Aligning strategy with operations at Dolead to grow faster, stronger and better!
Dolead: a strong value proposition but identified operational silos
When we invested in Dolead in 2018, we were really seduced by the strength of the company value proposition and the vision of the two founders, Guillaume Heintz and Arthur Saint-Père, of their industry (the lead generation market). They had tried different business models since the creation of the company and they had found theirs, consistent with their product and technology and fitting the clients need: they settled on the idea to provide very high quality leads, generated by advanced technology, to brands in areas such as energy, telecommunications, home security…
Indeed, the Sales figures were quite impressive in terms of new clients closing but unfortunately, they struggled with fast-tracking client activation as well as retaining some of them long term. And when they digged into this issue, they realized that the clients the Sales team was closing did not correspond with the clients the Operations team was capable of operating that is to say, capable to bring them high volume and high quality leads at a competitive price.
This disconnect between the Sales strategy and the reality of operations led to real frustration within the company. The Sales were frustrated that the new clients they brought were not activated and the Operations were frustrated that the clients they “received” were not compatible with the Dolead product and model. They had a sales quality issue. It was urgent to select the accounts that the company could turn into revenue producing customers.
Introducing Thibaut Bechetoille, Operating Partner and 360 mentor
Thibaut Bechetoille has 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and CEO in B2B tech companies. He has also worked as a mentor / board member for many tech start-ups.
He has a passion for Blue Ocean strategy and is obsessed with alignement between Strategy and Operations ;-).
We introduced him to Dolead and there was a good fit with the founders who were very open to get external support to tackle this issue. He worked with Dolead not only as a advisor but he also took an operational role as a part-time interim head of Sales of the company.
Realigning the company around the vision: a 3-steps process
After a first phase of assessment of the process of onboarding a new clients, the Dolead team partnered with Thibaut to focus on 3 main areas of improvement:
- Redefining the Sales targets at company level: creation of a score card that meets with the requirements of all the teams included in the process;
- Aligning the Operations with the Sales: integration of the Operations team in the process of new client closing through the creation of a deal desk;
- Creating the right reporting to monitor the performance.
Quick results
This realignment showed quickly its efficiency with clear indicators of its success.
- Sales closing rate maintained at its usual high level;
- Activation time on the Dolead Platform divided by 2 on average;
- 6 months churn rate dramaticaly reduced.
