Segmentation
(and deep customer understanding)

Understand your customers

Dividing your market into discrete customer groups that share similar characteristics enables you to identify unmet needs and helps you in designing an efficient sales approach tailored to your customers’ expectations. Specific knowledge of your target group allows you to follow, control and react to changes in the targeted market more effectively and efficiently. Additionally, it helps you in identifying underserved segments and in developing uniquely appealing products and services.
Depending on your organizational set-up and needs, we implement different segmentation methodologies to achieve the best results. The right approach might be solely based on firmographics, sophistication, tiering, needs or behaviors, but could also span from geographic or reach based segmentation, to industry based, and product class, product format or special use based segmentation. We identify the best solution for your needs, combining different methodologies.

What we do

We provide in-depth customer insights using qualitative and quantitative research techniques. With AI-powered analytics we support you in creating meaningful segmentation models that provide a fundamental customer understanding needed to successfully navigate today’s complex sales and marketing environment. Our innovative data analytics around segmentation are the key for all other products as they support in improving your products, services, pricing, marketing message, and success rate at leads and market opportunities.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Customer Segmentation
• Customer Prioritization (ABC, RFM, etc.)

Examples

• Conducted a needs-based segmentation for a German and Italian packaging manufacturer to reveal opportunities to improve market share
• Unified an enterprise-wide strategic segmentation of customers at a global chemicals’ manufacturer

Product Excellence

Create and manage products & portfolios that hit your target customers’ sweet spot

Achieving product excellence is an unrivaled source of growth based on two factors that are interconnected with each other: a structured product creation process embedded in a systematic product management process. Product excellence spans from developing a product-portfolio strategy until commercially launching and technically ramping-up the product.

What we do

We assess your processes and product strategy applying business process mining-principles, review portfolio complexity using AI-powered data analytics, optimize the planning and management process, guide during the product positioning and moderate between all involved parties. Besides, we systematically analyze offerings, identify up and cross-selling opportunities, spot trends, and help you design compelling and differentiated products by engaging with your customers and your sales teams to test market assumptions.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Product Excellence Assessment
• Product and Component Complexity Analysis
• Product Clustering and  Product Portfolio Analysis
• Product Lifecycle Stage Analysis Market Basket Analysis to identify Topsellers and Up- and Cross-Selling Potentials

Examples

• Helped reduce product portfolio complexity at an international premium goods manufacturer
• Steered a product standardization project at an international packaging manufacturer
• Optimized product sourcing and inventory levels at a major German wholesaler

Effectively interact with your customers

While in the past companies could differentiate themselves through their offering (basically what they sold), distinctiveness today increasingly lies in creating a seamless, omnichannel customer experience. Channels represent ways to market and sell your products. Tailoring and optimizing those direct and indirect routes-to-market to lower sales cost, adapt to a specific offering, transport a consistent brand image, and ultimately create opportunities for growth, is what we at Solia understand as Channel Excellence.

What we do

Based on the individual business model, strategy, and market situation we create value across your entire go-to-market model through assessing channel performance, mapping customer interaction models, creating effective selling strategies and aligning different sales channels to create a consistent buying experience. We are using data-based and predictive analytics to optimize multichannel strategies and identify ways to best utilize resources.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Sales Strategy Development
• Channel Selection Analysis
• Opportunity Scoring and Sales Pipeline Analysis

Examples

• Designed a new go-to-market model
• Evaluated channel performance and prepared a distributor review for a major paper and a chemicals producer

Customer Excellence
(and Customer Experience Management)

Drive better business understanding to delight your customers

Your customers no longer just buy services or products – nowadays their purchase decisions revolve around buying into an idea and, even more importantly, an experience. This unique experience is shaped by the sum of all positive and negative interactions your customers have along their direct and indirect touchpoints in their buying journey. At Solia we believe that utmost customer-centricity and reorienting everything your business does around your customers is the cornerstone for future success.

What we do

In Customer Experience Management we provide the necessary analysis and data to help you think through your customer journeys. Together with you we determine the right level of experience at each individual touchpoint in line with customer expectations and customer value.

With Customer Excellence we have redefined the way how to assess, plan and manage your strategic customers (-> Key Account Excellence) and provide fact-based tools that support you in optimizing your long-tail business or fragmented customer portfolio (-> Small Customer Excellence).

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Customer Portfolio Analysis
• Touchpoints and Buying Journey Analysis
• Strategic Account Planning
• Strategic Account Management

Examples

• Moderated the buying journey analysis at a European packaging company
• Designed a value proposition for a European manufacturing company
• Optimized the key account structure for an international packaging manufacturer
• Developed a key account structure and strategic account planning tool for a European plastics manufacturer

Sales Excellence
(to Increase Sales Performance)

Set up your sales teams to generate lasting growth

Consistently outperforming key growth objectives through sales enablement, sales technology, sales culture, sales incentivization, and sales training to create an environment that builds and supports high-performing sellers is what we understand as Sales Excellence.

