Companies can struggle to keep the intent of their brand and core mission over time. As daily focus changes to revenue growth, new product development or other business factors, teams may struggle to remain loyal to the Brand promise. This can be especially difficult following a merger or acquisition. Adjusting to current needs is common, but deviating too far from a core promise without re-establishing corporate intent, can quickly impact two key areas:
1. Employees: struggle to articulate company’s value proposition or purpose.
2. Clients: feel like a means to an end not a valued customer. Mitigated existing revenue loss of $25 M and reduced employee turnover by 20% by clarifying, communicating, and executing on company’s brand and mission.
A professional services company merged multiple businesses under one umbrella with the intention to expand reach into new market segments, increase service offering, and to develop technology platforms for internal and external distribution. The speed of growth was both exhilarating and all consuming. Revenue appeared strong on a grand scale but a deeper look into individual market P&L showed existing revenue losses growing at an alarming rate. Creating budget driven revenue goals, increasing in person client meetings, and talking about new products did not resolve the issue. In fact, the outcome was low productivity and continued emphasis on front end sales to offset the continued loss of existing business.
By taking a step back to really understand client needs, conducting a SWOT analysis from the new company perspective, as well as re-evaluating the new company’s core mission in relation to the expansion led to improvement in two key areas: 1) employee & client engagement and 2) revenue retention from existing clients.
Results of analysis, clarification, and execution of Brand:
- Improved employee and client engagement as seen by reduction in turnover and an increase retained revenue.
- Larger contract sizes due to more cohesive solutions set and sales focus.