Background

Playoff Technologies, a software company located in Orlando, Florida, developed a SaaS platform designed for use in the sports sponsorship industry.  Over the course of several years, the team build a very robust contract/asset management solution that also incorporated event and ticket management capabilities.  The platform, known as Sponsor Locker, had a very loyal customer base among early adopters.  However, capturing a larger portion of the marketplace had proved challenging.  David was brought in to evaluate and lead the company’s product development efforts, go-to-market strategy and market positioning in order to determine growth opportunities and assess the viability of the this flagship product.

assess

Evaluated marketing, sales and product processes to baseline current capabilities, assess market positioning and understand where the team felt they'd been successful and where they would have changed their strategy given what they know today. 

• Evaluated go-to-market positioning, including branding and messaging/value proposition. 
• Reviewed both inbound and outbound customer acquisition strategy and capabilities.
• Assessed current sales channels and evaluated success metrics. 
• Reviewed the product development process and the due diligence process around bringing market feedback into the development process.
• Evaluated current sales pipeline and gathered history on previous engagements with accounts in this pipeline.
• Understood internal opinion of current clients and their needs.
• Reviewed financials/contracts as a baseline for evaluating potential changes to the pricing strategy.
• Understood the history of the development of Sponsor Locker up to this point in time in order to learn what led to the addition of the various product features.

research

Combined an internal understanding of the business with external market research and validation. 

• Spent time with every client to understand their perception of both the company and the Sponsor Locker platform.  What do they like?  What don't they like?  What would they change?  What's missing from the product in their eyes?  Why would they or wouldn't they promote us to others?
• Established a picture of total available market size across various target segments and the serviceable market size.
• Led the outbound sales process, gathering important feedback from prospects on their opinion of Sponsor Locker and what potential changes to the product or business model would be needed to make the platform more attractive as an investment.
• Performed competitive analysis to establish competitor segmentation within the Sponsor Locker sphere of influence, evaluating the competitiveness of the Sponsor Locker product.
• Researched competitor pricing and prospect opinion of our current pricing strategy to evaluate potential shifts.
• Developed an understanding of promotion distribution points that target account personas use to learn about trends in the market (online, social, etc.), evaluating Sponsor Locker's presence on these platforms.

plan

Based on assessment and research, evolved the go-to-market strategy to drive growth and further assess the viability and likely adoption of the platform.

• Developed a new multi-channel outbound content marketing strategy.
• Recommended shifts in the brand strategy
• Designed new positioning across online/digital channels and traditional sales tools and resources.
• Re-defined the company's prospect engagement and product demonstration strategy.
• Created multi-channel online promotion strategy featuring social media, SEO and paid search.
• Collaborated to design a new pricing strategy.
• Developed a plan to refine the product development process, ensuring stronger accountability and holding the business accountable to shorter development sprints and timelines.
• Recommended changes to the product development roadmap, focusing on product features more closely aligned to market and customer research.

execute

Refined the updated go-to-market strategy and upon team consensus, and with a plan to continue to evolve the strategy as market feedback is received, put in play the new strategy to further assess the viability of the platform.

• Launched new multi-channel outbound content marketing strategy and related content calendar.
• Executed the shift in the brand strategy, developing new positioning across online/digital channels and traditional sales tools and resources.
• Engaged with prospects using updated engagement and product demonstration strategy, continuing to gather market feedback on the viability of the product.
• Launched multi-channel online promotion strategy featuring social media, SEO and paid search.
• Established new pricing strategy, applying this strategy to new account and contract renewals.
• Refined the product development process, ensuring stronger accountability and holding the business accountable to shorter development sprints and timelines.
• Brought features more closely aligning to market and customer research into the product development process.
• Begin outbound sales efforts to updated sales pipeline, incorporating multiple touch points.
• Instituted current customer outreach program to drive retention, up-sell and cross-sell.

extend and refine

Consolidated market feedback with sales and renewal success metrics and market/competitor trends to recommend a longer-term growth strategy to the CEO.

• Collaborated with the CEO to evaluate and refine the growth plan, driving towards a consensus on the recommendation to continue investment in the Sponsor Locker platform or not.
• Collectively refined the growth strategy, implementing new tactics to continue to assess viability.
• Consensus on a potentially viable growth plan was achieved, but there was not a willingness to invest the financial resources to make the pivots required to achieve this plan given the investment already made at this point in time.

Summary Results

Following market due diligence, shifts in product focus and the implementation of alternative sales and promotional activities, a growth plan was presented to the CEO to make the case for efforts needed to improve market share.  While there was consensus on the go-forward strategy, investor appetite to continue funding the business, given the required shift in strategy and the 5-years of investment up to this point in time, had waned.  A decision to stop funding the business was made.

• Based on market and financial analysis, ultimately determined to wind down operations.

• Pitching and evaluating deal opportunities for the Sponsor Locker software code while ensuring a soft-landing for customers.