Marketing-led commercial growth
Marketing is busy.
But is it commercially sharp enough?
When growth slows, go-to-market loses focus or marketing needs stronger leadership, The Rumble Factory creates direction, alignment and momentum.
Strategic Advisory · Fractional CMO · Interim Marketing Leadership
The team may not be the problem. The next phase simply asks for more.
01Marketing is busy, but its commercial contribution is hard to see.
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What it looks like
Campaigns ship, content goes out, the monthly report is full. Ask three people what the most valuable thing marketing did last quarter was and you get three different answers, or three descriptions of activity rather than consequence.
Why it happens
Almost never through weak marketing. Output is easy to measure and easy to approve; contribution is neither. Without one number the function is accountable for, every activity looks equally justified, and the reporting quietly becomes a status update rather than a management instrument.
What changes first
Not the plan. Agree one commercial number that both the CEO and the marketing lead would recognize, and make everything else diagnostic. Then decide what stops.
02Growth ambition is clear; positioning and go-to-market choices are not.
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What it looks like
The target is specific and the route to it is not. The offering has widened until the promise excludes no one, competitor comparisons come down to price, and three people inside the business give three answers to what you actually sell.
Why it happens
The business grew faster than its choices. Each new segment, product and market was a sound decision on its own; together they widened the proposition until it stopped helping anyone choose. Sharpening it means saying no to something that currently generates revenue, which is why it gets postponed.
What changes first
Narrow the ideal customer to where the value is highest and the proof is strongest, then make the promise specific enough that some prospects rule themselves out.
03Sales and marketing work hard, but not yet from one commercial rhythm.
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What it looks like
Marketing reports lead growth; sales reports lead quality. Both are right. Sit in on a sales call, then read the website: if the buyer addressed in each is not recognizably the same person with the same problem, the prospect is hearing two stories and choosing which to believe.
Why it happens
The two functions were built at different times, with separate targets and separate reporting lines. Nobody designed the seam between them; it simply formed. Under pressure each retreats to the metric it controls, and the disagreement gets treated as a relationship issue rather than a definitions issue.
What changes first
One funnel with one set of definitions, used by both. Then a handover that is a process with response standards and ownership, rather than an inbox.
04The team needs senior direction, capability or temporary leadership.
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What it looks like
Senior people spend their time on delivery because there is no one else to do it. New disciplines sit with whoever showed interest. Watch how the next three requests get prioritized: where there is no explicit rule, the queue orders itself by internal pressure and the loudest request wins.
Why it happens
Capability requirements have changed faster than most organizations have restructured. The strategic, commercial and executional demands now sit on a team designed for an earlier version of the job. That is a design lag, not a performance problem.
What changes first
Separate the required capabilities from the current roles so the gap is visible, then decide build, borrow or buy per gap rather than defaulting to recruitment.
05A transformation must move from plans and slides into daily practice.
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What it looks like
The strategy was approved and the operating week did not change. Count how many decisions made in last month's meetings were quietly reopened in this month's: a decision that has to be re-won every cycle was never really made.
Why it happens
A plan encodes decisions without encoding decision-making. When reality arrives, and it always does, an organization with a plan improvises and an organization with an operating system applies a rule. Improvisation is not a character flaw; it is what a team does in the absence of a rule.
What changes first
Start with the weekly review. One meeting, one set of numbers, the same four questions each week: what moved, what did we learn, what stops, what starts.
06Leadership needs a candid sparring partner for a critical growth choice.
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What it looks like
In the last significant marketing decision, who argued the other side? If nobody did, or if the person who did reports to the person who proposed it, the choice was confirmed rather than tested. The absence of dissent is not agreement; it is usually hierarchy.
Why it happens
Everyone in the room has something to protect: a team, a budget, a prior recommendation. That is not a failure of character, it is what being inside an organization does. The one thing an internal reviewer cannot offer is having nothing at stake in the answer.
What changes first
Bring in someone with no internal position to defend, early enough for the advice to be useful rather than after the direction has hardened.
From activity to a marketing system the business can trust.
The work is not a menu of disconnected marketing services. It is a set of connected choices that make marketing more commercially effective.
Positioning
Make market, customer and value choices unmistakably clear.
02Go-to-Market
Connect proposition, demand, funnel and commercial activation.
03Transformation
Build the operating model, KPIs and rhythm behind progress.
04Sales + Marketing
Create one agenda, common definitions and shared accountability.
05Team + Capability
Shape roles, leadership and skills for the next phase.
