Hand modeling by yours truly.
The Need:
When I began at Data Connect as Marketing Manager they had little to no standardization over the sales materials and brands that would be presented in client meetings. This frequently lead to distributing proposals they could not operationally fulfill. I began by building a new brand, website and inbound system, but ultimately the sales team needed great materials to close high value deals. So, I got to work on a comprehensive suite of sales materials.
The Remedy:
The primary issue was that each module within the Brolly Platform needed it's own independent materials while simultaneously communicating that it was part of a larger whole. Beyond that, I needed to illustrate why Brolly was such a great company to work with. So I designed and copy wrote a series of sales slicks that would concisely convey each modules' features and value proposition. These were then tied-in to larger, more comprehensive booklets of materials that could be catered specifically to the needs of each prospect. Below is a collection of some of the materials I designed and wrote.
The second looming issue was one that has vexed countless organizations over the years: version control. It was one thing to get all the materials organized and standardized, it was another to ensure that each sales team member had the correct materials in hand for every call. I started by implementing strict version control figures, I had a bit of fun with it and used animal names and figures as version numbers (above you'll see some materials from our "hare" series). Then, I leveraged our company servers and a strict materials downloading system to make sure that old material wouldn't make its way out into sales presentations.
Across each touchpoint the new Brolly brand identity was uniformly delivered; from slicks and business cards to online demos and email footers, prospects constantly received consistent messaging from our team.
One of our
business card versions.
The Results:
Once I developed the new materials and began version controlling for Brolly, our number of erroneous proposals vanished. I acted as the liaison between product development and sales, ensuring that the sales team knew exactly what they were authorized to sell in each meeting, and in many cases had a customized communication strategy for each target. This shift in sales strategy directly helped our expansion into the key new vertical markets of pet supply and pharmaceutical.