What we do

We provide transparency on your level of sales excellence through assessing sales performance, sales productivity, and sales proficiency. Based on activity, revenue, and margin metrics, we systematically identify improvement opportunities. Applying data science, we identify best performing sales behavior and predict future performance. Our work typically results in developing customized improvement roadmaps, targeted performance metrics, sales support tools and optimized, smart compensation schemes that truly reflect your overall commercial strategy.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Sales Excellence Assessment
• Time Spent Analysis
• Process Analysis
• Performance Reviews, Sales Rankings, and Benchmarking

Examples

• Ran a sales productivity and proficiency assessment at an US packaging manufacturer and subsequently proposed an optimized sale network
• Provided a sales performance review for a global component producer in the packaging industry
• Developed and conducted a comprehensive sales training for a European hygiene products manufacturermanufacturer

Operational Excellence
(to redefine your Operating Model)

Create an environment to “manufacture” customers

Operational excellence initiatives in sales focus on syncing your customers’ buying behaviors with your operations, enable you to continuously deliver the value promised to your customers through a set of highly efficient and effective processes, and are embedded in a streamlined organization that allows you to efficiently pursue your target market segments. Optimizing your entire organization, applying data-science to derive perfect sales territories, installing effective as well as efficient processes to “manufacture” customers, reduce cycle times, and deploying sales resources in the best possible way is what we at Solia aim for.

What we do

We provide transparency on your level of excellence through assessing the business / operating model and reviewing sales related processes (e.g. process mapping and mining). We clarify the function of sales and marketing and help design the organizational structure that best supports that function. We apply data-science to identify system critical variables and create a highly effective production system that helps your customers take specific actions that drive sales in a smart and resource efficient way. We enhance sales output by rethinking field sales and optimizing territory alignment. Our work typically results in transformational change.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Operational Excellence Assessment
• Operating Model Review
  Process Mapping and Mining
• Territory Planning

Examples

• Optimized the territory assignment and major sales processes for a US based packaging producer
• Redesigned the organizational structure for chemicals producer organizational structure for chemicals producer

Growth and Lifecycle Management

Create retention and loyalty

Understanding the customer lifecycle and decision journey, starting with acquisition, followed by efforts to nurture and develop the relationship and ending with retaining the customer for as long as necessary, is essential for effectively managing the most valuable customers at each touchpoint during their interaction with the company. At the very core of the concept of lifecycle management is the idea that all customer relationships create more value than the individual sales and that reducing the number of customers who abandon your product or service is far more essential to your profitability and long-term success than attracting new business and conversion rate optimization. Revenues and profits are hence maximized by implementing the right actions not only before and during the purchase, but also as far as necessary in the post-purchase period.

What we do

We map the customer decision journey, define, and evaluate stages in the lifecycle and provide transformational change to your customer facing frontline employees. We develop algorithms that help in identifying customers at risk of churning and use machine learning to provide opportunity scoring, predict future buying behavior and estimate customer lifetime value based on RFM-segments early on. Using all these inputs we also support in creating and optimizing loyalty programs.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Lead Scoring
• Opportunity Scoring and Sales Pipeline Analysis
• Customer Lifetime Value Model
• Churn Prediction

Examples

• Designed a loyalty program linked to service levels and pricing guidelines
• Developed a prioritization model based on predicted customer lifetime value

Digitalization

Communicate to specific segments through online channels

Nowadays the majority of purchasing decisions start online without customer facing involvement of the seller. Customers tend to engage vendors only late in their buying journey forcing unprepared suppliers to compete against each other on price. Through digital marketing multiple channels have emerged that allow to proactively communicate with customers, to spark interest, create awareness and engagement (both before and after the sale), and to steer buying behavior and shorten buying cycles. Additionally, in combination with data gathering and analysis tools digital marketing offers companies the opportunity to expand their knowledge of their customers.

What we do

We assess companies’ digital maturity level and evaluate both online and offline customer touchpoints during the entire buying journey. We collaborate with clients to develop insights-based content, build customer loyalty through a digital marketing strategy and partner with online marketing experts to implement search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, etc.

Capabilities

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Digital Maturity Assessment
• Touchpoint and Buying Journey Analysis
• Personalized Recommendation Systems
• Sales Campaign Optimization
• Digital Marketing Strategy

Examples

• Developed a digital marketing strategy at a European packaging company
• Provided project management and guidance during various digitalization projects