Influential Technology Marketing Strategies

Michael Teeling founded INFLUENTIAL in its current form in 2000 to offer management consulting to enterprise technology marketers. Over the course of his seventeen-year career, he has held a variety of both corporate and agency positions.

Over the last five years, Mike has helped a variety of technology start-ups and established players with services spanning all marketing communications functions - either as an individual contributor or in an "acting director" capacity. During this period he has developed particular proficiencies in electronic commerce, business intelligence, performance management, open source, CRM, systems integration, and financial services. In recent years, his consulting practice has focused on strategic but frequently overlooked areas such as industry analyst contract ROI and B2B technology brand creation.

Mike is an enterprise technology brand evangelist and who has undertaken an ongoing qualitative research study into what makes a fearless B2B technology brand. His blog, Buyer2Brand, communicates his progress while examining technology branding best practices, emerging trends, and news.

From 1998-2000, Mike was director of marketing at Active Decisions Inc. (formerly Active Research). During his tenure, he developed and implemented the company's first corporate positioning/messaging, designed and produced its first sales collateral system, acted as the sole corporate webmaster, and launched the company's initial PR effort before securing and managing its outside agency. Mike also executed online and print advertising campaigns and promotional surveys, planned and ran the company's industry event calendar, and oversaw design projects. He directly advised Active Decision's first CEO and management team on investor relations, direct marketing, and product pricing/packaging.

As the seventh employee and the first male supervisor at The Horn Group (1994-98), a top Bay Area technology PR firm, Mike managed $400,000 in annual billings and a staff of seven across his account teams. Reporting directly to agency president Sabrina Horn, he also created and launched the firm's presentation & media training service. Mike has trained technology executives in the finer arts of public speaking since 1993.

While at Fleishman-Hillard (1992-93), the largest public relations agency in the U.S., Mike managed a variety of high technology accounts. He began his technology career as marketing manager at a telecommunications common carrier that acquired the Worldcom network and later merged with MCI. Prior to his entry into tech marketing, Mike did entertainment publicity in Los Angeles for companies including Family Channel, NBC and Warner Brothers Television.

Mike holds a Bachelors degree with honors in mass communication from Boston College (1988), and has completed post-graduate study in the areas of marketing, entertainment, and technology. He also studied voice-over narration and improvisation techniques for three years.

Mike and his wife Amy make their home in Oakland, Calif.'s Monclair district. They enjoy travel, cooking, dancing, scuba diving, skiing, movies and theater. But most of all, they enjoy their joyful children Gwendolyn Michelle (born June 2003) and Aidan Pierce (born December 2005).

" worked with Mike Teeling over a period of 6 months. He represented the best interest of his client in a thorough manner, effectively achieving his client's desired results."

Malcolm Kimberlin
Market Development Director
Ventana Research