About · Founder · Practitioner Ground Truth

Built by an operator,
not a consultant.

The methods TMG installs are the ones Mike Maple used to win deals at scale. Not the ones he read about.

Mike Maple
Founder · The Maple Group
  • Sr. Director, Strategic Engagement · Global Enterprise Network OEM (2009–2024)
  • VP Strategic Pursuits · Large Telecommunications Provider (2024–2025)
  • $650M+ total contract value annually · 56% enterprise win rate
  • Built Strategic Engagement function from zero · Scaled pursuit team 18→60 FTE
  • 141% pipeline growth · 136% quota attainment
  • Dare to Lead Certified · ITIL Foundations Certified
  • Based in Raleigh, NC
“I’m passionate about building teams and developing leaders — and coordinating the conditions that make winning the outcome.”

The Maple Group exists because GTM consulting is full of frameworks that have never been run on a live deal. TMG’s methods are the opposite: every instrument — the Hypothesis of Value, Engagement Acceleration System, Partnership for Success, Negotiation Thread Tracker, Deal Health Scorecard — was used in production at scale before it was packaged.

I spent thirty years building the strategic engagement infrastructure that this firm now teaches. The four-tier architecture is what I actually needed when I was running pursuit teams — a diagnostic before a prescription, a system that runs without the founder, and an exit built in from day one.

The Operating Philosophy

Three principles.
Non-negotiable.

01 ·
Diagnose before you prescribe.
Every TMG engagement begins with a 45-minute diagnostic conversation. No deck. No pitch. We listen for the actual problem before describing any solution.
02 ·
The system is the strategy.
Talent is a ceiling, not a floor. The ceiling rises when you install infrastructure beneath it. Every TMG engagement produces a tangible system — not a slide deck of recommendations.
03 ·
Build to exit.
The goal has never been a dependency. Every engagement is designed to run without TMG from day one. If you still need us in 18 months, we failed.