From Stalled to Growing

A year to transform scalable growth operations

The Summary

A mid-sized professional services firm had a marketing function that had outgrown the structure built to support it, so promising ideas and a significant agency investment weren't yet turning into results.

The firm's chief operating officer stepped in to lead the function and brought in a partner who audited it, diagnosed the challenge, and designed a rebuild using the ADDI Cycle. The plan was complete within 60 days, and within a year the firm had a restructured team, a CRM its shareholders embraced, and a steady flow of qualified inquiries.

“I’d stopped expecting to see traction on growth, and then it came faster than any of us imagined. The work was efficient, the results showed up early, and we ended up with the right people in the right roles to carry it forward.”

— Executive Committee Member

• The Symptom

  The firm was investing in great ideas without a way to carry them through.

  Shareholders were hearing plenty of ideas without the follow-through or turnaround the firm required. A small, dedicated marketing team was carrying a large scope of work. Each person had stepped up to own an area, but without shared systems or clear ownership across the function, coordinating the work was difficult.

  Valuable thinking from an outside agency had no designated internal owner to carry it forward, and proposals, presentations, and speeches were produced reactively and often lacked what shareholders needed to win business. text goes here

• The Root Cause

  The structure around marketing hadn’t kept pace with what the firm needed from it.

  The audit pointed to the foundation: data no one could trust, systems that couldn’t scale, limited team accountability, and no clear vision for growth. The team was working hard. But its roles, processes, and systems had been built for an earlier stage of the firm’s growth, and nothing in them caught problems early or allowed for course correction.

• The Solve

  • Get an outside view. After a leadership change, the COO took on marketing directly. Without the bandwidth to run the diagnosis and rebuild alone, and wanting a plan that was right and not just fast, the COO brought in an outside partner who specialized in the ADDI cycle.

  • Redesign the structure for the firm's next stage. The diagnosis showed the function needed new roles built around growth and change management. The organization was restructured around that model, with role transitions handled with care for the people involved.

  • Move the technology and the rebuild together. The consultant led the CRM effort in parallel while the COO led the rebuild of the team, so the systems and the organization progressed at the same time.

  • Raise accountability. The COO coached the marketing team directly, set clearer expectations, and followed through consistently, which gave shareholders a reason to trust the function again.

  • Build it with shareholders, not for them. New systems work best when the people using them help shape them. Five shareholders helped design the CRM from the start, saw how it would support their efficiency and client service, and became its champions.

• The Results

  • Within 60 days: plan complete and presented to the executive team, with early results visible by day 90

  • A restructured team in place, including a new VP and manager with specialist roles added for growth and CRM

  • CRM live with standardized data criteria, lead intake and routing, and analytics in place

  • Inquiries grew from 12 to 15 per month to more than 20, with a marked improvement in quality

  • Shareholders reported more substantive prospect conversations, higher conversion, and higher proposal win rates

  • Leadership projected the investment in new roles and technology would be recovered within the first year of full operation

The Takeaway

Talented people can only go as far as the structure around them allows. Leaders in this position need an honest diagnosis, a design built for where the organization is headed, and the leadership to bring shareholders along. That combination is how strategy reaches execution, and it's what HuntingtonLevy brings to every client.