Melanie de Vries

Melanie de Vries brings 25 years of experience in driving growth strategies for early-stage software, education technology, financial, insurance, professional services, non-profit, alternative energy, manufacturing and health services organizations. She has a history of success in developing marketing and sales strategies that build and improve the profitability of companies.

For Michigan SBDC Tech Team clients, Melanie provides focused support on:

1. Go-To-Market/Commercialization/New Product Launches:  Using an understanding of market dynamics to develop comprehensive launch plans, identify target audiences, and establish effective positioning strategies. This includes aligning product features with market needs, enabling clients to penetrate markets efficiently, create impactful marketing campaigns and achieve rapid adoption.
2. Marketing: Crafting data-driven marketing strategies that drive results, focused on leveraging digital channels, content marketing and emerging technologies to create compelling brand narratives. This includes optimizing marketing budgets, conducting A/B tests, and using analytics to fine-tune campaigns for maximum ROI. This empowers tech clients to build brand awareness, generate leads and nurture customer engagement in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
3. Sales: Based on a strong understanding of tech products and their unique value propositions, assisting tech clients in streamlining their sales processes. This includes developing sales playbooks, training sales teams, and implementing CRM systems to enhance efficiency, enabling them to achieve higher conversion rates and revenue growth.
4. Channel Partner Management: Helping tech clients establish and maintain successful channel partner relationships, including identifying the right partners, developing mutually beneficial agreements, and providing support throughout the partnership lifecycle. This focuses on communication, incentives and performance metrics to ensure that channel partners are motivated to promote tech products effectively, leading to increased market reach and revenue.
5. Market Research/Competitive Analysis/Customer Discovery: Conducting comprehensive market research, competitive analysis, and customer discovery initiatives to uncover market trends, identify emerging opportunities and evaluate competitors. This information equips clients with the insights needed to make informed decisions, adapt product strategies and stay ahead of the competition.
6. Customer Satisfaction/Retention: Enhancing customer satisfaction and retention rates by implementing customer feedback mechanisms, analyzing data to identify pain points, and developing strategies to address them. This includes focusing on post-sales support, personalized engagement and customer loyalty program to not only retain customer bases but also turning satisfied customers into brand advocates.

Melanie’s past experience includes serving as CEO and Co-Founder of PaymentScholar (an edtech start-up). She has worked in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as an independent consultant, advising start-up organizations on strategic planning, market positioning, market analysis, brand development and customer discovery. She has also served as the senior marketing officer for Deloitte & Touche/Deloitte Consulting, The Learning Care Group, and ForeSee Results. In these roles, she oversaw the execution of business, marketing and sales strategies to drive growth and increase market share.

Melanie has a B.A. in Honors English from the University of Michigan.