OUR APPROACH

MAKING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS

How We Deliver This Service

Rolling out a new service can be a somewhat chaotic experience, even with a great methodology behind you. Our approach brings discipline to what can otherwise be a trial and error experience. We believe the most effective methodology includes these steps:

• Service definition
• Metrics setting
• Market testing
• Refinements
• Early wins & testimonials
• Sales training
• Marketing
• Milestone management

Service Definition

In this phase, we brainstorm with your executives, usually in off-site sessions. During these sessions, we seek to understand the rationale behind the service. Where did the idea for the service come from and why do you want to offer the service? We put the idea for the service through a meat grinder to see if it stands up to scrutiny. We do this by asking questions such as:

• Who is the ideal client for this service?
• What are the features and benefits of the service?
• How will you package the service with the right deliverables?
• What do you think ideal clients will find valuable about this service?
• How much should you charge for this service?
• How much revenue do you think this service could generate in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years or longer?
• How will you market the service?
• Who should sell the service and how long do you think the average sales cycle would be?
• Does this service require a complex sale or a simple sale?
• Who are the competitors for this service and how is your offering different or better?
• What are the barriers to entry for this service?
• How much will it cost you to get the service off the ground?
• What are your minimum success criteria to keep the service offering alive?
• What are your metrics for success in terms of client uptake, engagements, revenue, profit and contribution to EBITDA?
• What are the milestones and timeframes you need to set to determine if you should kill the service or keep it going?

Out of this process, we ask you to make a go or no-go decision about whether to kill service development or keep it going.

Metrics Setting

In this phase, we help you identify an initial set of success metrics. We take the output of the brainstorming session and build some rudimentary financial models, cost-structure models and long-range profit models. We also help you establish critical milestones that must be achieved for you to feel as if the whole effort has been worth it. We also ask you to establish some minimum keep-or-kill criteria and the timelines for when these decisions will be made.

Market Testing

In this phase, we ask you to identify a set of existing ideal clients we can interview. We pitch your ideas to them to see what they think of them and how much they would be willing to pay for the service. We also carefully note what they perceive to be valuable in the offering and solicit them for input about how to improve the offering. We also look at competitive offerings and compare strengths and weaknesses.

Refinements

In this phase, we provide the market feedback to your team and make some recommendations about how to refine your initial ideas. We also recommend a strategy to go get early wins and testimonials.

Early Wins And Testimonials

In this phase, we ask our clients to make a great deal with a few friendly clients in exchange for their testimonials. Not every industry will allow for this. In that case, we use the early win as a blinded case study.

Sales Training

In this phase, we help you and your business development leaders create the core messages and strategies that you need to sell your service to the broader market. We take the lessons learned from the early wins and apply them to your business development efforts to ensure you realize the highest close rates. The right turn of a phrase at the right moment can be the difference between a service your market loves or never buys.

Marketing

In this phase, we make recommendations for how to develop a go-to-market strategy for the service. Some clients will choose to engage our rich palette of marketing services to help make the marketing plan a success.

Milestone Management

In this phase, we help you look at the specific outcomes you’ve realized in defined time periods, often 90 days, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. At each time period, we help you analyze your outcomes against your minimum success criteria and make a kill-or-keep decision.

A focused methodology, like the one describe here, greatly increases the likelihood that your new service offering will succeed and will not end up hurting you more than it helps you.

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