Identifying and Developing Sales Channels

Problem

Having recently acquired a portal software manufacturer, a leading global provider of application server software was going to launch a new portal product. The company was counting on the new, out-of-the-box portal product to play a crucial role in extending the company’s presence at the enterprise level. Since the two-year revenue target for the portal product was $100 million, representing 20% of the client’s current annual revenues, the company employed Go To Market Partners (GTMP) to verify the product’s validity, acquaint the company with the enterprise level customer, and create a channel strategy.

Action

Having worked on other projects with the client, GTM Partners understood the unique challenges that could have impeded the success of the new portal product and future business revenues unless addressed prior to the product’s launch:

• While the client had a very large installed customer base, the buyers within those accounts were different than the target customers for the new product (e.g., system administrators versus application developers).

• The company lacked relationships with prospective buyers; in fact, these potential buyers had not been identified with sufficient precision to initiate the sale.

• The intended vendor channel required unique support, training, and marketing collateral to be successful.

• There were already many similar competing portal products in the market. The company needed to successfully differentiate its new product and create a compelling value proposition to win customers and achieve its sales goals.

First, Go To Market Partners sought to verify the relevance of the intended target market and product offering. To gage the product’s potential success in the intended market, GTMP consultants performed an in-depth assessment of 100 potential customer accounts, as well as 50 potential channel partners. The interviews with customers and partners successfully validated the level of demand for the product and determined which channels were best suited to distribute the product.

Realizing the client’s lack of experience with customers at the enterprise level, GTM Partners generated a pool of leads from which to characterize and learn about the target market. Through in-depth interviews with the qualified customers, GTMP created an "Ideal Customer Profile" that identified the characteristics and buying behaviors of the target market.

Since the new product was still in development during the engagement, GTMP concept-tested the intended features of the new product in a focus group consisting of current and future customers. Participants were able to interact with a beta version of the product and provide valuable feedback and suggestions to the client. The input of the focus group participants allowed the client to differentiate its product from the numerous competing products in the market.

GTMP identified that the client’s existing sales channel were not a good fit for the new out-of-the-box portal product. The client’s previous products were very complex, requiring a consultative sale by a highly-skilled sales team. This new product was simpler, and could be sold successfully by indirect resources (partners) with less application development and consulting experience.

GTMP uncovered a pool of under-utilized vendors that were certified by the client but unsuccessful in the sale of complex products. These vendors were loyal toward the client but were frustrated with skills required to sell their complex products. The new out-of-the-box portal product would offer these certified vendors a less complex product to bring to market. Upon identifying this vendor pool, GTMP interviewed 30 intended vendors to gain a better understanding of the type of support, training and marketing collateral they would require for success.

To assist in the initial sales of the new product, GTM Partners created a “Winning Sales Process Profile”, based on nuances in the buying process for small versus large accounts. In addition, Go To Market Partners created value propositions for the portal, based on whether the target audience was a technical buyer, a business buyer, an influencer, or a partner. To assist the channel partners, GTMP created a sales preparation tool with sales scripts, target market profiles, and customers’ buying processes.

Result

GTM Partners armed the client with an effective channel strategy, customer-tested sales tools, a strong value proposition, and a “cheat sheet” of the most profitable channel partners to engage. The client was able to successfully take its new product to market, where it was quickly accepted by a bevy of both existing and new customers.