Case Study
Aviation company realizes Win Loss and Customer Experience is the one-two punch to business success
Why not disclose the company name?
Many of our clients request anonymity since they find Primary Intelligence’s services to be such a competitive advantage. They are hesitant to publicly disclose to its competitors of the partnership. However, the contents of this report and the outcome the client realized are true.
In a nutshell
A leading operational support company in the aviation industry faced challenges in meeting buyer needs with the right solution at the time the buyer required it. Previously a sole provider in their industry, the company started meeting head-on competition when selling their products to buyers. To extend the buyer’s life cycle, the company also sought to deepen customer relationships and to develop strategic partnerships.
Since implementing Primary Intelligence's Win Loss and Customer Experience programs, this aviation company has increased their ability to understand buyers’ business needs, offer enhanced solutions, and increase sales. By using this managed service, the company’s Market Operations Analyst said, “When we take these interviews, and we do the feedback calls and we run it through with portfolio and product managers, and we've got sales and service teams on there and everybody can really discuss what we are doing, we've been able to make changes to the way that we sell. We've been able to make or highlight specific aspects of products for similar customers that would be useful for them.”
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The problem: Having a valued, go-to-market solution
The aviation company knew they needed to refine the products and time the market with their offerings in favor of positioning themselves to increase sales and reduce competition. Their Market Operations Analyst said, “I think the top challenge facing [us] today is competition-based. We've never really had competition or people who could match us in the product that we produce.”
The company was also aware that understanding their customers’ pain points and experiences with them was critical to their bottom-line. The company was concerned that without an understanding of the market and their customers’ experiences, they would encounter a high churn rate. The Market Operations Analyst shared, “With Primary Intelligence and our CERs [Customer Experience Reviews] and Win Loss, we're really trying to understand our client needs better from their personal perspective. So we want to understand how we're doing with our service, with our vision for the future, and with our products to make sure that we are helping them and becoming a strategic partner so that we can continue to drive business forward, but also to make it mutually beneficial."
The solution: Use both Win Loss And Customer Experience programs to obtain unfiltered buyer/customer feedback
By listening to buyer feedback and participating in discovery sessions, this aviation company realized why they won or lost deals, identified best practices and training opportunities, improved competitive positioning, and revamped product demonstrations. The company’s Director of Global Client Management said, “The biggest thing that was unexpected early on is just how transparent customers were... They really didn't hold anything back.”
The company’s Business Intelligence Specialist explains why they decided to use a managed services program: "Customer Experience actually came out of Win Loss because we felt like we didn't have enough of the large scale deals coming back to understand our top 100 customer base. We decided to implement an interview program with those customers, whether or not we had new opportunities that were recently won or loss with them. We were just looking at them and interviewing them regardless of whether or not we were competing with another company. We were trying to gauge their overall experience and satisfaction level.”
“The biggest thing that was unexpected early on is just how transparent customers were... They really didn't hold anything back.”
Insights: Go-to-market resources, new competitive environment, customer service
The Win Loss and Customer Experience programs delivers the one-two punch that brings this aviation company closer to their goals. Buyer feedback provided an unfiltered voice of the customer and identified areas where they could improve their product lines and know the details of what top competitors are offering. Now the company has product intelligence based on buyer preferences and understands the strengths and weaknesses of their customer service – all gleaned from buyer discussions.
"What I value the most are the individual experiences that each client has... It's the individual responses that are calls to action for us to solve problems and behave differently going forward."
Actions: Create seamless environment, enhanced marketing message, improved product lines
The Win Loss and Customer Experience programs brought to light what the aviation company was missing in their business, pricing, and service/support models. The company was armed with the knowledge to update their business strategy and knew the impact of the decisions they would make over the next couple years. The Director of Global Client Management shared, “The value of our business is that it is an essential service that is driven by regulatory oversights. All of our customers have to buy what they buy from us, from somebody. After using this data, and recognizing how important it is, if you are leading a sales and service team, if you don't view this as an essential service, I think you are missing the mark.”
With this new understanding, the aviation company created benefit statements. The Senior Manager of Market Operations mined the data to enhance the way they presented their value proposition and the way they engaged in the buying cycle. He said, “The initial benefit that we are getting is correction of behavior and improvement of the actual sales process itself by an individual contributor. The broader information that we're now getting out of the responses is helping us to shape our broader go-to-market strategy."
Trends discovered through buyer feedback and discovery sessions revealed what buyers really wanted from their product lines and how to tailor their offering to each buyer. The Market Operations Analyst said, “Trends over time…for the analytics and being able to take a look at each of our individual product lines and where we're going with that. What are ops customers saying? What are crew customers saying? What are nav customers saying? Being able to track that and move forward, I think, is essential. I also believe that we can better serve our individual customers by having an understanding of what their desires and needs are.”
The Outcome: Eased competitive selling, demonstrated value proposition, improved product lines
Since the launch of their Win Loss and Customer Experience programs, the aviation company has applied new strategies to outsell top competitors including refining sales presentations, which improved the competitive landscape. The company’s Business Intelligence Specialist said, “I use the feedback in some of the competitive intelligence that I do. That intelligence isn't just focused on the Win Loss feedback. It is more focused on what our competitors are doing in different markets. Obviously, getting a better understanding of those competitive advantages and disadvantages in some of our bigger deals is also of value… It allows us to develop strategies to improve our Win Loss ratio and where to focus our attention on some of our top customers."
The aviation company re-aligned their presentations to demonstrate their value proposition to customers and created customizable product lines for specific business needs. The Director of Global Client Management shared, he used it to “shape our broader go-to-market strategy.” The company recognizes that buyer responses are calls to action to solve their problems during the life cycle and change their behavior for future opportunities.
Now the aviation company can adapt their sales tactics, marketing message, and product lines to meet the business needs of their buyers. With Win Loss and Customer Experience, they can price their solutions competitively, add missing features to products, and ensure customer satisfaction well before the contract expires.
"It allows us to develop strategies to improve our Win Loss ratio and where to focus our attention on some of our top customers."