Professional Services for eLearning Enterprise Software
Interim VP, Marketing and Sales 2002 - 2003
Situation Summary
In June, 2002, MarketSavvy engaged with Expertus, a young start-up offering Professional Services, technical consulting, development and implementation for enterprise-wide software applications. Their small team of 5 in the U.S. and 15 in India was mainly technical, with the exception of the CEO, who was a seasoned business professional
There was no marketing or sales department. A minimal Web site carried some information about their technical offering, but the company needed to clarify its positioning. Their skills and technical talents could be applied across a broad range of industries and projects; the challenge was to choose a focus and implement a short-term strategy in the second half of 2002. Buying time that way, we would develop an overall business plan for 2003 and beyond.
Getting Started
First we evaluated the team's past project experience, the business connections, current projects and leads we had in June, 2002. We established a goal of partnering with Saba Software, the leading maker of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for eLearning applications. Through discussions with the team at Expertus, Theresa distilled our value proposition with respect to Saba. She revised the Expertus corporate presentation to strengthen our offering specifically for approaching Saba and the LMS companies.
MarketSavvy's Implementation Approach
In a marketing role, Theresa helped Expertus identify markets on which to focus and developed value propositions that would be meaningful to those markets. In addition, she re-vamped the collateral. Working with a graphics company, DigitalDeli in San Francisco, she developed a new web site design, re-wrote the content for the site, devised a highly productive lead generation program, and developed a new corporate identity for Expertus.
In a sales role, Theresa was responsible for lead qualification as well as the daily contact with prospects and leads, and managed the entire sales cycle. She identified potential customers, investigated their requirements, arranged for technical input from the Expertus team, wrote and submitted proposals, followed up and negotiated deals.
In business development, Theresa forged new alliances for Expertus with other consulting and professional services companies who might benefit from a complementary relationship with Expertus.