Our Story - TruVoice from Corporate Visions (Formerly Primary Intelligence)

Our Story

Today TruVoice from Corporate Visions (formerly Primary Intelligence) is the global leader in Win Loss and Customer Experience Analysis. But our story all began in a basement with seven makeshift desks, three friends, and one big idea.

The start of something great

For more than 10 years, Ken Allred sold complex software solutions for companies like Information Enabling Technologies, SunGard HTE, and PeopleSoft. With a family at home and a need to provide, Ken spent hours pounding pavement and pushing product.

Over time, he began to think more about his won and lost deals, trying to figure out a pattern.

“There were deals I thought for sure I was going to win, and I’d end up losing them. There were other deals I thought I would lose, and I ended up winning them,” Ken explained.

As a way to educate himself, Ken started talking to his buyers post-sale to better understand what was driving their decisions. He was surprised to find common factors that were influencing the outcome of his deals.

“For me, speaking to buyers gave me a perspective I didn’t have. It uncovered things that I hadn’t thought about before,” he said.

Ken quickly began to incorporate those best practices into his sales process, and saw a dramatic increase in his ability to connect with buyers and close more deals.

This experience led Ken to believe there might be an opportunity to help other companies understand why they were winning and losing in competitive sales situations. Ken knew this method of win loss analysis—based on feedback directly from buyers—could help businesses both large and small be more successful.

 

The first two years

Ken quit his day job in 2000 and hired three friends. The team assembled in a 500 sq. ft. unfinished basement to make this dream a reality.

The basement was cramped quarters with seven custom, makeshift plywood desks built to try to maximize the space, and a single kerosene heater supplying warmth. It was all in an effort to save money while they got the company off the ground.

“I still wonder how we were able to get people to work for us in the beginning,” Ken admitted.

After two years of refining the Win Loss product and finding a loyal base of early-adopter buyers, the team said goodbye to the basement in favor of a “real” office. The move allowed Primary Intelligence to hire new people to accelerate sales, automate some of the processes with software, and scale the delivery process.

We’re still building

Ken’s initial innovation not only set the stage for a strong company, but also established a culture of continuous improvement. Today we still reinvest 25% to 30% of our revenue into our products and services, so we’re always getting better. With Win Loss Analysis as the anchor, we also offer Customer Experience Analysis, the TruVoice software platform, and industry benchmarking reports.

We’re proud of how far we’ve come, and even more excited about the future.

1998

The Idea

Ken Allred, an enterprise sales leader, is frustrated. He can't understand why he is winning and losing deals. He gets an idea: "What if I asked the buyers directly?"

2000

Primary Intelligence founded

Ken hires his first employees and they all cram into his unheated basement.

2001

Recording and transcribing buyer discussions

Who wants to scribble notes while speaking to buyers?

2002

First real office

The company moves out of the basement. Ken's family rejoices. "No more random people in our house!"

2002

Opportunity profile introduced

A full transcript of the buyer's feedback and a short analysis.

2002

Decision drivers introduced

PI creates areas on influence in a deal: solution performance, company attitude, and sales team performance.

2003

First in-house technology

Reduces the time and cost to produce win loss analysis results.

2004

Predictive analytics

Primary Intelligence creates a way to identify what will drive future deal outcomes based on past results.

2005

Competitive advantage score

PI creates a measure of how different the buyer thought you were from the competition.

2005

Horizon is launched

Users can view full reports of every interviewed deal and analyze key aggregated data.

2009

Stakeholder services

Direct intelligence to those that matter most.

2010

TruVoice debuts

A smart, interactive profile view.

2011

TruVoice expands

An analytics dashboard and core program administration tools are added.

2011

10K

Ten-thousandth buyer interview completed.

2012

Customer experience analysis launched

Focused on a customer's experiences t hat drive upcoming renewal decisions. (In short: how to keep more of your revenue.)

2013

Salesforce.com integration

TruVoice Competitors and TruVoice Nominations are launched. Users can view competitive intelligence and identify buyers to interview right in Salesforce.

2014

Managed services introduced

A better way to run a win loss program. Customers get outcomes, not just data.

2014

20K

Twenty-thousandth buyer interview completed.

2014

Stronger analysis

Our insights get focused, concise, and actionable with the launch of open-ended feedback coding built into every interview profile.

2014

Discovery sessions

Direct feedback from sales and account managers is incorporated into our research process to identify root causes from buyer feedback.

2014

Industry Insights initiative launched

Using extensive data and industry research, Primary Intelligence began to produce industry reports that provide valuable insights into issues and trends affecting our customers.

2015

Enhanced customer experience

With a keener focus on revenue retention, the new customer experience program is launched thanks to direct feedback from clients.

2016

Outcomes Conference launched

Primary Intelligence launches the Outcomes Conference as a way to educate clients on running a win loss or customer experience program as well as instruct on best practices for optimizing performance based on the results.

2017

TruSales Debuts

TruSales for Salesforce launched, giving Sales, Marketing and Product Leaders real-time visibility into revenue outcome rates by rep, deal type, deal size, and more.

2017

"New" TruVoice launched

Rebuilt TruVoice from the ground up to be faster, more intuitive, mobile-friendly, and to deliver deeper insights.

2023

Coporate Visions Acquires Primary Intelligence

Primary Intelligence is acquired by Corporate Visions, the leading revenue growth insights, strategies, and services company, integrating Primary Intelligence’s automated win-loss-no decision customer feedback data into Corporate Visions’ recommendations and solutions to help commercial teams deliver outsized outcomes. Here’s a link to the press release announcement to learn more.

TODAY

Building the Programs of Tomorrow

Today, we help our customers uncover their unique path to winning through automated technology, time-tested methodologies, and world-class service.

By using a winning combination of live phone interviews +
dynamic, online interviews + sales confidence indexes, you
can analyze more of your deal universe and uncover your
unique path to winning.

It’s no longer enough to analyze a handful of deals a
month. At TruVoice from Corporate Visions, we know there is power and confidence in the voice of your buyer – and you should get to listen in to as many buyers as you can. Our innovative technology and methods are built to win!