The Problem
Our client was named the vendor of choice to support an automaker’s emission reduction goal. This afforded our client an opportunity to target the automaker’s supply chain partners as potential new customers for their retrofit, electrification, and carbon emission compliance measurement services. But, our client had to first get the attention of these new potential partners with a program and messaging that would resonate.
The Approach
We knew we needed to understand the broader market environment and supply chain partners’ needs to assess the type of program and messaging that would work.
Internal Stakeholder Interviews
We first fielded a series of interviews with our client’s internal practice leads. This grounded our understanding of our client’s products and services while also providing us with information about program elements that needed testing and barriers that needed exploration.
Market Landscape Audit
With a strong understanding of the general category in place, we performed a competitive audit of our client and their key competitors. This process let us assess how each organization positioned itself as well as how each company merchandised its value propositions and breadth of services.
Supplier Interviews
Lastly, we fielded a series of interviews with prospective partners to understand how interested, or not, they were in the energy transformation program, what barriers existed to program adoption, and what measures they would use to evaluate the program and its value to their organizations.
The Results
Our client reaped several marketing and sales-related benefits from the project…
Messaging & Positioning
We pinpointed the key drivers of electrification and emission reduction needs among supply chain partners, a key step to driving consensus around how to message the program’s features and benefits. Simultaneously, we also collected intel on barriers to adoption to help our client better think through their marketing and sales processes.
Sales Operations
We developed a series of qualification criteria our client could use to assess a prospect’s viability as well as different service tiers they could offer to efficiently support unique market segments.
Success Metrics
Input from internal stakeholders and potential program participants led to the development of objective measurement criteria our client could use to gauge program success.
Did You Know...
Performing internal stakeholder interviews doesn’t just help with sharing institutional knowledge. It also provides the inputs for initial hypothesis testing. By collecting attitudes, perspectives, and ideas shared during early meetings, and testing them during our research phases, we not only test which ones hold weight but also help organizations move away from perspectives that do not align with the market’s needs.
