PLAN | MARKET | SELL – CASE STUDY #2

• Problem: A client organization wanted to explore a new market and was interested in testing sales and marketing strategies prior to launch without risking losses to their existing core business. The client wanted to test assumptions and create a plan around entering the new market over a 6-month period. The challenges for the client were a lack of retail experience, no knowledge of the process to enter mass retail or distributor accounts and what impact the addition of retail might have on their existing business.

• Opportunity: Hiring additional full-time employees was not an option for the client, as the company desired a cost-effective way to test new sales tactics and did not want the project work to interfere with the current work of either the marketing or sales teams or their day-to-day operations. Also, the work was considered to be “heavy lifting” because the amount of work it would take to get a new retail strategy off the ground and having outside expertise to help work through the process was important.

• Strategy: Working collaboratively with the client, we outlined the strategy to enter small retail accounts, distributor accounts and larger mass retail accounts. The plan included the marketing and sales strategies for each type of account, it identified the key steps that would need to be taken to gain distribtuion and outlined the eventual tactics that the sales and marketing teams would need to use for each specific type of retail account.

• Solution: We developed a 6-month timeline for the project and determined upfront the company resources needed to complete the work, the internal systems that would need to be modified to support the new retail accounts and the account level expectations that sales representatives would need to meet in order to hit the overall launch goals at retail.

• Result: At completion of the testing period, a business case was developed that provided insight into the opportunity and it was presented to management for review.  The marketing and sales staff was able to pick-up where the project was completed by our team ro build upon the next phase of the work without falling behind on their current responsibilities.

• Follow-Up: As a result of the work, the client was able to create a business case that was presented to retailers and helped to minimize the risk of launching straight into retail without a formalized plan.  Testing and prototyping strategies and tactics proved to be prudent as it lead to a full rebranding of the product mix, a new packaging design for display at checkout and the strategic decision to start with smaller retail accounts before moving to larger retailers or distributors.

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