Winning The Sales Game
Investigation Software Sales & Marketing
Revitalised, re-enabled and re-empowered, happier sales teams, a greater sense of pride. Improving morale, the thawing of seemingly frozen deals, an (occasionally) challenging process broken down, simplified and mastered. More leads, higher conversions and more enquiries. A greater number of up-sells, cross-sells and everything in between. More productive conversations, better informed customers and just plain stronger numbers. That general feeling of movement, energy and possibility that can only come from rapid international expansion. This is the story about how we helped software scale up Altia Solutions ‘win’ across all parts of the sales pipeline.
Brief
Altia Solutions are a fast-growing company that produces investigation software. The organisation supports public and private sector investigators in the UK and across the globe. Fuelled by private equity investment and a surge in demand, the business was entering an important phase of expansion.
With multiple audiences, from procurement teams and compliance leaders to frontline investigators, Altia were looking for a strategic partner to assist in building a more effective investigation software sales & marketing function. In addition to providing fast-paced support to their business development teams.
Approach
The speed and demands of rapidly growing companies are unique. Return-On-Investment must be faster, actions more efficient and progress made with each and every single move.
Our approach with Altia was to generate smaller, more tangible and measured wins across all parts of the sales pipeline. Wins that would stack-up over time and form part of a more professionalised, systemised & sustainable sales and marketing programme.
Services Used
Marketing Strategy | Sales Support | Brand Development | Campaign Planning | Infographics | Web & Digital | Thought Leadership | Vision, Mission & Values
Solutions
These are the highlights of our approach…
Removing ‘Stubborn Sales Roadblocks’
Complex deals were unlocked with intelligent storytelling graphics. These helped to win over key decision-makers in finance, compliance and procurement, etc. The materials produced, over several projects, also helped to accelerate more standard deals.
Shifting The Main ‘Ask’
More focussed conversations with prospects took place by presenting all four Altia product solutions within communications, as opposed to presenting the main Altia brand in isolation. This shifted the main question from…
‘Would you like to find out more about Altia?’
to…
‘Which Altia product would you like to find out about?’
Identifying ‘Trigger Events’
New license enquiries increased significantly with well-timed campaigns. These were delivered in-line with industry-specific ‘trigger events,’ including year-end procurement cycles.
‘Good-Will’ Campaigns
Targeted loyalty campaigns were invaluable at building ‘good will’ with existing software users. Several annual campaigns resulted in significantly increased renewals (est 20-22% post-campaign.)
“THE LOFT’s willingness to challenge themselves and push the boundaries shines through in the physical work they have produced for us. From a total company and product rebranding exercise to more subtle marketing campaigns. The materials produced always surprises and delights me and consistently supports my team’s activities to drive sales. Long may our collaboration continue.”
Paul Miller, Sales Manager of Altia Solutions
Creating ‘Conversation Starters’
A decision was taken to make sure that the Altia brand was ‘front-of-mind’ with customers and users at all times. A wide range of different materials (online and offline) were used to support BD teams in-between formal meetings, pitches and events. These even included fun items like promotional mugs, crosswords and even tailored newspapers such as ‘The Altia Times’ etc.
Leveraging Company Culture
Strategic exercises around vision, mission, values were repurposed, given a sales focus and used very effectively within the presentation of several international governmental tenders.
“THE LOFT helped us to create a new brand after our merger. They went to great lengths to talk to everybody in the company, and both the identity and cultural aspects of the brand have helped us reposition the organisation.”
Paul Hardman, Business Relationship Manager, Altia-ABM
Winning Over The Wider Community
Hosting high-profile events such as SOCEX, strengthened credibility across law enforcement sector, particularly with local, regional and national decision-makers.
Keeping The Ideas Flowing
Regular marketing meetings and ‘idea sessions’ helped to keep the company on the front foot, at all times, with sales and marketing activities.
THE LOFT were a tremendous help, particularly in the earlier years, when our company’s growth was at its most rapid and things were changing every day. They supported then, as they always have done, by contributing to the company’s strategies with great energy, insight and creativity. Always grounded in the commercial realities of what we were doing and always with the bigger picture in mind.
Ian Watson, Co-Founder & CEO of Altia Solutions
Results
Over a 5-year-plus collaboration and more than 100 individual projects, our collective efforts helped Altia to:
– Dramatically increase leads, conversions and up-sells.
– Significantly shorten sales cycles with complex, multi-stakeholder deals.
– Significantly increase client satisfaction and retention.
– Build influence with influential people in the sector & key decision-makers.
– Enhance brand visibility and authority across law enforcement and investigation sectors.
– Increase internal marketing capabilities, confidence and organisational morale.
– Develop a globally recognised, future-ready brand.
Collectively this helped Altia to…
– Achieve a 6–7X increase in turnover over several years.
– Drive a comparable uplift in profitability.
– Ultimately, improve shareholder value, contributing to a more successful exit.
“THE LOFT was an integral part of the Altia story, we worked together for many years and they were instrumental in creating our global brand. They contributed to countless projects, worked across the entire organisation and provided real support throughout our business journey as a growing company.
Good fun too, highly recommended.”
Ian Watson, Co-Founder & CEO of Altia Solutions