad agencies put into things like consumer ads and TV spots.
You need a specialist.
That’s why we’re a strategy consulting firm that only does one thing: we find your message. And we do it every day for clients with some of the most complex messaging challenges out there – in industries like financial services, high tech, manufacturing, and others. Many are companies that have been through M&A activity or other changes and are struggling to find a clear, unified message.
You need the rigor.
You can’t always come up with an effective sales message just by taking the executive team away for a weekend (or locking writers in a room to see what comes out). You’ve got to dig deeper and take a more rigorous, evidence-based approach to message development.
You need the creative multiplier.
Even in the B2B world, you’re still talking to a human. They laugh and cry at the same things that B2C consumers do. So, you’ve got to go for the heart as well as the head – otherwise you’ll just end up creating more noise in the marketplace. This is the “art” part of the art and science equation. And for us, it’s built on many years of collective advertising and branding experience.
A word from our clients
“Keep fixing my companies”
— Partner, Lower Middle-Market PE Firm
“It looks like you’ve been working at [our company] for 20 years to come up with these messages … it’s very impressive”
— CEO, PE-Backed Oil & Gas Pipeline Services Company
“There’s been an accelerated growth as a result of this new messaging”
— CEO, PE-Backed UK Software Company
“It’s great. It’s great. It’s great.”
— Divisional CEO, European Global 500 Company
“I think our new branding strategy is absolutely brilliant and will serve us well into the future”
— CEO, Fortune 500 Insurance Company
“It really was the best consulting I’ve ever had – by a wide margin”
— Chairman, Consulting Firm & Author, New York Times Business Best Seller
“You nailed the Cause … I believe it’s a good representation of all of our offerings under one umbrella. I specifically like the tagline …”
— EVP Client Services, PE-Backed National IT Services Company
“You really go for the cause … that’s a very different approach”
— CMO & Operating Principal, Leading Tech-Focused Private Equity Firm
“I love the clean messaging, all the way through – the purpose, the emotion … it’s outstanding”
— CEO, PE-Backed Nationwide Industrial Distributor
“Everyone loves it”
— Vice President, Fortune 200 Global Payments Technology Company
“It’s shortened the growth curve”
— CEO, Private Equity Backed Technology Company
“0.5X–1.5X” (Estimated impact on exit multiples)
— Managing Partner, Middle-Market Private Equity Firm
“This is just killer, guys – it’s absolutely killer. … It just takes it up to such a nice, simplified, relatable level. This really helps elevate the story.”
— CMO, Global Business Services Company
“You just sort of nail it”
— President, Healthcare Technology & Services Company
“Probably the best marketing investment I’ve ever made”
— CEO, Cloud Software Company
“I like the simplicity”
— CEO, PE-Backed International Legal Services Company
“I am thrilled with the direction of this and have had several palm-smacking ‘why didn’t I think of that’ moments”
— Founder & Principal, Healthcare Consulting & Training Firm
“PitchMaps [has] a tremendous knack for taking a complicated business story and turning it into a clear, easy-to-understand (and deliver) message that translates really well to both internal and external audiences”
— Marketing Director, Fortune 500 Financial Services Company
“Thank you for leading us to such a wonderful brand … and launch”
— CEO, Private Equity Backed B2B Software & Services Company
“Such great work”
— VP Corporate Marketing, Fortune 1000 Fintech Company
PitchMaps was founded in 2012 to help companies communicate their value more clearly. We’re based in Atlanta, but our clients are spread from San Francisco to New York to London to Zurich to Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv.
“We weren’t supposed to be doing this”
This whole thing got started back when we had a creative services agency. We were supposed to be focusing on websites, brochures, ad campaigns, and the like. But, before we could even think about their marketing communications, we kept finding ourselves helping clients wrangle their core messaging and positioning.
Companies found our messaging engagements so valuable that they started hiring us to do just that. They recommended us to their friends. The word spread. And the rest is history. Before we knew it, we were a new company – a strategy consulting firm focused entirely on go-to-market messaging. (And one where all three founders happened to have the same last name.)
Let’s talk
Ready to rethink the conversation you’re having with your market? We’d love to take a look at what you’re saying.
All you have to do is ask. +1 (404) 478-9840