Because these are times when companies' adaptability is being challenged, they need to know which direction to take. Having a clear vision of your company's strategy allows you to navigate through the storms. In this context, how do you boost business and develop the customer portfolio? This was the question our client, a security company offering its services in a growing but highly competitive market, was asking. WAT&CO carried out a marketing analysis to find concrete solutions. An intervention that allowed our client to evolve, to boost its business and to reposition itself in an optimal way on the market.

IN SUMMARY:

IN DETAIL

A MARKETING STRATEGY TO BOOST THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF A SMALL COMPANY

A security company, part of a Cameroonian holding company, offering simple security agents, dog handlers, commandos, receptionists, and security kits, wanted to take steps to boost its business and increase its client portfolio. Since its creation, the company had developed well and had even managed to retain a large number of its clients (the other entities of the Holding). Its main difficulties lay in acquiring new clients and developing new geographical areas, which prevented it from operating at full capacity.

Aware that it was operating in a highly competitive field, the client called upon WAT&CO to identify solutions to boost its business. A first meeting with the client allowed us to understand his expectations and to set the framework of the mission: first, it would be necessary to carry out analyses in order to understand the real causes slowing down the business development. Then, it would be necessary to create a business strategy with concrete marketing and sales actions because, like many SMEs, our client did not have a clearly defined business strategy. Our consultants, members of the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) took the initiative.

DIFFERENT AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT AND CONCRETE SOLUTIONS

By collecting primary and secondary data, we began by conducting marketing analyses from an internal and external perspective. This enabled us to assess the current level of marketing in the company. Together with the management, it was also essential to define the company's vision, mission and values.

Once these elements were validated, we created the marketing strategy itself, including very concrete elements such as

• Short, medium and long term marketing objectives
• Solutions to set up a new positioning against the competition
• A strategy and plan to optimise communication, increase awareness and broaden geographical targeting
• Ways to innovate in terms of distribution channels
• A better adapted product portfolio proposal, focused on higher value activities
• A revaluation of services

SUPPORT FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE STRATEGY

This mandate also included operational support for the deployment of face-to-face training, coordination and monitoring of the courses for each department. Our expert took on the commercial responsibility for the company, in addition to the online resources. To carry out the project with our client's teams, our expert joined the company full-time for several months.

REORGANISING THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT? YES, BUT NOT WITHOUT A CLEARLY DEFINED MARKETING STRATEGY

Our first assignment for this client was to carry out an organisational audit of the marketing department. This audit resulted in several recommendations to improve and reorganise the functioning of the department. It also revealed several findings, including the fact that there was no marketing strategy. However, as mentioned in one of our recent articles on organisational transformation, organisation and strategy are two closely related disciplines. Therefore, in order to better organise its marketing department, it was essential for our client to have a defined, structured and formalised marketing strategy.

A METHOD STRUCTURED IN 6 PHASES

As always, our expert acted in a methodical manner. The mission was carried out in six main phases:

In the elicitation phase, we proceeded to collect data from several internal stakeholders involved in the business development activities. We conducted several analyses such as a market analysis, an environmental analysis, a competitive analysis and a customer behaviour study. The objective was to understand our client, its needs and the strategic directions taken so far. It was also to better understand the environment and the market in which it was evolving and the challenges it was facing in terms of marketing. We quickly found that :

The security sector is under pressure (approval from the President of the Republic himself, price cuts by non-approved players, the presence of increasingly global players, the impact of the strong franc...)
Customers' expectations had changed a lot;
There is a real lack of innovation in our client's marketing activities;
Despite its past success, our client's business was now in decline and the competition, better armed, was nibbling away at market share.

The results of our analysis were used to establish the basis for relevant marketing objectives and to develop an innovative business strategy, taking into account the evolution of the market.

Once the strategy was created and written, we moved on to the more operational phase. This involved defining the appropriate marketing mix, defining the strategic actions to be implemented in the form of a roadmap and proposing operational marketing KPIs that would allow the impact of the actions to be easily evaluated.

FORMAL DOCUMENTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO BETTER MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS

During the different phases, we exchanged with the relevant stakeholders to validate each step. Thus, at the end of the process, our client had in hand several formal and validated documents, constituting essential tools for a good management of the activities and, in particular, to rethink and better organise the sales department.

IN FIGURES

• 12 months between the start of the mission and the final presentation
• +20% Improvement in monthly turnover
• 1 business strategy
• 1 repositioning of the company
• 1 global action plan (roadmap)
• 03 New clients (French Multinational, American Multinational, and Cameroonian Group)

IN CONCLUSION:

SMEs operating in a highly competitive environment have much to gain by calling on a consulting firm. This type of intervention allows them to gain perspective in order to obtain objective solutions and also to benefit from the expertise of the participants in order to increase their skills. These are essential elements for orienting the business towards a sustainable model.

In this particular case, our global approach and our analyses enabled us to put forward various avenues for improvement to boost the business. Our intervention also revealed a strong differentiation axis on the market, offering our client a sustainable competitive advantage. Thanks to a clearly defined business strategy and a concrete action plan, we implemented the first actions which generated a 20% increase in turnover and subsequently, our client was able to quickly implement the following actions.

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