Pre-Acquisition SaaS Strategy Design
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Exevion was engaged by a private equity firm to support with designing a go-to-market (GTM) strategy for a soon to be acquired SaaS business. The client did not have a defined industry focus or clear land and expand strategy for the SaaS business. So the client wanted us to refine their customer focus and design a strategy for both landing new accounts, and expanding existing accounts, with target customers in select locations.
Exevion’s focus was split into the following areas:
Define Target Customers: Based on market opportunities and historic industry performance, define the SaaS business’s ideal customer profile (ICP) including elements such as industry, size, and customer base.
Identify Optimal Locations: Highlight the global regions where the business would have the most success targeting ICPs, considering team structure, product functionality, competitor performance and technology adoption.
Design GTM Strategy: Create a plan to refocus and expand the business, setting the operational foundations to target ICPs in selected locations and drive growth over the next 3 years.
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Exevion were responsible for leading the design of each of the components which would make up the GTM strategy. We held multiple workshops with the client and senior stakeholders from the SaaS business to assess their current product and performance, whilst using research and market experience to create an improved go forward strategy. Key activities included:
Value Creation Plans (VCPs) Design: We designed VCPs, focused on defining the ICP and identifying new business and expansion opportunities.
Market Opportunity Research: We conducted extensive market research on the opportunity for the SaaS business and adoption benefits for a range of industries, to determine the optimal target markets.
ICP Definition: We performed analysis and facilitated key workshops to define the business’s ICP, deciding on key characteristics that would determine what customers the SaaS business would target moving forward.
Use Case Assessment: By analysing the product functionality and key differentiators, we outlined the product use cases and how they could be applied to target markets.
Geographic Region Analysis: We undertook research to assess the SaaS business’s market opportunity in different geographic regions, identifying which specific geographies should be prioritised for GTM efforts.
Channel & Partner Strategy: We researched and identified viable channels and partners to be used to target ICPs in certain geographies, accelerating the GTM strategy.
Go Forward Plan Creation: We designed 100-day action plans for every workstream, each covering a different aspect of the new GTM strategy.
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Exevion worked with client and target business stakeholders to gather information and design go forward plans for landing new customers and expanding current ICP accounts. At the end of the ‘Engage’ phase we had delivered the following:
A defined and agreed ICP for the SaaS businesses’ GTM efforts to focus on.
Use cases to target buyer personas that will be key value propositions in sale discussions.
Prioritisation of geographies to target for expansion.
An overarching GTM strategy, refocusing the SaaS business to target landing new ICP accounts in selected global locations and expanding existing customer accounts upon deal completion.
A set of 100 day plans for each individual GTM workstream to be implemented post acquisition. This included a strategy to target ICPs directly and via partnerships, expansion strategy with existing customers in target geographies, new product positioning, reorganisation of the internal sales teams and a marketing approach redesign.
We are now commencing the subsequent ‘delivery’ phase, implementing the individual 100 day plans to deliver the overall GTM strategy.
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Private equity firms looking to acquire and grow a SaaS business should aim to clearly define the target ICP and identify the geographic market positioning best suited for expansion, based on the product offering.
These programs require input from stakeholders on all sides, so a robust governance structure is essential for a productive and timely delivery.
Our experience in delivering pre-deal go to market strategies allows us to support clients to position their target companies for maximal growth upon deal completion.