The level of ownership should fit the moment.
Every engagement has an explicit mandate, cadence, outcome and end point. No vague retainers and no strategy left behind in a deck.
Strategic Advisory
Selective advisory for CEOs, CMOs, commercial leaders and investors who want experienced, independent judgment without handing over the entire marketing function.
Usually 1–2 days per month or a recurring executive cadence, from 3 months.Advisory retainer or fixed scope feeExplore this model 02Fractional CMO
For organizations that need an experienced marketing leader at the table, but not five days a week. I join the leadership team, set direction, lead the function and stay accountable for progress.
Typically 1–2 days per week for 6–12+ months.Monthly retainerExplore this model 03Interim Marketing Leadership
I step into an existing Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, VP Marketing or CMO mandate, keep the function moving and use the period to improve what should not simply be maintained.
Typically 3–5 days per week for 3–9 months.Day rateExplore this model 04Transformation Sprint
An intensive, clearly scoped assignment for positioning, go-to-market, sales–marketing alignment, operating model or capability building.
Usually 6–12 weeks with agreed scope, milestones and deliverables.Fixed sprint feeExplore this modelThree questions about ownership, not about budget. Nothing is sent anywhere; the answer appears on this page.
- Question 1 of 3
How much of the decision-making needs to sit with someone else?
- Question 2 of 3
Is this a defined problem or an ongoing condition?
- Question 3 of 3
What happens tomorrow if nobody takes this on?
Strategic Advisory
You keep the decisions. What you gain is judgment with nothing to defend, on a standing cadence: usually one or two days a month, from three months.
Read how it worksFractional CMO
You need marketing leadership at the table, not another opinion. One or two days a week, with a real mandate and a deliberately short list of priorities.
Read how it worksInterim Marketing Leadership
The function needs an owner now. Full ownership for three to nine months, and the period used to improve rather than simply hold.
Read how it worksTransformation Sprint
The constraint is known and the scope can be written down. Six to twelve weeks, agreed milestones, and a date on which it finishes.
Read how it worksClose second: —. If the situation sits between two models, that is worth a conversation rather than a choice.
The work, in full.
No summaries. Each case shows the constraint, the choices made and the operating model that was handed over; you can judge the thinking rather than the adjectives. Where results are still being measured, the case says so.
Consumer goods company / Go-to-market & commercial growthTurning early market traction into a repeatable commercial growth model.
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Turning early market traction into a repeatable commercial growth model.
A consumer goods company had achieved encouraging initial traction with a new proposition. Growth remained inconsistent, because positioning, channel activation and repeat purchase were not yet working together as one commercial system.
The challenge
- Convert initial customer interest into sustained demand and repeat purchase.
- Focus limited resources on the activities with the greatest commercial potential.
- Replace fragmented initiatives with a measurable and repeatable growth model.
Role
Strategic marketing advisor, responsible for the commercial diagnosis, positioning, go-to-market model, activation approach, execution roadmap and performance framework.
Key interventions
- Sharpened the positioning around one promise specific enough to be chosen over the alternatives, in a proposition where the person who chooses and the person who consumes are not the same, so the promise had to satisfy both.
- Defined the roles of buyer, user, retailer and channel within a single commercial system.
- Concentrated investment on the core proposition rather than widening the range before the first version had proven itself.
- Connected awareness, availability, a reason to buy now and a reason to come back into one activation corridor rather than four separate campaigns.
- Assigned distinct roles to the different routes to market instead of asking each to do everything.
- Introduced messaging and claims governance to hold consistency and credibility as the activity scaled.
- Built a stage-gated pilot, a full-funnel performance dashboard and a phased roadmap, with explicit decision points for what would be scaled and what would stop.
Delivered outcome
A ready-to-run commercial growth model connecting positioning, activation, channel execution and repeat purchase.
The organization gained a framework for testing the proposition in controlled markets, improving execution and identifying which combinations of channel and activity justified further investment. Defined ownership, decision criteria and a weekly performance rhythm allowed the team to learn quickly and to scale on evidence rather than on optimism.
Expected impact
The model was designed to strengthen market traction, improve conversion and repeat purchase and increase commercial effectiveness, while protecting limited resources by investing only in what demonstrated measurable traction.
These were design objectives, not measured outcomes at the time the work was completed.
This project shows how The Rumble Factory turns incomplete data, limited resources and market uncertainty into clear choices and an executable commercial growth system.
