David wins

That’s what we had. A company that thought they could do it. But had kick dog syndrome. They were beaten down from the fight. They'd also made a number of key assumptions that we discovered were false.

What we found was startling. They thought their buyer was a guy. It wasn’t. It was a woman. They thought the market was always ready to buy. They weren’t. We learned they only made 5 hours once every 3 to 5 years to buy their next machine. It went on and on.

We helped them write a new manifesto. Helped with their story telling. Their positioning. Selling. Marketing. We encouraged them to focus. To have daily plans. To measure the things that mattered. To focus sales energies where there were opportunities and nowhere else. We created a lead funnel. And most importantly, helped them begin believing in themselves again. Revenue up 20% and still climbing.

Doing what needs doing even when it's incredibly painful

Meet the smartest man and his Machiavellian partner. They wanted to create a new product category and had all the experience and money to do it. So they told themselves. As did all their smart and experienced management team.

After our discovery process, we advised the founder to shut it down. Reset. And then relaunch.

When asked why he should do this, we said: The market is ready, but you’re not. And frankly, the market has some settling to do before they’re ready to adopt. To that we added: you’re the wrong guy to lead it. Your partner is the wrong guy to direct it. Your management team has the wrong experience (and doesn’t have the courage to be truthful to you about anything). Your distribution is wrong. The technology required to go direct is not in place. The product isn’t right, nor is the pricing. And the messaging is horrible. Data supported all of this.

Sometimes the truth is hard to hear.

They did. And made the incredibly courageous decision to shut it down. Start over. And do it right.  

Sometimes you should stick to your knitting

A CLO fund put senior debt in a company. They went 11, and 18 months into the loan, they owned the company and the several lawsuits that came with it. They recapped the company and brought us in to help them sort it out. Discovery started rough. The president didn’t want us there. So wouldn’t return phone calls. Would make himself unavailable for weeks at a time. So we ambushed him (and some of the management team) at the chairman’s request.

We discovered why he was running. He was in way over his head. And the others operated as islands, doing whatever they pleased.

Several discovery sessions later. We laid our recommendations to the chairman. Rename the company. Reposition it. Get out of certain businesses and markets. Get rid of the president. And be ok with the fact that not all great investors are great operators. Get one!

Their new president is a rock star. They’re on their way.

Clarity turns  a 2B portfolio into 20B

A large bank came to us. They wanted to grow an already massive line of credit portfolio. They were clear with what they wanted. We did our discovery with their best customers. And with those of their competitors. Then we developed a communication strategy. And a single variable test plan that evaluated lists, offers, and creative. 3 years and 30 million pieces of mail later, their portfolio had grown 10 fold. The insight? Customers wanted to hear from other customers. And bought not to “grow” their businesses as was initially believed, but instead for protection against an unforeseen bad event. It wasn’t a line of credit. It was insurance.