Turn Your Marketing
Into a Growth Driver
Fractional CMO and marketing strategy support for healthcare, healthtech and B2B companies working toward their next stage of growth.
The next stage requires more than marketing activity. It requires a sharper understanding of the customer, clearer positioning, stronger proof, and a focused go-to-market approach that helps the right buyers understand, trust, and choose you.
I help CEOs, founders, and leadership and growth teams build, strengthen, and align the marketing foundation behind growth, then translate it into practical direction for sales, marketing teams, agencies, and the way the company goes to market.
My work is especially useful for funded companies building their first real marketing and GTM capability, established businesses that need a new approach to growth, and PE- or VC-backed companies under pressure to turn investment and ambition into stronger commercial performance.
I work through focused strategy engagements, including three-to-six-month assignments to build the commercial foundation and guide implementation, as well as ongoing fractional CMO leadership.
“Michael immediately dug in and helped build the foundations for growth… In a very short amount of time, we went from 0-60 from a marketing standpoint and drove immediate results, including new leads, lots of new followers, and even greater press opportunities.”
Jeff Spanbauer, Chairman, Relevate Health
More marketing is not always the answer. Better marketing is.
When growth gets harder, too many companies look for quick fixes: growth hacks, new tools, more campaigns, email blasts, another agency, or a salesperson with a rolodex.
But without a strong commercial and marketing foundation underneath—clear customer focus, positioning, proof, go-to-market choices, and aligned sales and marketing priorities—all that activity tends to become tactical, transactional, and one-off. The pieces do not reinforce each other or build enough momentum over time.
The result can be weak lead quality, inconsistent selling, slow conversion, wasted marketing spend, underperforming agencies, and growth investments that produce less than they should.
A stronger foundation gives every part of the commercial system a better chance to perform and helps the company’s people, partners, activity, and investment work harder together.
This is more than a point of view. Research from Harvard Business School, Bain, Harvard Business Review, and others supports the conclusion: companies that are clearer and more intentional about who they serve, how they are positioned, and how they go to market outperform those that are not.
See My Approach →Not sure where your commercial foundation stands? Read the free Positioning Power Audit to build a stronger base for your marketing and sales →
What clients say about working together
“Really knows positioning and branding, and made a huge difference in how we approached our go-to-market plan.”
“What made a difference for our team was how he lived his “stratecution” philosophy, going beyond the “big thoughts”, keeping strategy and execution tightly aligned in order to drive sales.”
“What sets Michael apart is his ability to bridge strategy and execution. He brings experience gained from leading marketing efforts for large organizations, yet he works side-by-side with growing companies to help them achieve breakthrough results.”
“His patience and coaching were invaluable as he helped us to polish up our two existing brands and pivot to a unified name, brand, and identity that brought the two parts of the business together. This helped our internal team better understand who we were and work together more productively and our clients and the community partners we serve better understand how the services interface with each other.”
“His initial assessment, positioning framework, persona and messaging work, and launch strategy have shaped the way we think and talk about the business, not just the way we market it. He has a real talent for taking something complex and turning it into a clear, practical strategy that feels both thoughtful and usable.”
Beth Clemens, COO, Paragon Loan Advisors
Build and align marketing around the company’s growth goals
I help companies make the strategic and organizational choices that allow marketing to become a more effective growth driver: customer understanding and insight, positioning and messaging, GTM strategy and implementation, sales alignment, in-market activation, and ongoing leadership.
Customer insight, ICP & segmentation
Know which customers matter most. If you try to speak to everyone, you become magnetic to no one.
Positioning, value proposition & messaging
Become the clear choice for the right customers. If you are not clear about who you are for and why buyers should choose you, the market will not figure it out for you.
Go-to-market strategy
Turn activity into a system. A GTM strategy is the operating logic for how you reach, engage, convert, and grow the right customers.
Strategic assessment
Find the real gaps before spending more. Get a sharper view of what is working, what is not, and where the biggest opportunities lie, so leadership can focus on what to build, strengthen, or change next.
Fractional CMO leadership
Bring senior marketing leadership into the business. Set direction, align sales and marketing, and lead teams and partners without adding a full-time CMO before the company needs one.
Advisory services
Get experienced perspective when decisions matter — senior marketing judgment for similar growth decisions.
Across healthcare, B2B, media, marketing services, and growth-stage companies
My healthcare work includes marketing leadership at MJH Life Sciences and strategy, positioning and go-to-market engagements with GE HealthCare, Hospital for Special Surgery, Relevate Health and True North HealthWorks. I help organizations clarify their value, focus their commercial priorities and give teams a practical plan to work from.
Explore my healthcare and healthtech work →For companies who know their current approach won’t generate their next stage of growth
See Who I Work With →- →Funded companies building their marketing and GTM foundation
- →Established businesses that need a new approach to growth
- →Founder-led companies moving toward a more repeatable commercial system
- →PE- and VC-backed companies working toward an ambitious growth mandate
- →Companies launching, repositioning, entering new markets, or making significant growth investments
- →Healthcare, healthtech, B2B, and tech-enabled companies with complex buying decisions
Strategy and execution should not be treated as separate tasks
As important as a strategic foundation is, no customer ever sees your strategy. They see the sales story, website, messaging, content, campaigns, outreach, and the decisions that shape how the company shows up in market.
That is why I call my approach Stratecution: the best marketing strategy is built to be used, and the best execution stays connected to the strategy underneath it.
In practice, it works as four connected steps — each one making the next more useful, and all of them built to end in action rather than a document.
Understand
Customers, competitors, category dynamics, internal realities, and the buying journey.
Clarify
Audience, positioning, value proposition, messaging, proof, and strategic priorities.
Build
Messaging frameworks, website direction, sales narratives, GTM plans, and operating tools.
Activate
Leadership alignment, team guidance, execution priorities, and ongoing marketing leadership.
Practical thinking on marketing and growth
I write about the places where marketing, sales, strategy, and execution often break down — and what companies can do to build a stronger foundation for growth.
If your marketing is creating activity but not enough growth, it may be time to sharpen the foundation
Let’s talk about where you are, what is getting in the way, and how stronger marketing strategy and leadership can help move the business forward.
Talk Through Your Growth Challenge →