our services

Marketing Advisory Service - Sprint Workshops to Solve Critical Problems

Our Marketing Advisory Service gives you fast access to a Chartered, board-level marketing leader who can cut through the noise, create clarity, and arm you with a plan you can act on immediately.

Marketing leadership from big brands...

Helping You De-Risk High-Stakes Marketing Decisions

The stakes are high. You’re about to launch, scale, restructure, or invest — but the plan isn’t clear, the team isn’t aligned, and every decision feels like a risk.

You don’t need another agency pitch or a full-time hire. You need sharp, senior advice that protects value and creates momentum.

We’re often engaged when business leaders face:

  • A launch plan that’s unclear on positioning or value proposition
  • Sales and marketing disconnects that lose prospects in the gap
  • An outdated playbook that no longer fits market realities
  • Go-to-market strategy for new products, services, or geographies
  • Founder/Co-founder alignment and positioning workshops
  • Agency briefing, auditing, or onboarding
  • Pricing, positioning, and brand clarity
  • Investor or board preparation for growth

These aren’t “marketing problems.” They’re growth risks — and they need expert advisory guidance now, not next quarter.

cost of inaction

The Risk of Pressing On Without Marketing Advice

Every month without clarity:

  1. Risks a misfired launch or wasted spend
  2. Sees teams drift without alignment
  3. Hands control to agencies without senior challenge
  4. Burns budget, time, and morale
  5. Brings tough questions from board members and investors

Delaying strategic input doesn’t save money — it compounds risk.

our solution

On-Demand Marketing Advisory Workshops

Our Marketing Advisory Service is designed for decisive leaders. No retainers. No long onboarding. Just independent, senior-level insight grounded in real experience when you need it.

You get:

✅ Every CMO is Chartered — CIM-accredited, the gold standard in marketing leadership.

✅ SOSTAC® Certified Planners — a structured, strategic planning methodology that’s used globally.

Sector-Agnostic Value — Get a fresh perspective, cross-sector insight, and commercial rigour.

✅ Independent Objectivity — Free from internal politics, agency or supplier bias

✅ Actionable Outputs — Prioritised recommendations you can implement immediately

✅ Follow-On Options — Accountability, mentoring, or a pathway to deeper engagement such as embedded fractional leadership

We adapt the workshops to your context — whether it’s a one or two-day board workshop, a founder alignment session, or an urgent go-to-market review.

How Our Sprint Workshops Work

Every advisory sprint workshop is fast, focused, and built around your unique context.

  1. Discovery - A short call to define your objectives and commercial drivers.
  2. Custom Session Design – A tailored agenda shaped around your outcomes.
  3. Live Delivery – On-site or virtual, with structured frameworks and facilitated decision-making.
  4. Action Plan – Written outputs, clear next steps, and optional session recording.
  5. Follow-up support is available if you need deeper engagement or accountability.

Our sessions can involve founders, CEOs, SLTs, marketing leads, investors, or NEDs — in person or virtually.

low-cost, high-value

Pricing - Simple Day Rate Model

Our Marketing Advisory Service uses a simple, transparent day-rate model — flexible for your stage, scope, or stakes, with no retainers, hidden costs, or unfair cancellation terms.

Business Context Day Rate
(+ VAT)
Example Scenarios
Early-stage / Advisory-led £1,500 Launch planning, founder workshops, ICP definition
Growth-stage / Scale-up Complexity £2,000 GTM review, sales–marketing alignment, martech review
High-stakes / Transformation £2,500 Board/investor workshops, organisational design, market repositioning

Important notes:

Format: Full-day engagements as standard. ️Multi-day packages available.

Cancellation Policy: If less than 48 hours’ notice is given, a cancellation fee equal to 50% of the agreed day rate applies.

Rescheduling: Cancellation fee is waived if the workshop is rescheduled for a future date.

Expenses: Travel or accommodation costs, where applicable, are billed at cost.

Learn more about our pricing

When External Marketing Advisory Makes the Difference

Our Marketing Advisory Service is right for you if:

  • You need answers, not another sales pitch
  • You value objectivity from a Chartered marketer with boardroom experience
  • You’re not ready for a retainer — but need clear, immediate direction
  • You’re under investor, market, or competitive pressure to move

We work with business leaders who are ready to move forward with confidence. Many clients who start here go on to engage us as Fractional CMOs for ongoing leadership.

