Target customer assessment and segmentation plan: Helped a SaaS (software as a service) company evaluate their target market. The specific question from the board and senior management was whether to aggressively pursue the Web 2.0 market that was much hyped at the time or to focus elsewhere. The result was a recommendation to not focus on consumer Web 2.0 and we recommended a more attractive market - enterprse applications. The result was 100% growth of this company’s new SaaS business from $6M to $12M over the next year.
For this project, we were hired by the CEO and board. We developed the recommendation through a thorough evaluation of the SaaS market including interviews of customers (buyers, non-buyers, churned, untapped prospects), industry analysts, board members, and management. We also scanned third party industry research. The project concluded with a complete written report and presentations to management and the board.
New business entry evaluation and recommendation: A top operating unit of a public insurance brokerage based in New York city was losing business to professional employment organizations (PEOs) who offered payroll and basic human resources services. The head of the division wanted to know whether to enter the PEO business and how to do so – by partnering, acquisition, or building a PEO from scratch. Our assessment identified that the exposure to competitive losses was related to insurance industry structure and local regulation that was likely to limit this competitive dynamic to one geographic insurance market. The recommendation was to execute a few sales through a commercial third party PEO relationship first and then evaluate further action depending on the level of competitive losses over the next year. The company has successfully followed the recommendation.
This project included interviews of customers, other brokers in the business, and a parent company business development executive; “ghost shopping” PEOs; attending an industry conference; evaluating third party research and reviewing investment bank publications on top PEO players as well as industry economics; and attending an industry conference with the client.