12-Month European Market Testing Exercise for US Tech Company:

How we helped an international IT company target the UK public sector and build a new business pipeline with a new lead acquisition process.

Industry:

Aerospace, defence and information technology

Challenge:

As the sixth largest defence contractor in the world with a turnover of $36billion, General Dynamics was looking to increase the balance sheet value of its UK IT contracting division through an accelerated growth programme.

How We Helped:

We designed and implemented a new lead acquisition process to increase the value of the new business pipeline prior to an upcoming major capital event. Having undertaken a snapshot of internal opinion, we engaged the market through a programme of surveys, workshops and round tables.

This was followed by a series of thought leadership articles, white papers and videos that addressed key decision makers’ points of pain. The packaged content was then delivered via a marketing automation platform to build awareness and advocacy amongst a community of highly targeted prospective customers.

500 NEW SALES QUALIFIED LEADS GENERATED

Outcome:

The integrated 12-month campaign engaged 500 senior decision makers from senior positions within Local and Central Government. Heads of functional areas such as IT and Transformation collaborated with Council Leaders and Politicians to discuss the upcoming technology related risks and opportunities facing the UK Public Sector. Several contract extensions and new business wins were directly attributed to this activity within the course of the programme, with discussions around several large-scale opportunities initiated during the various events and follow-up sessions.

Key Learning Points:

  • 1

    Invest in market engagement as early as possible

  • 2

    Use a platform to deploy messages at scale across multiple channels

  • 3

    Ensure the business is ready to receive qualified leads and new business

  • 4

    Secure executive level support for programme objectives and governance

  • 5

    Report leading indicators through real time dashboards

We initially engaged Winshaw to undertake a tactical market research project to evaluate the potential size of our target markets in the UK Public Sector. Based on the quality of the report, we commissioned the team to deliver a more extensive programme of work over a 12-month period to support our corporate strategy. The system and supporting processes we deployed worked so well we decided to replicate these within our global go-to-market strategy.

—  Alex Wadsworth,
International Financial Director, General Dynamics IT

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