Over the course of several years, our client had invested a significant portion of its available capital in the development of a new technology for a burgeoning segment of the structured finance marketplace. Sales had stalled, and several negative sales dynamics were occurring include extreme price pressure and lengthening of the sales cycle. Senior management did not have adequate visibility to the reasons for this shift; as a result they were frustrated in their ability to make data-driven decisions about how to respond. To understand the dynamics at play, we developed and conducted a focused market research study to identify actionable pain points in the industry segment. The objective was to determine the salability of this product and/or identify an opportunity for a product variant with a different value proposition. In-depth interviews were conducted with more than 25 key industry players.
Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that while market need had shifted beyond the capabilities of the product in question, there was a growing opportunity to provide solutions to support the market's transition from early stage to mature.
Understanding why the product's reception was cooling so rapidly enabled the client to look elsewhere for sustainable growth and to effectively re-deploy limited resources.
The company made strategic decisions about the appropriate level of investment in the original offering, dramatically reducing expenses, and focused current business development efforts on meeting the needs the market currently deemed to be actionable.
