The challenge
One of the major benefits of taking strategic consultancy advice is access to the objective and clear view of a senior team. Their role is to challenge thinking, to probe and question, then to clarify the thoughts that come from the process and shift them into a tactical action plan.
It’s often most important for the SME business, where an owner-manager has grown their business baby, often over many years. They know the business inside and out, it’s successful but often it reaches a milestone and it’s time to draw breath and decide what comes next. That’s where clarity and challenge really matter.
When Adrian Harris, MD of barcode tracking technology specialist ExPD, approached us, that was the stage he was at. Looking ultimately for an MBO, he wanted to streamline the business and be clear about its offering to be sure it was positioned in the way most likely to deliver success.
Firm foundations
The process started with a strategic workshop with two Polymedia directors. The discipline and free thought that comes with time taken out of the office and away from an operational team provide the framework for open and honest discussion.
Our role is to listen, to challenge, to channel, to facilitate and finally to encapsulate the outcome.
- What are the brand values today and where should they be in the short and medium term?
- How is the business positioned today and how should it be reflected? Are they at odds and why?
- What products or services are most profitable and have most commercial potential? Which can be dropped from the portfolio to streamline offering to maximise resources and deliver best business benefit.
- How is the team represented – who should be brought to the fore strategically over time to deliver long term commercial objectives?
- What are the risks of this process?
- And many, many other questions which rattle round a business brain unless forced to find a voice.
A strategic approach
Following the workshop, the Polymedia team worked to develop a clearly defined and thought through strategic approach, with rationale and structure to take to the management team for their input.
Adjustments secured their buy-in and a tactical plan was developed.
Tactical response
First came a new design for the website modernising the look, feel and user journey of the site. Imperative to this was the site structure which took into account client audiences for each product offering. Clear, simple product overviews were developed for easy engagement. A key change was to market products according to the problems they solved and who for, rather than starting with the product itself.
SEO was then developed along with an ongoing integrated content marketing campaign with the website at its core, with all marketing activities taking potential customers to the website for maximum conversion potential.
Included in the whole exercise is co-ordination of the business’s marketing partnership spend, helping ExPD to gain maximum value from arrangements with suppliers and demonstrate ROI from the investment.
Results
ExPD now has a clean, easy to navigate, informative and user-friendly website, a planned and co-ordinated marketing campaign, intelligent use of marketing partnership funding and a growing audience who have a clear understanding of the ExPD offering and its edge over competitors.
