Dina Sultan McDonald — Founder, EngageMarkets Consultancy
I've spent 20 years inside the room where growth stalls. Now I help founders find the way out.
Not as an outside observer. As someone who led marketing strategy at Intuit, ADP, Starwood, and PC Financial -- managing multi-million dollar budgets, aligning agencies, and building growth systems for companies serving millions of customers across B2B and B2C.
What I kept seeing, regardless of industry or company size, was the same pattern. Growth didn't slow randomly. It slowed at the same five moments every time.
That observation is the foundation of everything I do today.
The pattern I kept seeing
Every company I worked with had the same tension. Teams were performing well inside their own lanes. Marketing was generating leads. Sales was closing. Product was shipping. But somewhere in the middle, the customer was experiencing something fragmented; a different message at every touchpoint, expectations set by marketing that weren't matched by onboarding, retention treated as someone else's problem.
The assumption at the leadership level was always the same: we need to do more. More campaigns, more channels, more headcount. For a short time it worked. Then the same friction came back, harder.
The real issue wasn't effort. It was that nobody owned the full customer journey. Marketing, sales, product, and customer success each optimized their piece and the customer felt every gap between them.
What I do today
What I do is work with leadership teams navigating growth friction or transition points in their organization.
Where growth has stalled, where the team is pointing fingers, the customer journey is inconsistent, and leadership can't pinpoint why and I diagnose exactly where the system is breaking.
Then I build the strategy to fix it. Clear positioning. Behavioral personas that reflect how your best customers actually buy. Messaging that speaks to specific people at specific moments.
Channel integration that tells one story across every touchpoint. Retention systems that treat existing customers as your highest-ROI growth lever.
The goal isn't a 100-page deck. It's a clear picture of what's broken, what to fix first, and frameworks your team can execute and sustain without me.
Where I typically help
Positioning
Who you are, who you serve, and why it matters -- made unmistakably clear.
Acquisition
Aligning how prospects first encounter your company with what actually makes them buy.
Onboarding / Adoption
Closing the gap between the promise marketing makes and the experience that follows.
Retention & Advocacy
Turning existing customers into your most cost-effective growth channel.
Marketing can attract attention, but only alignment creates momentum.
Where I’ve been
My background spans Intuit, ADP, PC Financial, and Starwood Hotels -- across North America and international markets, in fintech, SaaS, telecom, tourism, healthcare, and the public sector.
Across every one of those environments, the same dynamic played out. When positioning, onboarding, and customer communication worked together, growth was steady and predictable. When they didn't, teams worked harder every quarter without understanding why results kept fluctuating.
That pattern doesn't change with industry. It changes when the system does.
Who this is for
If you're a founder or CEO at a Series A or B company and growth has quietly become harder to explain, you're adding activity but not seeing it compound; I can help you find where the system is breaking and what to prioritize first.
If you're a marketing director who knows something structural is wrong but needs outside perspective and a framework to bring to leadership, same answer.
I work with a small number of companies at a time. The work is specific, diagnostic, and built around your situation not a templated programme.
Start with a conversation, not a commitment.
A 30-minute diagnostic call is enough to identify which breakpoint is most likely costing you growth. You'll leave with clarity on where to look first whether we work together or not.