Positioning · Customer proposition · Go-to-market · Channel activation · KPI governance
B2B service organization / Sales conversion & customer retentionStopping revenue leakage across conversion, renewal and reactivation.
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Stopping revenue leakage across conversion, renewal and reactivation.
An established B2B service organization had steady demand, recurring service cycles and a substantial customer base. The constraint was not a shortage of market activity. Too much commercial value was being lost between enquiry, quotation, sale, renewal and reactivation.
Baseline at diagnosis
The challenge
The diagnosis identified three underlying issues:
- Enquiries and quotations were not managed through defined stages, ownership or response standards.
- Recurring service cycles were not translated into systematic renewal and reminder processes.
- Leads, customers and next actions lived in memory, in conversation threads and in scattered files, which limited visibility and accountability.
Role
Strategic marketing and commercial advisor, responsible for funnel diagnosis, customer analysis, commercial engine design, implementation planning and handover.
Key interventions
- Separated the commercial process into acquisition, renewal, repeat service and reactivation flows.
- Defined lead handling standards, funnel stages, quotation progression and next action ownership.
- Designed due soon, due, overdue and lapsed customer logic for recurring services.
- Created structured follow-up, reminder and reactivation sequences, with practical templates for the channels the team already used.
- Made the customer’s preferred contact channel the center of conversion and retention within one coordinated journey, rather than an informal habit.
- Designed a minimum viable CRM with mandatory fields, ownership, next actions and service cycle triggers, built on tools the organization already had.
- Built a KPI dashboard and a governance rhythm covering daily execution, weekly management review and monthly trend analysis.
- Developed a prioritized ninety day implementation roadmap.
Delivered outcome
A practical commercial engine for three distinct growth levers: win more, renew more and reactivate more.
The diagnosis was translated into frontline routines covering response standards, funnel and quotation ownership, renewal and reactivation workflows, customer communication, CRM logic and KPI based management review.
The operating model was handed over with clear roles, decision rules and an implementation sequence, so that management and the frontline team could start running, measuring and improving the commercial process without waiting for new technology or additional headcount.
Expected impact
The operating model was designed to increase the yield from existing demand through faster response, stronger quotation control, earlier renewal activity and systematic recovery of overdue and inactive customers.
These were design objectives, not measured outcomes at the time the work was completed.
This project shows how The Rumble Factory translates commercial diagnosis into practical frontline behavior, without requiring expensive technology, additional headcount or more marketing activity first.
Sales funnel · Conversion · Retention · CRM · Commercial operating model
Early-stage B2B technology venture / Design-partner & early-adoption strategyCreating customer commitment before the product is fully launched.
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Creating customer commitment before the product is fully launched.
An early-stage B2B technology venture was preparing its next generation proposition for a rapidly changing corporate market. The underlying value proposition was strong, but the business still needed corporate organizations willing to commit early, shape the product and provide credible market validation.
The challenge
- Stand out in a crowded market with numerous adjacent solutions.
- Give senior decision-makers a compelling reason to participate before full market launch.
- Convert interest into commitment despite pressured budgets, limited proof and the perceived risk of adopting early.
Commercial objective: secure a committed first cohort of corporate design partners ahead of launch.
Role
Strategic marketing advisor, responsible for category positioning, the design partner proposition, partner acquisition and the early adopter commercial model.
Key interventions
- Repositioned the proposition from an optional improvement to a strategic capability for organizations navigating continuous change.
- Turned the design partner concept into an invitation-only program built on exclusivity, influence and early commercial value, rather than on a discount.
- Prioritized existing relationships as the fastest route to first commitment.
- Designed a coordinated acquisition engine combining thought leadership, personalized outreach, leadership roundtables and early access demonstrations.
- Created a structured pathway from awareness and engagement through validation, commitment and advocacy.
- Developed a frictionless pilot, a lightweight participation agreement and a structured feedback process.
- Strengthened the internal business case with an ROI narrative, tiered participation benefits, preferred pricing and clear decision deadlines.
- Benchmarked proven early adoption and strategic partnership practices from adjacent markets.
Delivered outcome
An activation-ready design partner acquisition model covering the journey from positioning and partner selection through outreach, engagement, pilot participation and longer term commitment.
The category narrative, the partner proposition and its benefits, personalized outreach, thought leadership, leadership roundtables, early access demonstrations, the pilot and the commercial decision points were integrated into one coordinated acquisition engine.
The founders were equipped with a clear proposition, engagement mechanics, conversion pathway and operating logic to activate existing relationships, attract new corporate prospects and build a committed cohort ahead of full market launch.
