Who We Are
CFS supports customers from ideation and strategy to tactical planning and implementation through ongoing support and management.
Our Story
In 1999, our founding partners left corporate leadership positions and set out to build a different kind of consulting experience.
Our Focus
The voice of the customer is the foundation of every phase of every client engagement.
Our Experience
Over 21 years of consulting experience and a wide range of services lead to deep client relationships and engagements.
How we became Customer Focused Strategies
We were both working in corporate jobs and often relied on consultants for various types of projects. Some of the companies were household names, while others were small with very specific expertise. Despite the talent of these various consultancies, we were often left with gaps when the project wrapped.
We saw an opportunity to offer a holistic consulting approach, to help clients identify and quantify market potential and put plans into action that add value to clients and their customers. We didn’t want our work to be a binder on the shelf; we wanted to live the implementation with our customers.
In 1999, we set out to create a new management consulting experience for clients made up of a team of other professionals we knew and respected, who were passionate about this unique approach to consulting.
Our hand-selected consultants form a high-performance team with proven results. Diverse skillsets and real-life experience allow us to apply rich business perspective with the ability to drill deeply into a specific discipline. Add to that our relentless focus on the customer and the result is impactful business outcomes and multi-year client engagements.
Our Promise
Our core values shape our approach to every client relationship
Our Team
Pam Lopez
With her extensive cross-functional background, Pam views client challenges from a holistic perspective. Her experience building and running high-performing sales, marketing, and customer service organizations makes her equally talented at strategy development and operational execution.
FUN FACT: Pam was recruited for a D-1 Badminton team but didn’t want to make that much "racquet" in college
Suzanne Beisner
A successful and experienced executive, Suzanne drives strategic planning with her expertise in market and consumer research. Combining strategic thinking with a keen understanding of go-to-market tactics and customer experience, she helps clients bring innovative new products and services to market.
FUN FACT: Suzanne wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, but her passion for exploring planet Earth has kept her feet on the ground.
Tina Altamura
A senior executive with a track record of designing and executing successful marketing, sales channel, and product management programs, Tina anchors everything in the customer experience. She uses her cross-functional background to help clients deliver amazing end-to-end experiences while optimizing business outcomes.
FUN FACT: Family game night often turns into family game “weekend” as Tina makes everyone continue playing until she wins.
Laurie Barnette
A creative business strategist, Laurie has extensive experience in brand strategy, product development, channel marketing, and GTM across industries ranging from technology to CPG. A passionate believer in “data-driven instinct,” she helps clients develop and execute innovative solutions found at the intersection of art and science in sales and marketing.
FUN FACT: Laurie believes she is ambidextrous, but her handwriting is awful either way.
Angela Borrell
With 25 years of experience in communications-focused positions in the Energy Industry, Angela has a keen ability to create effective messaging to achieve business goals. She brings broad expertise in providing thought leadership for senior executives to create impactful communications related to complex projects such as change management strategy and functional restructuring.
FUN FACT: Angela and her husband compete in a lively game of Jeopardy each night after dinner.
Joanna Carl
With a background in customer service, project management and team leadership, Joanna is driven to help CFS and its clients achieve and surpass their goals. Joanna institutes best practices to streamline operations and manages CFS’ team of copywriters.
FUN FACT: Having grown up in Texas and attended college in Wisconsin, Joanna knows her way around a rodeo and can tell you what a “bubbler” is.
Lesley Eason
With her innate ability to see the intersection of technology and future applications, our clients trust Lesley to guide their business strategy. Her extensive international business experience includes M&A assessments, strategic alliances and partnerships, managing due diligence, and creating market-entry strategies.
FUN FACT: For many years, Lesley had a pet skunk named Simon
Jennifer Powell-Elgin
Extensive cross-functional experience in marketing, sales, and operations enables Jennifer to guide the development of B2B and B2C programs for our clients. Her expertise in market and competitive assessments help ground strategic decisions in data and analysis.
FUN FACT: Jennifer loves travel and new adventures but will remain true to her Georgia roots.
