Synopsis: MES Software Vendor – New Market Entry
Our client, a venture funded start-up with unique Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) software was using second round funding to hire proven sales people and developed marketing materials to showcase their world class product. While the sale funnel looked very promising, the initial opportunities were not turning into sales. The client asked QDI to identify what was stalling the sales and identity the gaps in the go-to-market strategy.
The initial project involved studying completed sales and prospects currently in the sale funnel. The breakthrough finding was the while the prospects manufacturing organization could see the benefits of MES and wanted to purchase; firms who actually purchased first completed certain steps related to their ERP system. Once we talked to a prospects ERP project manager, we could learn the likely implementation timetable. The result was that many prospects classified as near turn sales were actually 1 or 2 years away from purchase.
As we talked to prospects higher in the funnel we found a second breakthrough – since MES was a new concept where buyer was still assessing how the solution worked in their business. Some of the new sales people were great with clients that knew what they wanted, but didn’t have experience or tools need to help buyers sell the concept into their organizations.
The client then asked QDI to work with them to create a go-to-market strategy that would enable them to rapidly grow revenue. QDI “reverse engineered” the customer interviews to create a customer segmentation based including prospect readiness. QDI then generate leads for the client sending near-term prospects to the sales force and longer-term prospects into the marketing communications funnel.
The results were:
- More leads
- Much more efficient use of the sales force time
- Marketing messaging that included helping the prospects sell MES within their business
- Sales force tools