Life after the bubble bursts. The challenge of redefining the category.
Challenge
Like many companies born in the mid-90’s, this client profited from the growth and struggled in the aftermath of the 90’s Internet boom. While survival itself was not the issue, getting sustainable growth going again seemed to beyond reach. Salespeople struggled to find budget for every deal as many prospects considered their offerings “nice to have” rather then “must have” purchases. Internally, Marketing had been gradually relegated to the support of tactical sales efforts, and thus was largely absent in leading the process for company direction and strategy.
Solution
Reassessing the category, buyer and value proposition…
Our assessment of potential buyers revealed an exciting opportunity for this niche supplier of website software applications. We recommended that moving to a platform-oriented product family and providing new functionality targeted at business owners of Web commerce sites would bring sharper focus to selling efforts and create greater customer appeal. More importantly, our recommendations served to expand their category and allowed them to claim credibly the a position as the de facto system-of-record for online enterprises. Our work included recommendations for product and company acquisitions to quickly transform our client’s value proposition with a ‘working-now’ solution.Recommendations for defining the new category, sales targeting and market positioning helped jump-start momentum for conversion of the concept into cash for the client.
Result
…Leads to dramatic revenue results
Armed with a more powerful story to tell the market, our client’s selling team found multiple opportunities for immediate revenue. Within one quarter sales were growing at a mid-double digit rate over the previous quarter’s results, and a triple digit rate over previous year results. This increased value to customers is translating into company that has galvanized investors, partners and the analyst community as well.
(download pdf)
