What Marblehead will look like all grown up

One of the first things I did when starting Marblehead was to create a picture of what it would look like when I accomplished what I wanted in a company. This statement was a way for me to clarify what I wanted to do, when I felt it would be done, and how it would be different. It’s separate from a vision statement because it has achievable goals and a deadline. It is something I share with each new employee so they know what to expect by working here and to use it as a compass when making decisions.

One of my clients heard about this and asked me to help them create a sim­i­lar state­ment. It gave me the idea ask other owners if they too have a pic­ture of what their busi­ness will look like all grown up.  It is a great moti­va­tor to read about other people’s dreams. If you have such a state­ment, I invite you to share it.

Our Name

The Mar­ble­head name originated from the small town just north of Boston. I vis­ited there in 2004 and it became one of my favorite places on earth. Friendly people, a great view of the water, and a place to dock your sail­boat. Mar­ble­head is an inspi­ra­tional place for me and I want the company’s image to reflect that inspiration.

What We Do

Mar­ble­head is a full ser­vice mar­ket­ing design firm that pro­vides strate­gic, tech­ni­cal, and cre­ative exper­tise to com­pa­nies seek­ing to improve their cus­tomer experience. By 2017, Mar­ble­head will be 100 people strong and gross 15 mil­lion dol­lars in rev­enue with a 35% profit margin from offices located in Dallas, Boston, and New York. We serve our clients through three inte­grated offerings:

• Mar­ket­ing and cus­tomer strate­gic consulting
• Cre­ative design for both inter­ac­tive and offline applications
• Cus­tomer facing tech­nol­ogy solu­tions includ­ing web devel­op­ment, CRM, and busi­ness intelligence

Who Are Our Clients

Our clients are CEOs and mar­ket­ing executives who use and appre­ci­ate high qual­ity design and pro­gres­sive tech­nol­ogy solu­tions to get, keep, and grow their best cus­tomers. Their 10MM-500MM com­pa­nies are considered leaders in their indus­try and are lead by vision­ary entrepreneurs. We also serve inno­v­a­tive small busi­nesses who are uniquely posi­tioned to grow fast in the today’s environment.

How We Sell

Mar­ble­head sells its ser­vices in such a way that helps clients suc­ceed in their strate­gic objec­tives and never to “close a deal” or “sign a contract”. We understand that solu­tions only derive their value from the prob­lems they solve or results they achieve and only rec­om­mend solu­tions for which suc­cess can be clearly indicated.

How We Deliver

Mar­ble­head is respon­sive. We return phone calls to clients within 4 hours of receiv­ing them and answer all email within 24 hours. When Mar­ble­head makes a promise, we meet that promise, even on last-​minute requests. Clients never have to follow up to receive some­thing Mar­ble­head has promised.

We never make clients feel rushed or taken for granted. When speak­ing to a client or in a meet­ing, our phones are off and we give the them our undi­vided attention. Marblehead is direct and honest with our clients and informs them imme­di­ately when some­thing has gone wrong. While on site, we learn our clients cul­ture and respect it. That means we follow their office rules, and respect all poli­cies.

Mar­ble­head rede­fines the qual­ity expec­ta­tions from a mar­ket­ing ser­vices com­pany. All client deliv­er­ables are accu­rate, visu­ally com­pelling, engag­ing to read, and easily understood. Technical solu­tions are built to defined require­ments and vig­or­ously tested BEFORE intro­duc­ing them to the client. We continuously question what’s not being addressed so events are antic­i­pated and proac­tively han­dled.

We pro­vide more than antic­i­pated and our intent is to ensure that the client’s needs are exceeded.

How We Operate

Mar­ble­head is a sys­tems based com­pany. That means we under­stand the most effec­tive way to make some­thing happen con­sis­tently is to create a system to accom­plish it. Creating sys­tems allows Mar­ble­head to focus on rela­tion­ships and client needs instead of recre­at­ing common busi­ness processes. Our goal is to create sys­tems to handle 80% of our busi­ness and free­hand the other 20%. Marblehead employ­ees should never have to ask how some­thing is done inter­nally and not have a system avail­able that explains it. Systems are cre­ated and refined using the “squeaky wheel” process and incor­po­rated company-​wide so others ben­e­fit.

Marblehead People Are Unique

Mar­ble­head employ­ees treat others as they would like to be treated them­selves. Employ­ees are proac­tive and ini­ti­ate action. We always act act in the clients’ best interest. Marblehead employ­ees feel they are making a dif­fer­ence in the lives of others. They under­stand that rela­tion­ships are the most impor­tant aspect of our business.

A promise from Mar­ble­head means some­thing. It’s sig­nif­i­cant. If any one of us gives the client a promise, the entire com­pany works together to make sure we keep that promise.

Mar­ble­head employ­ees have a relent­less drive to suc­ceed. We real­ize a great atti­tude is the single most impor­tant choice a person can make. We are not afraid to fail. Fail­ure is an indi­ca­tion of growth and risk, both of which are needed to achieve our objectives.

And finally, we real­ize that hope is a byprod­uct we pro­vide our cus­tomers through our ser­vices and deliv­er­ables. They are coming to us because they have a prob­lem they can’t solve them­selves. We pro­vide not just the solu­tion, but the hope that we are going to get there along the way.