Industry: High Tech | Service: Sales & Marketing – Channel Development

Summary: A leading worldwide software company sought help from the Arnold Group in developing a strategic vision and approach for reaching the small business market. The Arnold Group delivered a strategic plan and actionable deliverables that enabled the client to implement successful campaigns and shape the future product offering to benefit small business customers.

Customer Profile: A Leading Global Software Company

Challenge:

The client organization, an established market leader in consumer software, sought to strengthen its value proposition for the small business audience. With a leading product on most consumer desktops around the world, the organization realized it needed a stronger value proposition for small business customers. The client sought help from the Arnold Group in developing a strategic vision and approach for achieving success in this market.

Solution:

The Arnold Group consultants created a three-year strategy and vision and a one-year execution plan for engaging the small business market. The three-year vision defined a process for the ongoing development of a proactive market strategy with a four-prong approach for addressing the needs of the market.

The first step was to improve organizational knowledge and understanding of the small business customer base and their needs. This step was systemic to the underlying problem. Second, the Arnold Group developed a messaging strategy that connected the benefits of the product to the real-world needs of the small business customers. To do this, the team defined profiles of small business customers and developed messaging to identify specific ways that the product can address the common challenges they face. Third, the team delivered a product plan for building more value for the small business customer segment. Fourth, the team examined how to add value to in new and innovative ways, including a plan for attaching complementary products and offers to the product to drive more value to the small business customer.

The one-year plan created a connection between the current business situation and this longer term vision. The plan included a number of tactical initiatives that could yield immediate results, such as implementation of the new messaging, channel training and incentive programs, and offers. The plan also began implementation of the longer-term strategy via a series of pilots, product development efforts, and customer research.

Results:

With the innovative strategic planning and actionable deliverables provided by the Arnold Group, the client was able to implement successful campaigns to enter the small business market. More than that, the client gained an understanding of the market and the needs of these customers. This insight enabled the client to drive effective marketing messaging, and it helped to shape the future product offering to better compete in the small business market.