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Michael Prothmann
Geschäftsführer bei MPCG Unternehmensberatung & Unternehmer Zusammen mit Digital Natives aufs nächste digitale Level in Prozessen, Marketing & Sales
Professional Background
Michael Prothmann is a highly experienced business leader with a rich background in international marketing and sales, digital transformation, and B2B strategies. With over 20 years of top management experience in large corporations, Michael transitioned to entrepreneurship in 2010, where he founded the Michael Prothmann Consulting Group (MPCG) to assist companies in navigating the complexities of digital change. Under his leadership, MPCG has established itself as a leading consultancy in the realm of digital transformation, offering innovative solutions that empower businesses to thrive in the digital landscape.
Throughout his career, Michael has been instrumental in helping various businesses succeed in integrating digital elements into their traditional models. He believes that transformation is not just about technology but also about aligning organizations and their people to embrace change. His approach to digital strategy formulation and implementation has enabled countless companies to harness the potential of digitalization effectively, moving beyond just following trends to truly capturing value.
Education and Achievements
Michael Prothmann's academic journey laid a solid foundation for his entrepreneurial and consultancy endeavors. He studied Diplomkaufmann (Business Administration) at the esteemed Universität zu Köln, equipping him with a robust understanding of business principles and practices. His pursuit of knowledge further led him to the Università degli Studi di Torino, where he broadened his academic horizons.
Michael is also known for his specialized training in Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing under the tutelage of Professor Scott Galloway at New York University. This prestigious experience allowed him to delve deep into the nuances of branding and the digital marketplace, skills that he leverages to benefit his clients today.
Additionally, his professional journey includes serving in various roles that highlight his versatility and commitment to excellence. From being the Founder and CEO of MPCG, which focuses on guiding companies through digital transformation, to previously holding positions such as Managing Director at Grey Group, and strategic leadership roles at international firms like OBI Group Holding, Michael has built a reputation for driving results and fostering innovation.
Notable Contributions and Role in Digital Transformation
One of Michael's signature contributions is the development of the "Digitale Mobilisierung" concept, which is essential for integrating organizations into the digital era. This initiative focuses on agile restructuring, employee training, and creating a solid foundation for companies to thrive digitally. By doing so, he ensures that his clients do not merely adopt technology but rather evolve their entire business models for maximum efficacy.
Michael’s adeptness at leveraging digital marketing strategies is another noteworthy area. Through his guidance, many businesses have adopted marketing automation and data-driven web analytics, which have greatly increased their B2B marketing effectiveness. His team's efforts in optimizing sales cycles and enhancing CRM systems are particularly lauded, as they directly contribute to better customer engagement and increased e-commerce success.
Not only does Michael focus on corporate aspects, but he also emphasizes the importance of nurturing talent inside organizations. His team, comprised of digital natives from Germany's leading universities, works synergistically with seasoned experts to ensure that techniques and strategies are innovative and practical. This blending of fresh perspectives with experienced insights creates a dynamic that sets him apart in the consultancy landscape.
Michael is also highly invested in education, having previously served as a lecturer in
Digital Sales Marketing" at CBS International Business School, sharing his extensive knowledge with the next generation of business leaders. His role as a business angel further demonstrates his commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and supporting innovative ventures wherever possible.
Michael Prothmann is also recognized for his strategic role in revitalizing Pesch International Interiors, where he played a key part in the company's digitalization and sustainable growth. This case study of transformation exemplifies his hands-on approach and capability to deliver tangible results. Alongside such achievements, he led the establishment of MP&Oscar GmbH, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit and operational acumen.
Contributions to Regional and Global Businesses
Michael’s influence reaches beyond national borders; he has contributed significantly to international marketing strategies, ensuring businesses are equipped to compete in a globalized market. His expertise in optimizing sales processes and implementing effective digital transformation strategies has helped organizations save time and resources while yielding higher returns.
In his early career, Michael held an influential position on the extended board at Karstadt, where he supported important strategic decisions impacting the company’s operational processes. This kind of experience provided him with an intricate understanding of the interdependencies within large organizations, a perspective that informs his current work at MPCG.
As a recognized figure in digital transformation, Michael continues to be a sought-after consultant for businesses seeking to elevate their digital strategies and operational efficacy. His profound insights and methodical strategies invariably lead to enhanced performance across various sectors, providing clients with a competitive edge in the digital era.
Achievements
- Founder and CEO of the Michael Prothmann Consulting Group (MPCG) which focuses on digital transformation in B2B.
- Successfully revitalized Pesch International Interiors through digitalization and sustainability initiatives.
- Developed a unique method called Digitale Mobilisierung to facilitate organizational digital transformations.
- Contributed to significant changes in B2B marketing through innovative techniques involving marketing automation and data-driven analytics.
- Served as a lecturer for Digital Sales and Marketing, influencing future business leaders at CBS International Business School.
- Held key leadership positions in major international firms, enhancing their market strategies and operational efficiencies.
- Supported various startups as a business angel, fostering growth and entrepreneurship.
- Extensive knowledge in brand strategy and digital marketing, shared through experiences with professors at New York University.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.