Senior marketing leadership for Indianapolis firms that have outgrown word of mouth.

Who does Reveal work with in Indianapolis?

Owner-led and partner-led B2B firms that grew on reputation and relationships, and now need a deliberate way to win business from buyers who don't know them yet.

Construction and specialty trades. General contractors, builders, and trade firms with a strong name among the people who already know them. See how Reveal works with contractors.

Engineering, architecture, and professional services. Firms where the principals are also the sales team. See how Reveal works with professional services firms.

Reveal also works with manufacturing, logistics, and B2B technology companies when the same pattern shows up.

Where does marketing stall for growing Indianapolis firms?

Usually after the referral network has done its job. Many Indianapolis firms reached $10 million on reputation. The reputation is real, but it only reaches as far as the relationships do.

Growth past that point means winning buyers who have never heard of you. The owner or partners are too busy delivering work to build that pipeline. A capable marketing person is often in place, but without clear direction or full backing from leadership. An agency may be in place too, reporting activity nobody can connect to work won.

The call usually follows a trigger. The backlog is thinning. A key referral source retired or moved on. A founder is preparing to hand off the firm. A large pursuit was lost and nobody can say why. A marketing hire isn't working out. Or the agency report looks good and the pipeline doesn't.

Why work with a fractional CMO based in Indianapolis?

Because the first conversation should happen across a table, with someone who already knows the market.

I've worked with Indianapolis firms for twenty years. I know the local business press, the trade and professional associations, and how introductions happen here. That matters when your best clients are people who know your name and your next ones don't.

I meet clients in person across the Indianapolis area, including Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Zionsville, and Greenwood. Intake and findings sessions happen at your office when that helps, and follow-ups can happen by video.

What does the Diagnostic involve, and how much of my time does it take?

Three to four weeks. Most of the work happens without you. Your own time adds up to about three to four hours, roughly half a day.

You spend two to three hours on intake and one hour on the findings session. Your sales or business development lead and your marketing lead spend about an hour each. Where possible, I also speak with two to four of your clients about why they chose you. You receive an 8 to 12 page Keystone Report and a 90-day action plan, yours to keep whether or not we work together again.

See how the Diagnostic works

What Indianapolis experience sits behind this?

I'm Rob Higley. Twenty years in B2B marketing, based in Indianapolis.

I started in public relations at an Indiana agency, then ran Reveal Consulting, a nine-person marketing agency, from 2004 to 2013. Across twenty years of B2B work I've served more than 125 clients, from small projects to multi-year engagements. Dozens of them were small and mid-size Indiana firms, including builders, electrical and painting contractors, a landscape design and build firm, property management companies, and professional services firms. Most of that work came before the Keystone Diagnostic had a name.

The agency also did multi-year work for national commercial real estate firms. Later I went inside companies as a marketing director and vice president, including a startup subsidiary of Cummins that brought a retrofit hybrid system for commercial trucks and buses to market. It produced more than $4 million in qualified pipeline in its first year.

I hold an MBA and a master's degree from Ball State University.

Read the case studies

What does it cost, and how does it work?

Three phases. Each stands alone, and you can stop after any of them.

For comparison, a director-level marketing hire runs $120,000 to $180,000 a year plus benefits, and the strategic questions are still yours to answer. The Diagnostic costs about one month of what many firms already spend on marketing, and it answers those questions first.

Is Reveal a fit for your Indianapolis firm?

A good fit is a construction, trades, engineering, architecture, or professional services firm with roughly $10M to $50M in revenue, a CEO or managing principal who is personally frustrated with marketing results, and some marketing spend already in place, whether an agency, an internal marketer, or both.

Probably not a fit if you are early stage, if leadership isn't part of the marketing conversation, or if you want someone to produce content and run ads at scale. If that's the case, I'll say so on the first call and point you somewhere useful.