Case Study
Commercial planning
Insight
We were asked to help a manufacturer develop their commercial plan. One of their main marketing activities was to exhibit at an annual industry convention. Marketing materials and the stand at the show cost almost £60,000. The entire office worked together a month before the show as hundreds of bags of brochures were packed up.
While it was possible to capture attendee data, this did not directly translate into increased sales. It felt like people picked up brochures and samples, but with little intention to eventually buy.
The commercial director asked us to help build the financial rationale for attending the show and from there to make proposals on a sales and marketing plan.
Solution
When we really scrutinised the ‘what does this mean?’ in this case, we established that the company marketing team wanted influential clients to recommend their products. Yet most people attending their stand weren’t these senior, industry-leading figures.
The first thing we did was to help the team pose the suggestion that maybe they wouldn’t attend next year. That conversation is never easy when the rationale for doing something is that it’s always been that way!
Then we helped the team evaluate the savings from not attending and showed how these funds could be used to better target the people they really wanted to converse with.
We helped them work out where these industry influencers were likely to congregate and built a costed plan to help reach them.
Outcome
Within twelve months of us being involved they had pulled out of the exhibition. They then had a much simpler choice of either banking the savings or of reinvesting those funds into other outreach activities.
The second outcome was the impact we had on the sales and marketing team. Feeling they had taken back control of the marketing plan left them much better motivated, knowing they were focusing on the activities that would really make a difference to revenue.
