Client Case Study

Customer Segmentation & Targeting, Resource Staffing & Deployment

Objectives/Challenges:
In early 2004, XYZ Corporation’s USA division needed to find more ways to effectively sell, service and support their channel partners: retail and commercial distributors that sell and service XYZ’s products to tens of thousands of contractors, who in turn sell and service them to retail and commercial end-users. The challenge was to help XYZ’s management achieve their objective by factually identifying each channel partner’s sales and service needs as determined by the contractors that existed in each of their markets. Further, XYZ Corporation wanted to identify the optimal number of sales and support resources needed and where they should be located to more successfully serve their channel partners, and in turn, XYZ’s end-user customers. A significant issue for XYZ was they did not have any end-user sales or potential data since these customers were served by XYZ’s intermediary channels.

Our Approach/Strategy:
XYZ Corporation teamed with Young & Associates, Ltd. to gather and analyze sales and market data from a number of sources including XYZ’s channel partners, external industry sources, internal marketing support teams and their field sales organization. Working together, they identified the existing correlation of key variables, such as housing starts, number of individuals per home, and income of homeowner, at a zip code level, and the existing sales demand of XYZ Corporation’s products. The team then identified the number of channel partners existing in those markets and assigned them an equitable portion of the sales/market potential based upon their coverage of the markets. Finally, the team identified the number of resources required and applied optimization mapping software to determine the allocation of those resources to their individual markets.

Results:
The company now understands factually how many intermediaries it needs to serve its end-user customers. Further, the company knows the best locations for their sales resources to be deployed and the number required to be able to reach and optimally serve their customers and help them achieve greater customer satisfaction and success. Six months after implementation, the company's sales and profits dramatically improved, growing at rates exceeding the industry.