By: Mohit Garg, Driector, Bolden Ventures (ex-McKinsey)
Sales growth is THE parameter of success. With the explosive growth rates of 100-200% per year, some players are killing the competition simply by outpacing them!
While some new companies have learnt the art of high growth, older players have been slow to move. There are many cases of older players losing their dominance to newer, more aggressive players. Some of the older players are even struggling for survival.
How do these new comers do it? Product innovation and aggressive sales & marketing are the two obvious answers. But it is not as simple as it looks. For explosive growth, you need to win deals quickly. To win deals, you need to spot them fast, before the competition and that’s where research-based opportunity intelligence comes in.
Using some sanitized case studies (after approval from client), I describe how sales and marketing teams can use the power of research to identify large opportunities before the competition.
Client 1: A building equipment manufacturer
Challenge:
A company’s sales team in Asia were always the second or fourth vendor to meet a prospect. In many cases, they would only hear about the opportunity only when it was lost to a competitor. Older players of the region walked away with large deals in most cases as they were able to create the all-important first impression. Client needed market intelligence urgently!
Solution:
My firm Bolden started working with the client’s marketing and sales team leaders of the region. We first learnt about their sales aspirations for the region. A pilot was started where Bolden provided the client team with monthly intelligence on potential sales opportunities in the region.
Impact: Within the first three months, client was able to spot 11 large opportunities and pitched for all of them resulting in three wins worth millions of dollars. Of the three deals they cracked, one was with a QSR chain who were planning 100s of new stores in Asia over five years. Another deal was done with a commercial real estate developer who planned to create 5 million square feet of commercial office space in six years!
Client 2. An industrial company focusing on power generation sector
Challenge:
An industrial company wanted to tap the booming energy sector of a developing economy. They had recently opened an office and wanted a strong start.
Solution:
Our research team had meetings with different stakeholders in client’s time including product, strategy and sales. They asked us to create a framework for opportunity intelligence for them. We prepared the framework after interviews with the stakeholders. It was approved and a three months pilot was launched. We started sharing market opportunities with the sales team on a fortnightly basis.
Newsletter sample.Impact
Using the market insights that we shared, the client started getting smarter about the requirements in tenders put out by the government in power sector. Looking at profile and tactics of contract winners, they were able to learn the best practices. Three months of the pilot went past and client was loving the work – the extended the contract to three more months. Using a lead from our report, they pitched for a project in the fifth month and won the multi-million dollar contract. That’s the power of research!
So what is the real magic?
It is the trained, experienced researchers who do the magic. Analysts possess extensive experience finding reliable and relevant information. Using experience and industry knowledge, they make sense out of numerous clues spread across multiple of sources. The analysts are unbiased and provide insights that are actionable.
The inhouse v/s outsourced dilemma:
Companies can always hire analysts on their payrolls. But it is the knowledge services firms like Bolden who have the resources to train them, provide them the access to databases, industry experts, leveraging our economy of scale. Outsourced model also allows companies to fine tune the bandwidth they need. Instead of hiring full time people, they can subscribe to defined number of monthly research hours. There are Fortune 500 companies who have outsourced research to the tune of 10-300 employees working with the research company – just for them. Bolden’s pricing starts from (continue reading link) $32/hour and comes down to $22/hour depending on the size of your subscription. Set-up a call now with the Director of Bolden Research to have a discussion.
Bolden hires top research talent through rigorous recruitment process and offers an exciting yet enjoyable environment for them to thrive. Confidentiality is most important to us and we use strict security protocols, tools and have policies in place to protect client’s confidences.
Bolden offers market research and market expansion services for enterprise growth. We help clients gain competitive edge, evaluate new opportunities and enter new markets. We deploy deep research, analytics and proprietary techniques for research. We serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups in the clean tech and technology sectors. Three things that define us are relevance, creativity and integrity.
Bolden’s use casesReach out to us at mohit@gobolden.com
Phone: +91 9810653740
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