Organizational Development with Ambitious Business Owners
Working with ambitious SMEs founders and leaders who serve business customers, JEM 9 clients are varied but all in the technology space. From cutting-edge 3D hardware solutions, to large-scale enterprise software, and nimble niche SaaS solutions, JEM 9 clients design, develop and bring to market a range of technology product, sometimes accompanied by wrap-around IT services. Typical assignments explore and refine strategy as leaders seek to focus on the next few big things to do. One upside of working with a consultant like JEM 9 is that the engagement is tailored specifically to client needs, your strengths, your organizational maturity and your quirks. This approach addresses a critical complaint about SME development/training being insufficiently tailored to specific need.
What Already Working Well for B2B SME Technology Organizations:
2 in 3 people working within business-to-business technology small-medium organizations indicate that some critical aspects of organizational strategy are already in place. 70% of clients indicate that at least some aspects of managing the sales process are in good shape.
Digitization at tech SMEs is well underway
Most B2B technology SMEs are already taking advantage of efficiency and error-reducing technology tools that connect your people and processes. Most have customer relationship management software in use. Three-quarters have lead management processes in place. This helps understand where your organization has in the past successfully won and satisfied clients. This assists market focus which strengthens product development, marketing communications, sales and on-boarding / delivery, and of course, profitability.
Focused Engagement Brings Quick Wins To Specific Situations
Market Sizing -> 1 Hour * 4 People Revealed Market Opportunity Large Enough for Decades
Having closed sales via online during Covid, a number of different export markets were tempting but with small team and a long sales cycle it was important not to be spread too thin. The 4 people took one hour each and took to Google. Results: some hard numbers behind the guesstimates made selecting a country to focus on easy.
– SaaS company targeting multi-year contracts via semi-state tenders
Win-Loss Analysis -> 4 Hours * 4 Functions Saved Thousands of Wasted Efforts
During a win-loss analysis session, this company discontinued what had been thought a key lead generation channel. The big reveal came via cross-departmental discussion: ‘We work hard and get exciting leads from <channel>.’: ‘These leads look very interesting but never result in sales’. The strength of the half-day session was cross-functional representation with 4 people who worked in different areas but across the same process. Uncovering useless leads saved time, energy and reduced cross-team frustration.
– IT Software & Services targeting local authorities
Aspects Identified As in Need of Development
While the burning issue of the quarter changes, the need to better understand customers is almost universal. (This is true whether your typical industry term is customers, clients, patients, or service users.) Upon initial review the following are the aspects of strategic marketing most commonly identified as worthy of attention in B2B tech SMEs:
- 1. Improving the Customer Value Proposition
- 2. & 3 Using Marketing Communication Channels effectively
- 2 & 3 Better Understanding Customers (both qualitative and quantitative).
- 4. Doing Win-Loss Analysis
- 5. Scoping Market-specific Strategy
n = 125 participants in Irish B2B technology SMEs
Marketing communicating is the function / department deemed to offer the greatest upside available. Only half of organizational teams agree that both marketing content and marketing communication channels are being used well.
Aspects Selected for Organizational Development
The list above might suggest to you that ‘customer value proposition’ is the top areas selected for focus, and marketing communications the function most common in JEM 9 engagements with B2B technology SMEs. However, excellent sales skills, and incredible design and communication skills are not a substitute for understanding how your offer fulfills customers’ needs in a busy market place. While the causes of weak marcom can vary, too often flakey customer understanding underpins sales and marketing communications weaknesses: The answer, therefore, is not a new website, not better marketing communication, nor ‘better’ sales people. (Your developers might call this situation rubbish-in: rubbish-out.)
The most common strategic aspects that CEOs / founders ultimately select for focused engagements are more fundamental to their organization, more strategic. These three inter-related aspect are common engagements.
- Business Model Review:
- Carefully reviewing the overall business model, perhaps aspects such as product: market fit and pricing, reveals the wiggle room on a). how to approach and b). which customers to serve profitably (with existing or new offers).
Client A requested assistance with organizational development to support a changing partnership subscription model. Go-to-market and pricing analysis revealed a tunnel of inevitable financial losses. They opted to exit the market altogether.
Client C, with significant software product development already done and an untested conceptual business model, invested in desk research to validate the business model with some market numbers. Analysis revealed conceptual pricing did not align with competitive offerings. Further prospective customers had a very long decision-making cycles and small budgets: Simpler, lower cost offers were those likely to win in the market place. With breakeven and profitability beyond the risk horizon, and competitive offers more closely aligned to customer resources, the client switched focus to more promising market opportunities.
Client N, with a fabulous and mature product, needed to move towards profitability critically. Existing customers gained tremendous value from the software and contributed to great case studies, but paid relatively little. The lack of profitability hampered product investment, putting the move to cloud-computing at risk. Further, the pricing model left no margin for the industry-typical channel partners who provide critical advice and access to end-users. Without investment in these channel partners, a route-to-market was cut off. The change journey commenced with revised pricing and successfully moving existing customers to the new pricing model.
- Researching Understanding Customers:
- Better understanding customers precedes customer value proposition development and supports not just marketing communications and sales, but the entire organization from product development to consideration of skills gaps. Maybe what you really need is better on-boarding (or to adjust the target market). Projects follow some form of this outline.
A third area for projects relates more closely to CEO/co-founder ambition and heart! Sometimes this is done in conjunction with the senior leadership team. Sometimes it touches the Board of Directors.
- Clarifying Vision & Target Markets:
- This requires internal work including exploring what kind of work CEO/founder want to see their organization doing, which markets they wish to serve, their comfort with risk, and available resources.
- External market inputs help validate vision and ground ambition in the realities of a competitive market place.
- This is head-up work, thinking work that couples with market research data.
- Once options are scoped out and choices made, building cross-functional alignment and cascading (new or reaffirmed) goals and objectives to the wider team commences.
=> Find out what previous clients say in their own words here