Our People
Do you know what it will take to increase your company's top line?
Many owners, CEOs, presidents, and other senior executives believe they do. Others have a few ideas but don't know how to put them to work. Either way our team of highly experienced business professionals can help meet your growth challenges in ways designed specifically for your company.
For nearly 18 years, Productive Strategies has helped clients of all sizes, industries, ambitions, and capabilities achieve aggressive growth objectives-and sustain them-affordably and without disruption of day-to-day operations. And we can do the same for you.
At Productive Strategies, you work only with experienced, senior-level executives. We come from a variety of backgrounds-manufacturing, technology, creative, publishing, training, sales, marketing, organization development, professional services, account management. But we all have one thing in common: extensive business experience that reduces the time to get things done and increases the quality of the results.
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Phil Krone, President and Founder Phil Krone is the president of ProductiveStrategies, Inc., a marketing and management consulting firm he founded in 1993 to help companies and associations define and reach their growth objectives. |
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Brian Caffarelli, Senior Consultant Brian Caffarelli offers extensive business development, sales management, and sales training experience to Productive Strategies clients. |
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Barrie Dekker, Senior Consultant Barrie Dekker serves Productive Strategies clients with a rich professional background in executive-level strategy development, distribution networks, and sales and sales management. |
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Terry Franke,
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Scott Pemberton, |
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Deneen Spaniol
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Phil Krone is the founder and president of Productive Strategies, Inc., a marketing management consulting firm he founded in 1993 to help companies and associations define and reach their growth objectives. The company is located in Northfield, Illinois, with clients throughout the U.S.
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Krone graduated from Duke University with a BA in Psychology and holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Before founding Productive Strategies he was president of a manufacturing firm. He is a founder of the Die Casting Development Council, a trade association dedicated exclusively to expanding the market for its process. Krone has been a contributor to various trade publications and business magazines over the course of his career. He is the recipient of the Gullo and Trieber Award for marketing excellence and the Austin C. Lilligren Award for service to manufacturers. He now serves on the Advisory Board of the Chicago Chapter of The Entrepreneurship Institute.
Krone has spoken before many groups including the Precision Metalforming Association, the Legal Marketing Association, the North American Die Casting Association, the North American Recycling Institute, the Forging Industry Association, the Kellogg Alumni Entrepreneur Conference, the Polyurethane Manufacturers Association, the Investment Casting Council, and the Commercial Development Association. Topics presented include "The Five Levels of Marketing," "The Five Levels of International Marketing," "Collective Marketing Programs for Trade Groups," "Marketing on the Internet," and "Using Sales Representatives to Help You Market at Higher Levels."
Brian Caffarelli,
Senior Consultant
Brian Caffarelli offers extensive business development, sales
management and sales training experience to Productive Strategies
clients.
He has served as a senior executive at Hewitt Associates and a senior manager of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Organizing Committee. Currently, he is on the board of World Chicago, the mission of which is "citizen diplomacy one handshake at at time."
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Caffarelli helps our clients develop sales effectiveness strategies, marketing and "go-to-market" initiatives, and ways to better understand their customers through innovative research on product and process development. He also counsels our corporate and professional services clients on a variety of marketing and sales-related services, including lead generation, appointment setting, and marketing communications. He is an instructor for the firm's proprietary sales process development course, FOCIS® Selling and Business Development. FOCIS has enabled thousands of professional salespeople, non-sales executives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and other professionals improve their business-to-business persuasion and selling skills in measurable ways.
At Hewitt Associates, a major human resources consulting firm, Caffarelli served in several key executive and business development positions during a 20-year career. He developed the company's sales training curriculum and led training of more than 500 salespeople and client relationship managers. Caffarelli personally closed more than 95 multimillion-dollar services contracts and served on Hewitt's nine-member executive committee for nearly a decade. He also led a global team of more than 300 product development specialists and technology professionals that created market leading benefit outsourcing services.
In three years with Chicago 2016, Caffarelli led the committee's accommodation and hospitality efforts as well as the Olympic Fellowship Program. He was responsible for negotiations with more than 350 hotels, corporate apartment complexes, and universities representing more than 77,000 rooms. The fellowship program provides retired Olympians with four-year educational fellowships at designated Chicago-area universities.
Caffarelli is a member of the board of directors of the International Visitors Center of Chicago and the board of trustees for St. Martin de Porres High School in Waukegan, Illinois. A graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, he is an adjunct faculty member at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest.
Barrie Dekker,
Senior Consultant
Barrie Dekker serves Productive Strategies clients with a rich
professional background in executive-level strategy development and
execution (including six start-ups), development of multiple
distribution networks, and award-winning sales and sales
management. She planned and carried out the complex multi-million
dollar start-up of a U.S. manufacturing company, for example, on
behalf of the parent company in Italy.
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At Productive Strategies, Dekker also serves as an instructor for the firm's proprietary sales process development course, FOCIS Selling and Business Development. FOCIS has enabled thousands of sales representatives, non-sales executives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and other professionals improve their business-to-business persuasion and selling skills in measurable ways. During a dynamic 20-year professional career, Dekker built aggressive leadership develoment skills and became a highly accomplished sales trainer. She has successfully created, led, and grown sales teams in diverse businesses and corporate cultures.
Although offering special expertise in the building products industry, Dekker has managed more than 200 key national accounts with a broad cross-section of Fortune 500 corporations, including Sears, McDonald's, and Marriott. She has received several awards honoring her as "vendor of the year" thanks to her performance providing excellent service, cost savings, and value.
