STRATEGIC MARKETING EXCELLENCE
A Market-Driven Excellence Program by Lawrence Innovation

Converting Market Insight Into Profitability, with Positive Impact. Consistently.

Why Growth Often Feels Like a Pressure Cooker

You are working long hours, nights, weekends and during vacation. You are waking up in the middle of the night thinking about the pipeline. Executive leadership wants more, faster. Your team is working hard, but the results are not translating the way they should. And somewhere in the middle, you are trying to figure out what is real, what is not and what decision to take next.

Often, this frustration surfaces as a value proposition problem. The team cannot clearly communicate why the product, service or solution matters. Or you may be hearing feedback that the team is just not innovative enough. These are symptoms and rarely where the problem starts. Like a bad cough, it’s where the problem shows up.

The root cause is typically hidden in a chain of events that looks like this:

• Without deep enough conversations with customers at every level of the organization and down the value chain, you cannot truly understand customer unmet needs, their strategic direction or market drivers.

• Without that understanding, you cannot develop a value proposition that genuinely matches what the market needs and what your organization can deliver.

• Without a clear value proposition, your team cannot communicate the value effectively, to customers, to leadership, or across internal functions.

• Without that communication, even the best solutions sit on the shelf. Products and services do not sell themselves. If your customers do not know you have it or how it helps them, they cannot buy it.

• And if the business model does not create a win for everyone in the value chain, adoption stalls regardless of how good the solution is.

This is one of the most common and most solvable process gaps in B2B organizations. And it is exactly what this program is built to address.

WHO THIS PRogram IS FOR

Whether you are trying to grow deeper in your core market or break into something entirely new, the foundation is the same. Strategic Marketing Excellence builds the commercial capability your team needs to execute across the full spectrum of growth.

This program is built for organizations whose strategic marketing managers, product managers, and business development managers are responsible for identifying and converting growth opportunities across the full spectrum of growth:

• deepening penetration in existing markets

• bringing new technologies, products, and services to existing markets

• entering new markets with existing capabilities, and

• pursuing new technologies for entirely new markets

It also equips your team to evaluate whether to build, partner, or acquire the capability needed to win. The foundation is consistent. The application is customized to where your growth priority lives right now.

The program can be staged to match your organization's starting point. Some teams begin with market penetration and core commercial skills before progressing to more advanced capabilities in new market entry, innovation, and diversification. We are here to support your growth journey on the timeline that is right for your organization.

Let's talk growth.

• Start the Conversation

• Send Me the Program Overview

Most growth efforts fail before they begin.

The Statistics

Forbes reports that eight out of ten businesses fail. Booz and Company tells us that two years after a product launches, 66% of them are gone. The Ansoff Matrix tells us 95% of our transformative growth efforts fail. These are not outliers. They are the industry norm.

They do not have to be yours.

I started Lawrence Innovation because I know firsthand that hit rates can and should be higher. Throughout my career I was called on to solve growth problems across every quadrant of the growth matrix. Diversify market penetration at Fortune Brands' Moen during the building industry's worst decade. Launch and grow new products at Berkshire Hathaway's Lubrizol. Grow an entirely new technology in a new market at the inflection point of analog to digital conversion in the print industry. In every scenario, our cross-functional teams, marketing, sales, and R&D working together, exceeded growth expectations. We outperformed the traditional hit rates because we did one thing consistently: we understood customer unmet needs down the value chain before we developed solutions.

Beat the Odds With Market-Driven Excellence

We have done it. And we bring a practical approach to instill capability and a framework within your organization that yields real growth results.

Market-Driven Excellence exists to teach your team how to do what we have been executing successfully for decades.

Built for Where You Are.
Designed for Where You Want to Go.

Every organization is at a different stage of the growth journey. Some are ready to transform how their entire cross-functional team works together. Others need to build capability in one function first. Market-Driven Excellence meets you where you are. We are here to support your needs throughout your growth journey.

Strategic Marketing Excellence

For strategic marketing managers, business development managers and product managers ready to sharpen their market-driven growth capability. From opportunity identification through go-to-market, your team will learn to consistently convert market insight into profitable growth with positive impact.

Market-Driven Innovation Excellence - for R&D

For R&D teams ready to increase outside perspective, define problems more clearly before developing solutions, and connect technical capability to real market demand. Your team will learn to find the right problems worth solving and build evidence-based recommendations that earn commercial confidence and leadership investment.

Market-Driven Innovation Excellence - Cross-Functional

The flagship program. For organizations ready to transform how R&D and commercial teams work together on real projects. Real teams. Real projects. Real impact.

Not sure which program is right for your organization? That is exactly what the first conversation is for.

