Kurt Bratton (CEO, TurnPoint Services) shares how the core message created when his company had only 200 employees “still works … works everywhere … and works all the time” – even after scaling to nearly 7,000 employees. “Nothing endures like that,” says Kurt. (PE firm: Trivest)
Charlotte Baker (Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Hands) talks about struggling to get heard in “in a very noisy market with competitors that said some similar things” – then getting a compelling new message in the form of “a deliverable that we could execute on the next day.” (PE firm: Fulcrum Equity Partners)
Jason Kurtz (CEO, Basware) explains what happened when a Finnish fintech with 1,300 people across the world found its core message. Customers took notice, candidates reached out, and now “bookings are up over 60%.” (PE firm: Accel-KKR)
So how do you find a better message? You’ve got to …
Cut the complexity
So you can actually get heard in the current B2B selling environment
Nail the positioning
Before you get lost in another feature battle with your biggest competitor
Say it like a human
Bringing the kind of spark and emotion that makes your message stick
It takes in-depth qualitative research, simple frameworks, and proven methodologies to find a more compelling go-to-market message for your company. That’s what you get with PitchMaps. It’s all we do. And we’re doing it for clients across the Americas and EMEA, ranging from lower middle-market B2B companies to Fortune 500s.
Here’s our three-step process:
Step 1
Uncovery™
Uncover Your Cause
It all starts with an executive strategy session, competitor message analysis, and stakeholder interviews. Throughout the Uncovery process, your PitchMaps team will be identifying the core qualities that set your organization apart. The result is a distinctive, customer-centric rally cry that gets to the heart of what you really stand for – your Cause.
Step 2
PitchMap™
Create Your Pitch
The PitchMap itself is based on your Cause and gives you grab-and-go messaging that can be used everywhere – from your homepage and selling conversations to internal strategic planning and meetings with investors. It’s all about taking your new go-to-market message and mapping it to your most critical customer touchpoints.
Step 3
Activation
Prepare Your Launch
You get an action plan designed to help you align your organization around its Cause, get everyone on message, and get the message out to the marketplace. It includes multiple checklists with action items based on best practices and launch ideas that have worked well for other PitchMaps clients.
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.
Your message is too important.
You’ve got to have specialists to get it right, and they’ve got to dig deeper to find your real message. That’s why strategic messaging and positioning are all we do. And it’s why we take a more rigorous, evidence-based approach to message development – always starting with an in-depth Uncovery.
It’s got to pass the fluff test.
This is not some introspective branding exercise. If your messaging doesn’t work for a sales professional sitting across the table from a skeptical prospect, you don’t have a message. That’s why your PitchMap will extend beyond just the high-level brand positioning to the actual selling conversation.
You’re talking to a human.
Unless your story first connects on an emotional level, people won’t listen to your rational argument. That’s why we use consumer advertising principles to make even the most complex B2B messages sticky. We call this the “creative multiplier.”
What B2B leaders are saying about PitchMaps
“Keep fixing my companies”
— Partner, Lower Middle-Market PE Firm
“Best marketing dollars we ever spent”
— CFO, International Cybersecurity Company
“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”
— VP, Fortune 200 Global Fintech
“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 PE 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
“All the marketing team has a PitchMap saved on our computers, and we’re constantly opening it and copying & pasting”
— VP of Marketing, Aviation software 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, Zurich, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, and beyond.
“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.)