Scot Harris
An entrepreneur and consultant with over 30 years’ experience growing companies, Scot Harris has driven strategy and led the implementation of programs in technology, entertainment, and retail. He has a broad understanding of business operations and management, having held executive positions in marketing, M&A, general management, distribution, and sales.
FUN FACT: Scot is a yoga enthusiast and has been practicing for over 15 years. Current challenge, the full peacock pose.
Amy McMurtrie
With senior leadership experience in wireless, cable and mobile software development, Amy brings a holistic business perspective to her consulting engagements. She helps clients identify and navigate integrated impacts across marketing, sales, customer service and operations, keeping a keen eye on customer experience.
FUN FACT: Amy’s competitive spirit can best be seen on the tennis court and the scrabble board.
Kristin Pascal
Kristin specializes in innovative product design and implementation and holds several patents for her work. She has vast experience in all phases of the product lifecycle, and loves combining user experience, technology, and business drivers to create successful solutions for her clients.
FUN FACT: Kristin is always up for an outdoor adventure! A couple of favorites include kayaking the Na Pali Coast of Kauai and backpacking across the Cascade Mountain Range.
Susan Racheneur
With her rich cross-functional background in strategy, finance, marketing and operations, Susan leads a variety of projects for CFS clients with the assurance that they are in experienced, capable hands. She sees quick wins as easy, but the big, complex projects are her jam.
FUN FACT: Susan is an adventurer, riding horses and motorcycles, traveling the world, and raising twin boys.
Narin Smith
Narin held senior leadership positions in the Energy industry spanning diverse cross-functional roles in Finance, Business Development, Corporate Strategy, Forecasting, and Risk Management. She has a Ph.D. in Economics and a passion for finding solutions to business problems. She is skilled in statistics and analytics with an endless hunger for learning more.
FUN FACT: Narin owns a black shiny electric guitar, once aspiring to master the heaviest of the metal riffs. Currently, the guitar serves as a decorative piece in her living room.
Penny Tallis
An experienced senior executive, Penny helps clients define vertical market strategy and manage profitable B2B sales and operations organizations. She has led multiple customer service transformation projects and balances strategic understanding of the business with experience managing people, processes, and technologies.
FUN FACT: Penny is known as “Martha-MacGyver” for her ability to whip up a last-minute dinner for 15 with a few ingredients from the pantry and fridge.
Allie Vlk
With experience ranging from Non-Profit to Fortune 20 Retail, Allie has a wealth of varied marketing and communications experience. A natural project manager, Allie brings an eye for process improvement to all initiatives. She has experience in PR, Social Media, Project Management, Marketing Operations and Paid Media across all channels.
FUN FACT: With very brief aspirations to be a rock star, Allie took up playing the drums in 5th grade.
LEARN HOW WE CAN HELP
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Whether your product or service is in the ideation stage, needs a relaunch, or if you want to remove friction from product development and deployment processes, we can help you deliver innovative solutions to your customers.
- Product Management Discipline
- Product Development
- Go-To-Market
- Market Implementation
- Product & Portfolio Lifecycle
SALES
An optimal channel mix ensures your target market and existing customers are well served. We can help design a channel strategy with the necessary processes and tools to accelerate sales, drive results, and grow revenue.
- Channel Development
- Channel Optimization
- Sales Enablement
- Sales Advancement
MARKETING
You have a story to tell, whether it is your brand promise or your latest promotion. We can ensure your message is amplified consistently across all touchpoints and delivered in engaging formats where and when your audience desires.
- Branding
- Market Segmentation
- Content Creation
- Digital Marketing
- Campaigns & Programs
- Channel Marketing
CUSTOMER CARE
The customer experience has never been more important. We can help design your service delivery organization to meet customer expectations and the performance and financial goals of your business.
- Customer Service Experience
- Organization & Optimization
- Operational Excellence
- Agent Enablement
TRAINING
Whether you are looking to refresh your training content or explore digital delivery formats, we can ensure your plans, materials, and reinforcement programs are effective and align with skills and knowledge objectives.
- Training Plans & Programs
- Curriculum Development
- Media & Delivery Format
- Training Delivery
- Retention & Reinforcement