Start the Conversation Send Me the Program Overview

Real Capability Building.
Designed by Practitioners, for Practitioners.

This program exists because clients asked for it. Commercial leaders and heads of R&D kept arriving with the same request: my team doesn't define the problem well enough before they start building solutions. Can you teach them to think differently?

Throughout my B2B career, I have heard the same complaints after every generic training session: not relevant enough, too consumer-focused, interesting but not applicable. That feedback shaped everything about how this program is built. Every session meets your team where they are, connects new concepts directly to the work they are already doing, and builds from comprehension to application before anyone leaves the room.

What also makes this different is who delivers it. Every practitioner involved in this program has spent decades planning and executing the results this program is designed to teach. In the corporate setting. Then building their own consultancy. Then publishing and speaking at universities. We did not study growth from the outside. We built it from the inside, in roles where the results were our responsibility.

Meet the team.

We also know that a program without the right conditions will underdeliver no matter how good the content is. Before the program launches, we work with your leadership team to build the sponsorship, clarity, and team composition that makes lasting change possible. We show up to make this succeed. This is not a check the box training exercise.

Currently deployed globally at a Fortune 500 with positive feedback and measurable behavior change.

A Full-Year Engagement Built for Lasting Change.

Leadership. Training. Coaching. One integrated system.

Leadership Alignment

Before the program launches, we do the work that makes everything else possible. We interview your leadership team and a practitioner subset selected by leadership to understand where the organization is today, what success looks like, and what barriers might get in the way. Hearing from both levels gives us a complete picture of what is really happening in the organization, not just what is visible from the top.

Count on us for transparency. We meet with the full leadership team to review findings, align on the path forward, and agree on what the program will address. If we surface issues that fall outside the scope of the capability-building program, we bring them to you directly. If they warrant separate attention, we work with you to scope that separately. You will never be surprised by hidden fees or unexpected findings.

Leadership has full access to Kelly Lawrence throughout the engagement. We mutually agree on a regular time to meet virtually and work through what we are seeing in real time together.

Training

Foundational Kickoff - We open by revealing the program goals established during leadership alignment, including what your peers identified as priorities for change. We set expectations, review accountabilities, and ask every practitioner to make a verbal commitment to the group. This is an active program. We set that tone in the first fifteen minutes.

From there we move into the core frameworks: why growth efforts fail, how to find and frame the right problems, how to map the full value chain, how to write outcome statements that R&D can act on, how to surface and test assumptions, and how to prioritize opportunities before committing resources. Every practitioner leaves with a practical toolkit they apply immediately to current projects, not hypothetical ones.

Monthly Cohort Sessions - Growth capability is built by doing, not by sitting in a classroom. Monthly sessions bring the full cohort together to reinforce concepts, introduce new tools, and work through real project challenges as a group. Cross-functional cohorts mean your team learns from each other as much as from the facilitator. After every session we survey practitioners on key takeaways, next steps, and any support they need. Leadership sees those results. We meet to discuss them and adjust the program together.

No surprises.

Coaching

Every practitioner has direct access to Kelly throughout the program. Sessions are individual or team-based, scheduled at your convenience, and focused entirely on applying the frameworks to your live projects. Confident growth starts with knowing where to look. This is where we help you find it.

Is This Right for You?

• How confident are you that your team will deliver the growth results your organization is counting on, one year from now, three years from now, five years and beyond?

• Are you getting the ROI you expected from your investment in innovation: new product and/or service development?

• Does your team have the critical thinking skills and cross-functional collaboration to execute on your growth strategy?

If any of these questions gave you pause, we should talk.

Start the Conversation

Limited Spots Remaining.

This program is not for everyone. It requires commitment from leadership, cross-functional participation, and a genuine appetite to change how growth decisions get made. We keep enrollment deliberately small so every organization receives direct access, full customization, and the attention it takes to drive real behavior change.

Three spots remaining for 2026. Five spots available for 2027.

If your organization is ready to build the capability for repeatable, high-impact growth, let's talk. There is no obligation in that conversation. Just an honest discussion about where you are, where you want to go, and whether this program is the right fit.

Growth that is repeatable starts with a system. This is where you build it.

Start the Conversation

Send Me the Program Overview

FAQs

Do we need executive sponsorship before starting?
Yes, and we help you build it. We begin with one-on-one interviews with each leader to understand individual perspectives, priorities, and what success looks like from where they sit. From there we bring the leadership team together for an alignment session to agree on the path forward and create the conditions for the program to take hold. The result is a leadership team that is aligned, not just informed.

