Case Study: Building Product Management and Brand Strategy at CMC

CMC had grown into a leader in tracked/spider lifts, but dealers and customers found the product catalog confusing and the company—formerly a distributor—had no product management capacity. Overlaps, unclear naming, and inconsistent messaging were creating friction in sales and limiting margin expansion.

Led a full product and brand rationalization: simplify the portfolio, clarify differentiation, and strengthen messaging so that dealers could more easily understand and sell the full line.

Conducted a full competitor audit, map of overlapping specs, and gap analysis.

Interviewed dealers and major customers to surface confusion points.

Created a brand narrative playbook: core value pillars, elevator pitch, voice & tone guidelines.

Produced dealer-facing sales tools: side-by-side spec comparison sheets, objection-handling guides, sales talking points.

Improved cohesiveness and efficiency of sales and marketing efforts.

Shifted working hours away from low-margin truck manufacturing, focusing more time on higher-margin lifts.

Built complete Product Management function, culture, operating system, artifacts, templates, and strategic and tactical plan.

This engagement reinforced that even strong engineering brands suffer when internal complexity leaks to the market. A unified product framework plus aligned messaging is often the accelerant for growth, not just “brand work.”