INDUSTRIAL MARKETING CASE STUDY

Realization

DeWys Manufacturing is a precision sheet metal fabrication company that supplies the manufacturing industry with assembly components. The company’s reputation helped it acquire an “A” list of customers across multiple, unrelated industries. In recent years, however, although the company was able to get to the table frequently with prospects, it often lost most of these new business opportunities due to price. A tremendous amount of time and expense was being incurred chasing and estimating potential business, and the reasons why the company could land some prospects but lose most others was unclear.

Repositioning

As a result of interviews and focus groups, and after careful analysis of the existing customer base, Francis Marketing was able to identify the illusive common element each of the company’s customers shared, the common element representing the optimal market for the company. Francis Marketing then worked with the company to develop and successfully migrate to the firm’s optimal market positioning, introducing and educating staff members regarding the revised positioning, and developing the key selling messages and vehicles to support the repositioning.

Results

By pursuing on only those prospects that met the company’s newly found criteria, the company could focus its sales efforts on those most likely to buy, dramatically reducing the amount of time and money spent chasing business it was unlikely to land. In a challenging economic environment, DeWys also improved its batting average in winning the business it did pursue. The company’s first tradeshow subsequent to the repositioning yielded seventeen qualified leads, three of which became ongoing DeWys customers within 90 days.