Expected impact
The model was designed to secure the target cohort of design partners, generate market validation and early commercial momentum, strengthen product-market fit and create a committed group of future advocates.
These were design objectives, not measured outcomes at the time the work was completed.
This project shows how The Rumble Factory builds demand before a proposition is fully mature, turning uncertainty into a structured route toward validation, commitment and commercial momentum.
Category positioning · Partner marketing · Early adoption · Pilot design · Commercialization
Technology scale-up / New business development & managed servicesTurning an existing technology platform into a scalable managed-service business.
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Turning an existing technology platform into a scalable managed-service business.
A technology scale-up identified a recurring commercial problem among its customers: many lacked the resources, specialist capabilities, processes and technology to operate effective data-driven marketing. That created an opportunity to convert the company’s existing technology, data and marketing expertise into a managed service, strengthening customer execution while creating a new and scalable revenue stream.
The challenge
- Convert technology, data and marketing expertise into a clear and commercially viable service proposition.
- Create a scalable delivery model covering strategy, campaigns, content, analytics, automation and ongoing execution.
- Establish the capabilities, processes, pricing, governance and go-to-market approach needed to launch and grow a new services business.
Role
CMO and business builder, responsible for opportunity assessment, proposition development, service design, business modeling, capability assessment, commercial strategy and launch planning.
Key interventions
- Defined a managed service model that supplements or extends customers’ internal marketing capability rather than competing with it.
- Designed a service portfolio covering strategy development and implementation, campaign management, content and design, and analytics and performance reporting.
- Built tiered service options around the existing platform, ranging from platform management and à-la-carte services through to marketing consulting, campaign leadership, fractional leadership and complete team delivery.
- Mapped the people, processes, technology and data required across the full cycle from assessment and strategy through implementation, execution, optimization and continuous improvement.
- Developed hourly, fixed fee, performance based, retainer and value based pricing options.
- Assessed internal capability and identified the skills, systems, data access and partnerships needed to operate and scale the service.
- Defined priority customer segments and the criteria for selecting the most attractive first markets.
- Developed the positioning, customer value proposition, sales and marketing sequence, launch customer approach and supporting commercial materials.
- Established the management structure, phased operating model, implementation roadmap and principal risk controls.
- Built a conservative commercial business case based on an initial five customer scenario.
Business case: conservative one-year, five-customer scenario
These figures were business case projections, not measured results at the time the model was developed.
Delivered outcome
A launch-ready managed-service business model built around the company’s existing platform, customer relationships, connected data and specialist expertise.
Service architecture, delivery options, customer segments, pricing models, required capabilities, operational processes, management responsibilities and go-to-market activity were integrated into one scalable commercial operating model.
The business was equipped to move from platform support to managed delivery, giving customers flexible access to strategy, technology, data, execution and specialist capability without having to build a complete internal function.
Expected impact
The model was designed to create recurring and diversified revenue, deepen existing customer relationships, open new markets and increase the commercial value generated through the company’s technology and data ecosystem.
This project shows how The Rumble Factory turns existing technology, data and expertise into a new commercial proposition, connecting strategic opportunity with service design, operating capability, financial modeling and a practical route to market.
New business development · Managed services · Service design · Operating model · Commercialization
Established B2B organization / Marketing operating model & commercial transformationTurning Marketing from a reactive support function into a market-led growth engine.
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Turning Marketing from a reactive support function into a market-led growth engine.
An established B2B organization was redesigning its wider business and operating model. Marketing was organized largely around operational execution, with limited structural market analysis, fragmented capabilities and insufficient alignment with Sales. To become more commercially effective and market-driven, the organization needed a Marketing Operating Model that clarified Marketing’s mandate, structure, capabilities, responsibilities and interfaces with the rest of the business.
The operating model designed for this organization
The future-state model was built around three engines, designed to run simultaneously within one operating model rather than in sequence.
Determines where and how the organization will win, based on market intelligence, customer insight, portfolio choices and clear strategic priorities.
Turns those choices into relevant propositions, customer value, demand and commercial opportunity.
Uses data, technology, content, AI and operating discipline to make marketing performance repeatable, measurable and scalable.
Organized across seven integrated capability areas: Strategy, Insights & Portfolio · Brand, Content & Creative · Proposition, Product Marketing & Go-to-Market · Growth, Media & Demand · Customer, CRM & Experience · Data, MarTech, AI & Marketing Operations · Business, Sales & Partner Enablement
The challenge
- Reposition Marketing from a reactive support department to a driving commercial function.
