Software Sales Case Study

The company sought to improve margins and optimize investment while operating in an increasingly competitive market but was unsure where to start. It was recently acquired, and the new parent company identified that sales and marketing capabilities were not positioned to drive growth. Talent levels were performing below industry benchmarks in many areas, with reps not being exposed to industry best practices. Major competitive industry players were taking market share from the top end of the market, while Cloud players were disrupting the market at the lower end.

The company sought to rapidly incorporate best practices and emerging best practices into their sales and marketing operations. The first step was to bring in SBI to benchmark each sales and marketing function:

• Buyer Personas and Pricing Optimization
• Account Segmentation, Territory Design
• Talent Management (reps, managers, pre-sales) and Compensation Planning
• Custom Sales Process and Lead Management
• Sales Manager Training, Sales Rep Academies and Worldwide Sales Coaching

SBI knew the rapid pace needed for change (given the company’s timeline and current state) required the company’s ownership and leadership team to be fully invested. Working cross-functionally, SBI prioritized functional strategy implementation based on best practices and speed to achieve the greatest ROI within existing business constraints. As a result, they focused on offerings with the highest probabilities for providing maximum returns, including:

• Strategic product revenue
• Maintenance revenue
• New license revenue

By operationalizing best practices, the company soon had accountability in chosen sales and marketing strategies, thereby positioning them to develop ongoing state-of-the-art sales and marketing knowledge.

SBI developed and executed a customized transformation, resulting in 3x enterprise value over 4 years, and the eventual sale of the company.