Case Study: Building Internal Marketing Capability
The Situation
Mid-market industrial technology manufacturer, established 30+ years
Internationalising: growing presence across ANZ and into key northern hemisphere export markets
Marketing function of one (7+ years’ experience), reporting into Sales leader
Events programme consuming the majority of the marketing budget & time
Activity across trade shows, website, and social – connected to neither commercial priorities nor sales pipeline
Revenue growth had slowed over the past 24 months; marketing investment was continuing but leadership had no clear answer to what it was contributing to the pipeline or to growth.
The question being asked at leadership level: what is marketing actually delivering for this business?
Assessment
The marketing function was operating as a sales and event-support resource.
No commercial agenda had been set for marketing; limited strategic planning meant activity was reactive, driven by sales demands rather than commercial strategy; no customer intelligence infrastructure existed; and there was no measurement and analysis process built into any channel.
The absence of measurement meant nobody could answer leadership’s marketing ROI question.
The internal marketer was capable and committed – but had never been given the strategic direction or senior leadership needed to operate beyond a coordinator level.
The structural gap was clear: the business was missing strong strategic marketing leadership.
Engagement Objectives
Establish a commercial foundation for the function: strategy, prioritised activity, measurement baseline
Develop the internal marketer's capacity to operate strategically – with appropriate oversight rather than constant direction
Build the sales enablement and customer intelligence infrastructure the business was missing
Exit the intensive phase with a function that could sustain itself
The Engagement
Six months, two days per week – embedded inside the business.
Diagnosis and execution ran from day one. Prioritised outputs – a sales deck that reflected what the business actually sold and an events execution anchored to commercial objectives – built early credibility with the sales team.
The overriding focus was consistent throughout: marketing needed to shift from internally-driven activity to commercially-oriented output. That shaped how priorities were set, how the internal marketer's capability was built, and how the working relationship between sales and marketing was rebuilt.
Business Impact
Marketing reoriented toward commercial outcomes
The marketing function shifted from event-led output to an integrated programme built around customer acquisition, retention, and market development.
The six-month intensive established the strategic direction, the priorities, and the internal capability to execute against them.
With sales cycles typically exceeding 12 months, measurable revenue impact is expected in the 12–18 month window following the engagement.
Persona-based sales enablement developed and in active use
Materials were rebuilt around two primary buyer personas, mapped to the customer journey and aligned to what the sales team was actually being asked to answer in conversations.
Core assets for both personas were completed within 90 days, with a staged rollout across the following nine months.
Persona development was grounded in direct customer intelligence gathered through the engagement – ensuring materials reflected what customers actually needed to hear rather than internal assumptions about them
In the second 90-day period lead-to-opportunity conversion rate improved by 23%; sales confidence scores increased by 29 points across the team.
Marketing capability developed from within
A structured marketing capability assessment¹ at the start of the engagement established a baseline across all relevant competency dimensions, with measurable increases recorded across every dimension by the end of the intensive phase.
Alongside the formal assessment, coaching and mentoring addressed the critical thinking, planning, and prioritisation skills that enable a marketer to operate independently and contribute commercially.
A tailored development plan, built from assessed strengths and gaps, ensured progress continued beyond the intensive phase.
The business gained a more capable marketing resource from the headcount it already had.
¹ CIM Marketing Index (Chartered Institute of Marketing), grounded in the CIM Global Professional Marketing Framework (GPMF). Assesses marketing proficiency across 8 core capability areas, providing competency scores and personalised development recommendations. Available to CIM members. Used by Emergence Fractional as a diagnostic and development tool.
The engagement has scaled back to two to three days per month – providing ongoing C-suite-level commercial support, mentoring, and capability development. Day-to-day marketing is owned by the internal team.