- Create strong alignment between Marketing and Sales through a joint office for growth, with shared objectives and accountability.
- Establish clear ownership of the strategic, commercial and executional capabilities that high-performance marketing requires.
- Connect Marketing structurally with Sales, Finance, Operations and IT.
- Introduce data-driven marketing, using data, dashboards and metrics to guide decisions.
Role
Transformation lead, responsible for designing the future-state Marketing Operating Model, covering design principles, governance, capabilities, roles, staffing, performance measures, reporting lines, decision rights and cross-functional interfaces.
Key interventions
- Defined three operating model principles: market-led marketing, cross-functional integration and performance steering.
- Positioned Marketing and Sales as a joint office for growth, supported by shared commercial objectives, accountability and formal reporting relationships.
- Created a right-sized organizational model with defined roles, responsibilities and performance indicators.
- Aligned marketing roles and priorities with the Sales organization to strengthen commercial relevance, collaboration and execution.
- Centralized campaign delivery and marketing operations, freeing the strategic and commercial capabilities to focus on insight, proposition, growth and direction.
- Introduced upfront marketing ROI assessment, retrospective performance measurement and shared Sales and Marketing targets.
Delivered outcome
An implementation-ready Marketing Operating Model that repositioned Marketing as a driving commercial function within a joint office for growth with Sales.
The three engines, seven capabilities, governance, organizational model, roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, decision rights, cross-functional interfaces and performance measures were brought together in one coherent operating model.
The organization was equipped to move from fragmented and reactive execution to an integrated way of working in which the strategic engine establishes where and how to win, the commercial engine translates those choices into customer value and demand, and the execution engine makes delivery data-driven, measurable and scalable.
Expected impact
The operating model was designed to strengthen commercial performance through better market and customer intelligence, more relevant propositions, stronger demand generation, improved customer experience and more effective sales enablement. Shared targets, dashboards, performance metrics and ROI governance were intended to improve decision-making, accountability, marketing effectiveness, sales productivity, customer acquisition and retention.
These were design objectives, not measured outcomes at the time the work was completed.
This project shows how The Rumble Factory connects strategy, commercial growth and scalable execution, turning Marketing from a collection of activities into three coordinated engines that help drive the business.
Marketing transformation · Operating model · Organization design · Sales–marketing alignment · Data & performance governance
Diagnose the constraint. Make the choices. Build the rhythm.
One method, whichever of the five capabilities the work starts from. What changes between engagements is the constraint and the depth of involvement, not the sequence.
- 01
Diagnose
Understand the business context, customer, commercial engine, team and operating reality.
- 02
Direction
Make explicit choices about where to play, who to serve, what to say and how to win.
- 03
Alignment
Connect leadership, sales, marketing and partners around roles, priorities and measures.
- 04
Momentum
Install the cadence, capability and accountability that turn strategy into movement.
The line is flat until the choices are made. Everything after that is rhythm.
Useful thinking for leaders who want marketing to move the business.
No trend summaries. Practical perspectives on positioning, GTM, leadership, operating models and commercial growth.
Marketing is busy. But is it commercially sharp enough?
Six signals that activity has outgrown direction; one for each moment above, and what leadership should change first.
Read perspective Ways of working · July 2026Fractional, interim or advisory: which model fits the moment?
A practical decision guide based on ownership, time commitment and the change the organization needs.
Read perspective Marketing transformation · August 2026A marketing plan is not a marketing operating system.
How priorities, governance, team roles and KPI cadence turn strategy into repeatable progress.
Read perspectiveOccasional executive notes on marketing, growth and transformation. Substance over frequency.
Folkert RuiterFounder · The Rumble FactoryConsultant. Operator. Builder.
Marketing is my profession. Building people, teams and businesses is what drives me.
I bring 25+ years of experience as CMO, VP Marketing, Marketing Director and strategy consultant across Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. I have led international teams and budgets, sat at management tables and worked where strategy must survive contact with execution.
The Rumble Factory is my platform for selected fractional, interim and advisory assignments, alongside the right executive opportunities. I combine the discipline of a consultant, the pragmatism of an operator and the curiosity of a builder.
What needs to move?
A candid first conversation about the situation, the mandate and whether I am the right fit. No pitch deck required.
Discuss your challenge
Reply within 2 working daysThe first sign that something is about to move.
Thank you, —. Your message is with me. The reply goes to —, usually within two working days.