Overview of the Situation
The business had a large number of individual subscribers and was fairly profitable however they were not maximising their potential by selling into educational establishments. The online platform was delivering a great idea to support education, revision and tests however the user experience versus the marketplace was not driving enough excitement or engagement.
The Problem They Faced
The business was not structured to present itself to large buyers within the public sector; it didn’t know how to reach out to potential contacts, or how to engage with them in a manner that encouraged them to buy.
The Causes of the Problem
The challenges were driven by poor user experience in setting up accounts, and quite a complex approach to individuals that were time poor. The pricing model was structured to be extremely cheap but did limit their revenue potential as there was clearly an opportunity to increase the unit cost without being perceived to be too expensive.
Once this area was fixed there was a need to build professional presentation material that could carry the message either through direct marketing or through face-to-face meetings.
The Impact of the Problem
There was a limiting of the revenue for the business, based on pricing and number of customers subscribing and whilst the was a huge (written-off) investment in the material on the site, there was a lack of seeing significant return in investment of this. With the market becoming more and more cost-conscious, there was a need to increase the customer numbers, and develop a more robust pricing structure to safeguard the medium to long term future of the business.
The Promise / Plan
We agreed to:
- Audit the current business proposition, from online presence to pricing model and provide recommendations
- Review the brand position within the market
- Create presentation material that allowed the business to engage with public sector buyers
- Identify and connect with several potential prospects, on behalf of the business
- Remain a consultant after the initial period to provide additional support
The Outcome
Our work enabled the business to:
- Understand the user experience and improve on key areas that were causing subscribers’ pain
- Challenge their web development supplier and implement service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure that they got the service they deserved
- Identify the true price potential for their service offering and model what their revenue potential could be
- Have a series of presentations that could be adapted for the prospect audience
- Appreciate the key drivers that new customers had, and provide focused responses to their challenges
- Engage with a significant number of education trusts
