Grow. Sustainably.
We provide expert B2B marketing and strategy consulting to climate, energy, and tech companies
About Me
I'm a 5-time go-to-market leader who's driven growth in some of the most successful pioneers and category creators.
Companies that defined markets, crossed chasms, and delighted customers.
With teams that applied insight, clarity, and grit to build winning strategies and powerful revenue engines.
Let's explore how we can unlock sustainable growth for your business.
Experience
B2B Marketing and Strategy:
Consulting and Fractional Services
We partner with founders and leadership teams to drive sustainable growth through cohesive strategy, clear messaging, efficient pipeline building, and powerful brand development.
We customize each engagement for your specific needs. Below are some examples of how we help innovators achieve market leadership and accelerate business growth.
Positioning and Messaging
Research how your best-fit customers perceive their challenges and your solution relative to alternatives, and sharpen your positioning and messaging based on these insights
Outcome: Increase prospect response rate and accelerate deals
Market Segmentation & Analysis
Research and evaluate market segments for product roadmap, go-to-market expansion, partner strategy, messaging, and other purposes
Outcome: Focus on the right segments for your business, today and tomorrow
Ideal Customer Profile
Use quantitative and qualitative data to define your ideal customer profile (ICP) and operationalize this in messaging, marketing programs, sales outreach, and product development
Outcome: Target where you can grow fastest and align your entire company
Pricing and Packaging
Develop and evaluate monetization strategies, and implement enhancements to pricing and packaging structures
Outcome: Improve margin, product adoption, & revenue retention/expansion
Customer Adoption & Expansion
Develop and implement specific marketing and sales initiatives to drive targeted improvements in product adoption, existing customer pipeline, and customer stickiness
Outcome: Increase customer usage and retention/expansion
Sales Enablement
Create new sales enablement program or enhance existing processes, measurement, and tools while improving cross-functional collaboration
Outcome: Increase sales productivity and deal velocity with existing resources
Thought Leadership
Leverage your unique point of view and insights to fuel PR, content marketing, and pipeline development
Outcome: Stand out and elevate your brand in a crowded market
GTM and Product Transitions
Provide strategic leadership to navigate major transitions such as new product launch, technology re-platforming, or sales motion change (eg, direct to channel-led)
Outcome: Achieve rigorous, coordinated execution and accelerate success
Testimonials
"Michael has been instrumental as a strategic thought partner and go-to-market expert. From customer discovery and partner strategy to messaging and fundraising, he has helped me define and execute our growth plan. He moves seamlessly between strategy and execution, identifying opportunities we had not even seen, and his value to Inarix has been immense."
Pierre Chapelle - Founder & CEO (Inarix)
"Michael was an indispensable partner to me – leading the complete go-to-market readiness and launch of Tenable’s new platform, maturing the product marketing function, and contributing to our category design. He was masterful at messaging, sales enablement, competitive intelligence, and pricing – driving our differentiation and growth in a meaningful way."
Dave Cole - Founder & CEO (Open Raven), CPO (Tenable, CrowdStrike)
"When you think about product marketing best practices, think no further than Michael Applebaum. From thinking through a strategic portfolio approach to tactical execution on messaging and enablement, Michael can improve your go-to-market approach with the tools, tactics and strategies to impact pipeline, revenue, win rates and pipeline velocity."
Bernd Leger - CMO (Cornerstone OnDemand, Mimecast, Nexthink)
"I have always been impressed by Michael's incredibly high bar for quality. He is able to instantly get to the heart of issues and establish insightful frameworks for addressing them."
Ryan Palacheck - VP of Product / Delivery / Pre-Sales (Kaluza, Oracle, Opower)
"Michael is a strategic thinker and planner, and an excellent executer and I love that combination. He has a strong track record in business planning and market development, and he loves to roll up his sleeves and lead by example. His calm demeanor and willingness to ask intelligent, as well as difficult, questions are excellent qualities for a business leader."
Tom Turner - CEO (BitSight), CMO (IBM Security, Q1 Labs)
"I've been lucky to work closely with Michael at 2 companies and have seen how his focus and collaboration drive incredible results in new markets. He's one of the clearest thinkers and communicators I know, and his ability to engage customers and execute rapidly is exactly what any startup or scaleup needs."
Claudia Hoeffner - VP of Marketing (Skillsoft, Indigo Ag, Nexthink)