Is your organisation ready for our Advisory? Take our short diagnostic to assess your readiness for the service. Takes just 3-minutes!

need something else?

Related Services

Alongside our marketing advisory support, we offer targeted services — from audits and analysis to mentoring and fully embedded Fractional CMOs — providing focused interventions that build capability, insight, and investor confidence.

Marketing Audit

You’re unsure what’s underperforming or misaligned in your current marketing setup.

Market Analysis

You’re entering a new market or need clear insight on customers, competitors, and trends.

Marketing Mentoring

You, or someone else, needs mentoring to build confidence, clarity, and capability.

Fractional CMO

You need ongoing senior marketing leadership to drive strategy, execution, and team alignment.

Our project was to create a top-level marketing strategy which, once built, we could drive forward ourselves. And I can honestly say the work has been transformational for Yellowtail. After each workshop with VCMO, both Dennis Hall and I would be amazed at how much we'd achieved. We worked hard! But the results are worth it.

Sarah Steele
Operations Director, Yellowtail Financial Planning
Read the Case Study

Shout out to Paul Mills who bravely took on running a positioning workshop with us yesterday. Is there anything harder than doing the thing your client does for others for them?! Great work. Really thought provoking, and so important to have facilitated by someone with an external perspective!

Bryony Thomas
CEO, watertight business thinking

Paul is a professional strategic marketeer who is able to apply his expertise with marketing budgets large and small. The commercial impact of Shaw & Co's rebrand, which was initiated, designed and implemented by Paul, has been to differentiate us positively in a sector where few have succeeded. He delivers what he promises, on time and on/under budget, to a high quality. Paul made a positive impact on our business that will last.

Rod Leefe
chair, shaw & co

VCMO's audit brought clarity to a complex set of challenges. They cut through the noise and delivered a clear, prioritised roadmap that we could act on immediately. Their ability to engage across teams and translate insight into action was exactly what we needed.

Dr. Ross Burn
Co-founder, Catsci limited  
Read the Case Study

Lydia possesses a deep understanding of marketing strategies and has consistently delivered exceptional results. Her ability to analyse market trends, create engaging campaigns, and drive customer acquisition is truly impressive. Her dedication, attention to detail, and strong communication skills make her an invaluable asset to any organisation. I cannot recommend Lydia enough for her expertise, professionalism, and exceptional work ethic.

Alan Leckey
Business Consultant, CCO - the Collaboration Company  

Paul Mills wasn't just an outsourced marketing leader — he was a mentor. His support helped me enhance my technical marketing skills and shape a more strategic mindset, as well as build my  confidence with senior leadership and deliver higher-impact work. He is dependable and skillful, and his guidance has made me feel more capable and prepared for future challenges.

Caitlin Daniels
marketing manager, catsci limited
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VCMO brings knowledge, insight and practical experience to the table, but also something else, which is quite rare, the unwavering commitment to finishing the job without compromising on the quality of the output. Their work for Yellowtail has been exemplary and we're seeing the results already.

Dennis Hall
founder, yellowtail financial planning

Ruth brought great experience and insight to my firm over many years. Her considered and thoughtful approach to problem solving are a real strength and her experience of marketing and business development in the legal sector was invaluable.

Gavin Tyler
Managing Partner, Cripps

VCMO helped us think beyond our capabilities and reframe how we communicate the true value of what we do. Paul's workshop unlocked fresh ideas resulting in a more strategic approach to our content plan and go-to-market materials. The quality of the output and power of the messaging is really impressive.

Peter Ridgway
Business Development Director, Reach Separations
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VCMO has been instrumental in reshaping how we approach marketing at Lucent. Their strategic clarity, attention to detail, and ability to deliver at pace have been exceptional. Paul's embedded himself seamlessly into the team and quickly earned trust — not just from me, but from our wider staff and partners. The website and content strategy he led have already started delivering results, and I now feel far more confident in how we grow the business over the coming years.

Steven Rowe
Founder - Lucent Financial Planning
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VCMO helped me find the words and structure to communicate what I do — and who I do it for — in a way that finally connects. I’ve had more inbound enquiries since the website relaunch than in the previous two years.

Lee Spencer
aka The rowing marine
Read the Case Study

FAQ’s

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