A History of Innovation,
Prepared for Today’s Challenges
Since our inception in 1995, Market-Partners Inc. has been the original proponent of building sales and marketing strategies around mapping and managing the Customer Buying Journey. While flashy trends and repackaged ideas have come and gone, we have continued to pride ourselves in giving clients more meaningful insights than anyone else. Our guiding principle remains that lasting success comes from adopting practices based on how your customers are buying today. Not how they were buying 10 years ago. Not how you think they are buying. How they are actually buying, right now.
From the first meeting, our engagements are always collaborative, participative, and aligned with your company culture to make sure the data we provide is not only accurate, but actionable. We do not believe in tired approaches that may or may not work for your business. Nothing is ever done at a surface level – even our turnkey programs are configured to meet your unique challenges and opportunities. With over two decades worth of in person and virtual sales training, market research, and business transformation experience, we deliver the swift, significant, and sustainable results you have been looking for.
At Market-Partners Inc., our extensive body of research shows that customers purchase as a result of successfully completing their Buying Journey, not as a result of a sales process. The singular objective for sales and marketing must be to initiate, and then positively impact, that Buying Journey. Our work is twofold. We first work with clients to map a market’s specific end-to-end Buying Journey based upon our proprietary methods and Outside-In™ approaches. We then provide a series of transformative and strategic services, together with sales training programs, to help our clients manage the Buying Journey and enable their organizations to rapidly accelerate revenue growth.
Founded in 2009, 3GS, Market-Partners Inc.’s sister company, was an early leader in the design, development and delivery of live virtual learning experiences. Drawing heavily from the strategies used in broadcast media, 3GS brought a different philosophy and area of expertise to web-based selling. Upon its debut, 3GS earned the CLO’s Learning in Practice Gold Award for innovative training design, and was featured in case studies and white papers by Adobe, Citrix, and Forrester. While this intiative has since been brought under the Market-Partners Inc. umbrella, we still utilizing these practices in our virtual training sessions and workshops to this day.
Based On 15 Years of Research
Over the past 15 years, Market-Partners Inc. has been researching how businesses and individuals actually go about buying. Our perspective on what constitutes a “buying decision” extends beyond deciding to issue a purchase order or pull out a credit card. In fact, it constitutes the entire process by which a business or individual becomes aware of an offering, develops interest in it, makes a commitment to acquire and then to adopt it. By taking a holistic perspective that spans this entire process, from awareness to adoption, we are able to develop a deep understanding of how markets function including how alternatives are considered and why offerings may not end up being acquired and adopted, despite a clear value proposition.
In addition to in-depth interviews with over 2,200 individuals spanning 900 companies across the Americas, Europe and Asia, we have spent over six years testing and validating hypotheses and observations which have allowed us to formulate multiple grounded assertions about how markets buy.
These assertions formulate a map of what we call “Customer Buying Journey DNA”. While the elements, or strands, of the Customer Buying Journey DNA are common to all buyers, the Buyer DNA itself is unique to a particular market. In fact, we would now argue that the very definition of a market should be a group of buyers with common Buyer DNA.
Turning The Focus Outside-In™
Our work and research have clearly shown that you may have the best product out there, with unquestionable value to your customer, but this alone does not lead to success. Revenue only comes from customers who actually commit to buying. Not those that are interested, or those that will buy one day, but those that actually navigate the complex path that is required in any organization to move from interest through to commitment and acquisition. And yet that path remains largely unknown and unmanaged by many organizations. Sales and marketing have become very adept at positioning their offerings, presenting highly compelling value propositions and indeed all it takes to gain a prospect’s interest. However, after securing that interest the customer is usually left to navigate their path with little or no support.
The good news is that our research has shown that, for a given market, this path can be mapped, and the friction points predicted. Armed with a new and deep understanding of the market’s specific Buying Journey, sales and marketing can then support their prospective customer along their path and mitigate the barriers and points of friction that would otherwise slow down or stop the buying.
Outside-In Revenue Generation™ is all about looking beyond the internal view of how you sell, to the external reality of what your customers experience.
Meet the Executive Team
Our company leadership comprises highly experienced sales and marketing professionals. With broad backgrounds, ranging from successful start up launches to c-suite roles in global operations, each member shares a successful track record in business development. Even so, it is our belief that leadership should continue working with clients directly and take the time to understand each unique situation – no matter the seniority.
Martyn Lewis
CEO, Founder
Martyn founded Market-Partners Inc. in 1995. Since that time, he has worked with numerous selling teams across a broad-range of industries from start-ups to industry giants. Martyn has since developed a reputation as a dynamic speaker and authority on sales and marketing processes. Prior to Market-Partners Inc. he had extensive executive management, sales and marketing experience.
Gord Hogg
Principal
For the past 30 years, Gord has sold technology products and solutions, contributing millions of dollars in revenue and profits for large enterprise software companies, hardware manufacturers, ecommerce suppliers, solution integrators and consultants and a few early SaaS startups. He has held positions in sales, channels, consulting and marketing and executive roles as GM, VP, EVP and CEO.
Stu Schmidt
Principal, Technology Enabled Selling
Stu initially joined Market-Partners Inc. in the late ‘90s and spent 7 years developing sales processes and training sales professionals working with Martyn and his team. Stu went on to hold numerous executive roles with organizations such as WebEx and GoFundMe. His experience spans sales, marketing, services, channels and operations. He brings specific expertise in the application of technology to enable and scale revenue teams in B2B organizations.
Jeff Fiedler
Director, Alliances
Jeff brings over 25 years of experience in helping organizations grow their revenue by increasing the effectiveness of a company’s direct and indirect sales channels and sales support organizations, using sales methodologies and tools. In roles as GM, VP of Sales, and VP of Channels he has managed global accounts and sales teams in the US, EMEA, and APJ. He is responsible for leading Market-Partners Inc.’s partnership with Seismic.
Jon Buchwald
Director, Customer Research
Jon brings over 10 years of sales and marketing consulting expertise to Market-Partners Inc. His sales and marketing background spans multiple vertical markets including healthcare, high tech, aerospace and defense, financial services, and entertainment. Since joining Market-Partners Inc. in 2007, he has led client engagements as well as managed and developed custom training programs.
Sandra Kiker
Senior Consultant
Sandra brings over 20 years of experience in Medical Device Sales to Market Partners. She has successfully worked for a diverse range of Medical Device companies from start-ups bringing innovative products and services to the market, to the established market leader in a specific technology. In each, she surpassed sales goals and expanded market share.
Jim Cooper
Senior Consultant
Jim has over 30 years of experience in organizational leadership, strategic planning, sales and marketing program development, project management, and total quality programs for defense, telecommunications, and high tech organizations. He brings leadership, sales management experience and an abiding belief in the power of coaching to Market-Partners Inc.