Professional services firm Ippon engaged Authentic to assist with building out a comprehensive marketing strategy and plan.
“Marketing is not a ‘magic wand’… it takes a lot of patience and alignment to get results.”
Romain Lhéritier, CEO, Ippon Technologies USA
Ippon Technologies USA at a glance
Company size: 68 employees
Business type: IT services and consulting
Category: B2B
Headquarters: Richmond, Virginia
Key initiatives: Website development, lead generation, ideal customer profile, branding, marketing technology, marketing metrics
The challenge
Ippon Technologies USA, a consulting firm that helps customers transform their business through technology modernization and innovation, had experienced a period of slow business growth and was looking for the guidance of a marketing executive to help transform their disjointed marketing processes and tools. Living in a “tactical hell”, they realized that they needed an overhaul when it came to existing business development and lead generation processes.
After exploring many different options for marketing leadership but realizing they didn’t have the budget for a full-time in-house CMO, Romain Lhéritier, CEO, reached out to Authentic on a recommendation from a CEO peer who familiar with Authentic’s reputation for top-notch marketing talent on a fractional basis.
The solution
After some discovery, learning from the team, and “getting under the hood”, Ippon’s fractional CMO was able to accomplish the following:
- Implemented the Authentic Growth™ Methodology to ensure alignment between sales and marketing teams and build accountability between business goals and marketing objectives.
- Integrated HubSpot and Salesforce to ensure smooth data sharing and attribution of marketing initiatives.
- Define Ippon’s ideal customer profile (ICP) to ensure their marketing messaging and campaigns resonate with the right audience.
- Redid the organization’s website, including creation of campaign-centric landing pages.
- Defined lead generation process and created new dashboards for MQL and conversion tracking.
“We were previously in what I liked to call ‘tactical hell’ in marketing – trying many things without a consistent strategy. Since working with [an Authentic Fractional CMO] we’ve come a long way and are more strategic with longer lasting marketing campaigns.”
Romain Lhéritier, CEO, Ippon Technologies USA
The results
After working with Ippon for over a year, their Authentic Fractional CMO has helped to drive the following results:
- Hired a full-time marketing director to oversee campaign execution.
- Implemented an “account-based everything” approach which helped to identify their largest account opportunities and stepping stone accounts.
- Created the ability to monitor marketing-qualified leads and their progression through the sales pipeline.
“[Our Authentic Fractional CMO] is not only a marketing expert, but also a great leader. He’s got a ton of experience, much more than I do as a leader. And he’s brought so much more than marketing knowledge – he’s brought a calm and executive demeanor to our team.”
Romain Lhéritier, CEO, Ippon Technologies USA