How many practitioners can participate?
That depends on your organization and goals. Some companies train a small subset of key players first. Others want to bring in a broader group. A typical cohort ranges from 20 to 30 practitioners or 4 to 6 teams. We discuss the right size and structure for your organization during our initial conversation.

How do we know if we have the right people in the program?
That is one of the first questions we work through together. During the leadership alignment phase we have a direct conversation about what makes a strong program participant: curiosity, openness to change, and a willingness to apply new thinking to real work. You know your people. We help you think through the selection criteria so the cohort is set up to succeed from day one.

Can multiple functions participate together?
Yes, and we strongly encourage it. The best outcomes happen when R&D, marketing, business development, and commercial leadership are in the room together. Growth is not a single function's responsibility and the handoffs between functions are where the most value gets lost.

Do we need a cross-functional team to participate?
Cross-functional cohorts deliver the strongest results and we recommend them when possible. That said, we know organizations sometimes need a starting point. The program can be customized for a specific function or role.

For R&D teams, we place greater emphasis on ensuring problems are well defined before solutions are developed and matching technical capabilities to real market problems.

For commercial teams (strategic marketing and/or product managers), we focus more on qualifying whether a problem is profitable to solve, building the business case, and translating market insight into a growth strategy.

The core tools are the same. How we talk about them and what we emphasize is tailored to the function in the room.

Is this only for large companies?
No. The frameworks apply equally to Fortune 500 organizations, mid-market companies, and growth-stage businesses. What matters is not the size of the organization but the commitment to long term sustainable growth. The program can be scaled to match the size of your team.

What is the time commitment?
For practitioners, the program includes a foundational half-day kickoff session, monthly one-hour cohort sessions, and individual coaching time with Kelly. Coaching is flexible and practitioner-driven. Some schedule an hour a week. Others schedule an hour a month. We are here to help your team get unstuck and make meaningful progress on real projects in real time as needed.

For leadership, plan on quarterly check-ins with Kelly throughout the program. At program conclusion, practitioners present their learnings in the form of a business case. That presentation is the deliverable. It gives leadership a clear, tangible way to assess the difference between how your team approached growth problems before the program and how they approach them after.

How long is the program?
The foundational program runs twelve months. This gives practitioners enough time to learn the frameworks, apply them to real projects, and build the habits that make growth repeatable. Shorter engagements can be scoped for organizations with specific needs. We discuss the right structure during our initial conversation.

What if we have already done growth or innovation training?
That is common. The question is whether it impacted growth results. If the answer is no, or not consistently, or not enough, here is what is different about this program.

Most training teaches concepts. This program builds a consistent system, shared terminology, and a common approach your whole team can apply together. Sessions are designed using neuroscience-based principles to lower the cognitive lift for the learner, so new frameworks are absorbed and applied, not just heard. Examples are customized to fit your industry and your real projects. Every session includes individual, peer, and group learning. And every practitioner leaves each session with clear next actions for their own project.

The goal extends beyond comprehension to applicability. There is a difference.

Are sessions virtual or in-person?
Both options are available. Virtual sessions are included in the program. In-person sessions are available for organizations that prefer on-site delivery. On-site fees and travel are discussed during our initial conversation. We will work with you to determine the format that fits your team and your goals.

What does the program cost?
Investment varies based on organization size and program customization. Pricing is discussed during our initial conversation. There are no hidden fees and no surprises. If the program is not the right fit we will tell you that too.

Does the program come with tools and templates?
Yes. Every practitioner leaves with a practical toolkit they can apply immediately and situationally. We cover multiple tools, so your team has the flexibility to choose the right approach for the situation at hand.

The toolkit covers the full front-end of growth: framing the opportunity, investigating the market, discovering customer unmet needs down the value chain, validating and invalidating assumptions, and executing the tactics to do all of it effectively. The goal is to equip your team to build a clear, evidence-based recommendation for whether to invest in an opportunity or not, making the entire decision cycle faster, more data-driven, and more obvious, driving alignment and a culture of growth across the organization.

What happens after the program ends?
The goal of the program is to build a capability that lives inside your organization permanently, not one that depends on us to sustain it. That said, many clients choose to continue working with Lawrence Innovation after the program concludes. Options include ongoing coaching, a second cohort for a new group of practitioners, next-level training for top-performing practitioners, or advisory support on specific growth challenges. Some organizations start with market penetration or new product development, and over time want to build deeper capability in entering new markets or diversification. We are here to support your needs throughout your growth journey.

How do we get started?
The first step is a conversation. No preparation required. Just an honest discussion about where your organization is, where you want to go, and whether this program is the right fit. If it is, we will tell you. If it is not, we will tell you that too.