Client Stories

Clients say the nicest things:

Marketing Consults

From a medical marketing company:

“See what you can do with real data?” That was the feedback from one of our toughest advisory board members after hearing Phil present his marketing analysis and recommendations for our company — a leader in our field of meeting planning, but without clear direction on where to go next. We knew we were doing a good job with our core market clients, but we wanted to grow and weren’t sure where our greatest opportunities were lying.

Over the course of several months, Phil helped us through three major steps:

First, he looked through several years of our sales data, then dug up and digested market data for our core client sector (continuing medical education for MDs.). His clear conclusion: we were only touching 15% of a market that nobody else owned. There was room to double or triple our business with the kinds of clients we already understood.

Second, he noted that our ~40-some existing and past clients came in two clear varieties: big and profitable (~15% of our clients which were giving us ~75% of our revenue), or small and relatively inconsequential. The first point of this observation was that not all clients are created equal, and that we needed to give unwavering attention to our best clients who were more than worth the effort.

Third, Phil spent some time talking with our current and prospective clients to learn where our business did (or could) make the biggest difference in their success. From the information they shared, Phil helped design a direct marketing campaign that we used for the next 16 months as we kept focus on our core market.

Result? In three years, we moved from a $1.25MM to $5.5MM in revenues, with nearly all of our growth in our core market. “See what you can do with real data?” We like it.

From an online marketing consultant:

Even a confident business owner knows he doesn’t have all the answers and can always use a good source of outside advice. Phil Marsosudiro is that source.

Not long ago, I had lost my only revenue source and my business plan had to change, immediately. I had to start closing some new deals with a whole new offering in order to save my company and diversify my revenue stream. I knew that path I was on wasn’t working, but I was stuck in business paralysis.

While I was wallowing in the prospect of failure, sharpening pencils, straightening out my desktop and other “not saving my business” tasks, I set up a session with Phil to discuss the fog I was in and the lack of a clear path to meet my sales goals.

After a ten-minute no-nonsense chat with Phil, I was able to find my direction, cut through the fog and dive into action. Fourteen days later, I nailed down eight new clients and and replaced 140% of my recently lost revenue stream. I am now actually close to having more business than I can handle.

What happened?! After listening to my story of navel-gazing and worry, Phil called out the b.s., bullet-pointed the value that we knew I could offer to my prospects, and told me to cut the horse crap and pick up the phone. It took me a day to process Phil’s advice, but as soon as I got it, I was off to the races.

I’m not saying that Phil can work miracles for every business owner. But I am saying that if you own a business, you owe it to your self to give Phil a call. He’ll help you find the gold and tell you how to mine it. As for me, I’m going to keep talking to Phil. If one conversation can do that much for me, imagine what I’ll get out of a whole bunch.

From a leading agency with one third of its clients in the Fortune 100:

Our clients’ high standards drive our own, and when it comes to consultants, we are tough customers. When we say we like working with Phil, we mean it.

We’re smart people and Phil doesn’t pretend to know more about our business than we do. Instead, his big value-add is in helping us get focused and clear on the most important parts of what we know.

Phil has a great talent for hearing our thoughts and quickly netting out the parts we need to focus on, and he has a gift for distilling those parts into a few words and diagrams that give us a stronger handle on what we’re working with. With the addition of Phil’s marketing insights as ingredients and catalysts, our own ideas crystallize and connect. Our plans become more powerful.

And even when we grumble that he brings up important questions that we wish we didn’t have to take time to address, we are glad that he helps force us to do the things we need to do.

CEO Sounding Board

From the chair of a community bank:

In 2001 I became the Chairman of a family-owned community bank with many long-standing issues, among them a bottom line in need of boosting and a staff totally resistant to change. I needed to confide in another professional – one without a stake in my business – how I would survive the arduous process of dragging my organization into the 21st century. Phil became my sounding board as I launched my bank into Internet Banking, expanded our lending into new markets and re-designed the organization chart. I fully utilized Phil’s general business acumen, his knowledge of marketing, systems and Psychology 101. Phil possessed the ability and savvy to lead me to the source of my problems’ solution – myself.

[several years later...] There came a time when I had to face the fact that my market was shrinking and that my business model was no longer sustainable. I knew that at this point I must begin to look for a merger partner. Thus began the most important conversations I had with Phil. He knew I didn’t like my options. Expert advice told me that in order to satisfy my shareholders I would have to sacrifice my employees and potentially my customers as well. I couldn’t accept this. I felt that it was my duty to protect as many jobs as I could if the bank was acquired and to keep a bank open to serve the town’s customers as it had for 107 years.

Phil counseled me “You know what the answer is. Wait for it. You’ll know it when you see it”. He drew a Venn diagram with 3 intersecting circles – one of shareholders, one for employees, one for customers and the community. “You’re looking for the win-win-win solution. Three wins” he said. “People will present you with solutions that offer only two wins, or even just one. Expect them to come and then throw them out. Keep looking for what YOU want – the three win solution. You’ll find it”.

I hung on to that simple image of the intersecting circles. It was a long, arduous struggle to find the merger partner who fulfill all those requirements. We contacted upwards of 30 banks. We had interest and a number of bids. However, an out-of-state bank emerged as the ultimate provider of the win-win-win solution. This partner was willing to compensate us well, providing excellent value to my shareholders. They were willing to leave my staff intact and in place – the jobs were safe! And, the bank would continue to operate (as a subsidiary) on the corner of Main and Maple Street to serve the town as it had always done.