Rooted in Ideas ...​ Reaching for Growth

Here are just a few examples of what we can do for your business.

Improve website conversion by 250% and improve profitability of retention marketing channels by 35% by using customer data

A long-standing direct marketer had a wealth of information about it’s customers after nearly 50 years of business, but didn’t know how to leverage that information to drive improved performance in the digital space. We launched and managed a technical project that connected this data to the email database, as well as the website. This allowed for detailed personalization and segmentation in how we spoke to customers through email, eliminating blast-based emails. Ultimately the company was able to send less emails and increase revenue. Additionally, the website content, features, and product recommendations were personalized for repeat customers, improving conversion and average order value. We also implemented tracking the channel source for all website orders, allowing further refinement of digital and print media marketing spend drive additional profitability for the company.

Improve processes and systems for distribution service to turn business unit to profitability within 3 months

A distribution service company was losing business because of long cycle times to process orders.  As a result, the CEO gave the team an ultimatum: either get the unit profitable within 3 months or it would be shut down.  We led a “tiger team” that re-engineered the entire process and systems using customer-driven data and other analytics to reduce the cycle times from 25 to 3 minutes.  The improved throughput saved the company an estimated $5.7 million annually, turning it profitable and keeping the unit in business.

Improve time to get products onto website by 300% and improve data quality

When a regional mass merchant launched their first website, they created a process for getting product content on the website that took 12 weeks, resulting in a constant backlog of products with inventory that were not yet available on the website. Online and offline sales suffered since products were missing, and they didn’t have the capacity to grow the online-only product assortment. Through a Lean Six Sigma Kaizen event, in one week a new process was developed that eliminated 8 weeks from the process while improving the overall quality of the content. We were there with them through the transition to the new process, building the tools that had been lacking and assisting with change management across the organization as they adapted to a new way to do digital business. Ultimately, they were able to not only get products onto the site before the inventory even arrived, they were able to expand their product assortment and increase sales, online and offline.

Increase the profitability in business-to-business companies by millions of dollars through implementing incremental revenue streams

Sales is a process, and we have demonstrated that this process can be improved.  Some of the engagements we’ve led include helping companies change their processes and supporting systems to make sales tasks easier: cross-selling and upselling; leveraging service calls to rescue at-risk customers, conduct sales assessments and recommend upgrades; tracking and reaching out to former customers to resell them; and improving sales reps’ abilities to generate their own leads. Each of these engagements brought financial benefits (EBIT) to the companies ranging between $2.1 and $5.6 million for a 12-month period.

Develop a methodology to tie ecommerce financial metrics with KPIs, digital marketing, and inventory needs, and keep it simple

In a siloed organization with disparate responsibilities for ecommerce performance, digital marketing, and inventory planning, often there can be disconnects between the various functions. We were there to help by developing a customized budgeting tool, using a simple Excel format, that connected ecommerce strategic initiatives and IT roadmaps to sales performance, and then drove the results through a channel-level digital marketing plan and department-level inventory plan. This allowed not only for synergies across the organization regarding ecommerce objective, at also created detailed goals and objectives for each month for every KPI. By having this detailed plan, the company could easily understand, and correct, as needed as sales unfolded throughout the year.

Create and launch a best-selling service platform concept with very limited marketing budget

A large service business wanted to expand into home automation, but didn’t have a clear direction for which concepts to pursue with their existing customer base. At the same time, the company didn’t have the budget for exploratory marketing.  We helped them implement an approach to customer research, which leveraged their existing employee base, and translate findings into solid service product concepts.  These concepts were further tested and refined to result in a new home automation platform that was an immediate winner in the market.  It also provided the launchpad for several peripheral products, which were able to be developed in record time using the original customer research.

Save a national brand $4 million a year on products they were already purchasing

Through a proprietary procurement process, we were able to demonstrate to a leading national branded sales and marketing company how to save a recurring $4 million annually on products that they were already purchasing, without any additional effort or expense.
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