Getting Customer-Centric

SITUATION

A telecommunications hardware and software company with a 30-year history in the industry had begun to notice challenges in their market. Most of the recent revenue growth had come via acquisitions. In addition, large corporations, sensing the opportunities of convergence in the telecommunications industry, began purchasing small to medium industry-related companies. Even though the company had a solid reputation with industry insiders, they were virtually unknown to end-users and, now, faced the challenge of competing with several new big-spending, marketing-savvy competitors. Since its inception, the company had been driven by the perceptions and needs of the engineering/product development side of the business. Organizationally, the company was structured into operational units based on internal manufacturing considerations, rather than by product or technology groupings, which would make their corporate offerings more understandable to the market.

GOALS/OBJECTIVES

Goals

 
• Increase awareness of the company as an industry leader.
 
• Increase sales growth by 200% over industry average.

Objectives

 
• Develop a customer-centric marketing “face” for the company more in line with the way customers buy as opposed to the way the company develops products and services.
 
• Make product/service offerings more understandable and less intimidating for non- technical buyers.
 
• Begin to use customer-direct marketing vehicles and tactics to supplement and assist the sales efforts of branches and dealers.

 
• Creation and development of branding initiatives to establish and grow awareness and a specific identity.
 
• Development and design of a product/service continuum to represent the company’s offerings as well as re-structuring the naming conventions for the company’s products to facilitate the customer-centric perspective.
 
• Redevelopment of marketing materials to effectively create and communicate a unique market proposition.
 
• Development of customer segment-specific sales-prospecting vehicles (in both hard copy and and dependability. Only one integrated communications system meets the key challenges you face. Inter-Tel’s ability to add applications, upgrades.
 
• Development of customer-direct targeted marketing and advertising vehicles. left hanging with outdated components. You need superior performance to generate leads and interest for follow-up by branches and dealers.

Results

The new initiatives were introduced to the market at the beginning of the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2001. Sales immediately responded to these branding efforts with a 2.7% increase – even though the previous several quarters’ results had been down. During a period when, industry average growth was -14.4% . Our client enjoyed a 61% increase in sales, while revenue growth at major competitors plummeted (Nortel: -15%, Avaya: -20%). Our client also maintained a gross profit margin almost 30% above the industry average (44.36% vs. 34.17%).

Based on strict financial standards, Forbes Magazine named the company to its list of the 200 best small companies in America. The company ranked in the top 40 companies on Forbes’ list for sales growth factor.

The Vice President of Marketing said, “In 20 years of high level marketing positions with the telecommunication giants, I have never seen a team more responsive, thorough and committed to excellence than Fabiano Communications. The value received was tremendous. Their efficiency was amazing. When I compare them with other marketing and advertising firms I have worked with, I realize we invested one-third the budget and received twice the value in half the time.”

The results of our work continue to enhance the company’s sales and reinforce its positioning within its market.