An active volunteer, Dekker is the chapter director for Flashes of Hope, recruiting and engaging more than 100 volunteers. Flashes of Hope enables families to receive professional photographic portraits of children with life-threatening illnesses. She has also served on the board of directors of Willow House, a non-profit organization designed to provide support services for children coping with the death of a family member.
Dekker was educated at California State University and Pasadena City College as well as receiving executive development training in the University of Michigan's MBA program and through the American Management Association.
Terry
Franke, Senior Consultant
Terry Franke is a strategic consultant, certified executive coach,
and proven business developer with expertise in building
relationships within large corporations and selling services to
C-suite executives. Clients have included Ford Motor, Whirlpool,
Berkshire Hathaway, Baxter Healthcare, and Trustmark. Franke
excelled as a senior business development executive at Hewitt
Associates, a top human resources consulting firm, where he was
also a partner.
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For our clients, Franke navigates complex business environments by identifying key issues, managing relationships for results, and closing the gap between strategy and implementation. He understands how to create value by building a winning sales culture, increasing capacity and capability of talent, and integrating marketing strategy and sales solutions. Franke has helped numerous companies create visions of the future and map strategy to realize those visions. An accomplished sales curriculum developer and executive-level trainer, Franke created and hosted the monthly talk show $ales Talk and has been a frequent expert guest on broadcast interview shows, including Selling Across America and News Radio AM 850.
Numerous board positions reflect his leadership and management talents. Franke is chairman of the board of trustees at Lawrence University and chairman of the board's investment committee. He has also served as a board member for American Hospital Association Mutual Funds, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America Chicago Chapter, and the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Advisory Council.
Franke holds an MBA in finance from The Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a BA in history from Lawrence University.
Scott
Pemberton, Senior Consultant
Scott Pemberton guides owners, presidents, CEOs, and other
executives in creating and delivering targeted messages that change
behavior and accelerate company growth. A provider of sales,
marketing, and executive communications services, Pemberton also
often writes about business topics.
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Pemberton's professional background includes senior leadership positions in general management, marketing, internal and external communications, publishing, program development, public relations, sales and customer service training, and new product development in both the commercial and not-for-profit arenas. He has led development of more than 60 new products across several media and produced marketing plans and promotions for many others. His public relations efforts have resulted in coverage by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CBS TV/Radio, NPR, and PBS.
At Productive Strategies, he is also an instructor for the firm's proprietary sales process development course, FOCIS® Selling and Business Development. FOCIS has enabled thousands of professional salespeople, non-sales executives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and other professionals improve their business-to-business persuasion and selling skills in measurable ways.
Extensive experience working with middle-market owners, CEOs, and presidents on communications issues has given Pemberton valuable insight and understanding of the specific leadership and business growth issues entrepreneurs face. As director of communications for the Edward Lowe Foundation, he played leadership roles in creating the foundation's PeerSpectives Roundtable System for middle-market business owners and the "50 Companies to Watch" recognition program. He also directed the Entrepreneurship Scorecard national research initiative.
At the Dartnell Corporation, a respected international business and training publisher, Pemberton was vice president and publisher. Dartnell served businesses ranging from growing entrepreneurial ventures to Fortune 500 corporations. Customers across industries included sales and customer service managers, representatives and trainers; owners and executives; supervisors, and front-line end-users.
Pemberton holds an MBA from The Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in English and English education from the University of Illinois at Urbana. He serves on the Advisory Board of The Entrepreneurship Institute, Chicago Chapter.
Deneen Spaniol, Senior Consultant
Deneen Spaniol offers Productive Strategies clients a wealth of
expertise in sales, sales management, sales training and coaching,
and marketing developed in both global and domestic markets.
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As director of strategic accounts at UPS, Spaniol developed and managed multi-million dollar clients in various industry sectors, working with C-suite executives to navigate the buying processes of large corporations. Recognized with numerous awards as a top producer in the U.S. sales force, she was responsible for millions of dollars in new revenue.
At Productive Strategies, she is an instructor for the firm's proprietary sales process development course, FOCIS® Selling and Business Development. FOCIS has enabled thousands of sales representatives, non-sales executives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and other professionals improve their business-to-business persuasion and selling skills in measurable ways. She also guides clients in tailoring a variety of marketing and sales-related services to their specific needs, including lead generation, appointment setting, and marketing communications.
Her skills include leading strategic planning and development with cross-functional groups as well as coaching sales managers and training sales representatives for new initiatives. Supporting the launch of an international business expansion in Chicago, Spaniol researched market data and assessed competitor share to match sales resources with targeted customer segments. Logistics work includes developing solutions to complex challenges in Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
Concerned with professional development throughout her 20-year career, Spaniol was named to a UPS task force to establish a mentoring program focused on female management retention. Her professional development includes numerous sales and management courses that provide her with a variety of perspectives benefiting our clients.
Women professionals, including attorneys, seeking to build business development skills find Spaniol to be a special resource. She provides unmatched support, training, and insight to the challenge of advancing their careers while achieving balance in their lives.
Spaniol is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she received a B.A. in communication and management. At the Madison campus, she earned certification in logistics management. She has also completed two years toward a master's degree in international business at DePaul University.
Tom Rossi, Manager, Outbound Call Center
Kim Montel, Supervisor, Outbound Call Center
Dale
Krone, Corporate Secretary
Dale Krone oversees the firm's finances, including billing and
receivables. A graduate of DePauw University and holder of a
master's degree from Duke University, she also serves as a writer
and editor.
