Project details

Encumbered by high costs and an overextended business model, a well-established financial services company faced declining customer loyalty amid fierce competition. Consult Plus worked with company leadership on a multi-year transformation that cut more than $500 million in costs, re-defined strategy and helped the firm win the loyalty of its core customers—allowing it to regain its financial footing while its stock price skyrocketed. In an effort to expand into new markets, FinancialCo had lost sight of the customer segments that its business model could best serve. As a result, the company failed to innovate where it mattered most; losing business to market leaders with better service, or newcomers with better technology, or both. When the economy hit a downturn, this lack of focus translated into a decline of market cap of more than 75%. FinancialCo’s point of departure was a relatively strong one, thanks to its robust brand and solid capital structure, but aggressive competitors heightened urgency. Management needed to work on multiple fronts to right-size internal infrastructure while reaching out to the customers it needed to regain market share.

A global chemicals company with new private equity ownership enlisted Consult Plus to help the new partnership establish a foundation of growth, improved financial performance and upgraded capabilities across its businesses. Initial research identified significant opportunities in sales and marketing and, with Consult Plus support, the company set out to enhance how products were priced and sold to better reflect dynamic market conditions and the products' differentiated value. With quality products and a substantial and loyal customer base across its businesses, ChemicalCo was well-positioned to be a market leader. However, the company did not always maximize value from its differentiated products and strong relationships and it also struggled to properly reflect the rapidly changing price of raw materials in its own pricing. Consult Plus brought a sharp focus on the commercial aspects of doing business to help ChemicalCo get closer to its customers and more disciplined about dynamically matching prices with customer needs, product value and underlying costs.

When two multibillion-dollar companies merge, continued success with customers depends on seamless salesforce integration. As part of a large merger in the healthcare industry, Consult Plus worked through complex hurdles with the combined entity to help two very different sales organizations become a unified force for growth. Two large healthcare companies stood to gain leading positions in their various markets by combining forces through a merger. To realize the potential benefits, however, it was crucial to integrate each firm's unique sales approach into a single sales model. The starting point: One firm used a salesforce composed of specialists, who sold only the products of a specific business unit. The other firm relied on a more centralized team of generalists, who sold a wide variety of products. Adding to the complexity of the task, management set an aggressive timeline to achieve synergies and hit financial targets, all while remaining highly focused on avoiding disruption to the combined customer base. Consult Plus worked with the company to design an end-state salesforce with a new reporting structure and an optimal mix of generalists and specialists, while capturing synergies and minimizing customer impact.