HR Tech Company, Ascentis, Increased Sales and Net Retention

The Backstory

How do you compete against well-established industry leaders when your SaaS company is best-in-class, but far less visible in the global marketplace? That’s what Ascentis needed to solve.

Like many fast-growing SaaS companies, the Ascentis leadership team was focused on continuously improving their solution and closing deals. They did not have the in-house resources to conduct in-depth market research.

The team also knew Ascentis had an excellent workforce management (WFM) product, but they needed a better strategy for conveying its value proposition to the organizations that would benefit most from it.

A Relatable Challenge

Ascentis had a reputation of excellence with their existing customers (midmarket and enterprise companies) but they recognized they would benefit from additional insights on their customers’ purchasing drivers given the fast-changing landscape.

They wanted to know: what really drove their customers to do business with them, and not one of the many WFM solutions out there? How familiar were customers and prospects with WFM solutions in the market and did they understand or use “workforce management” to describe it? What were their true pain points?

The Ascentis marketing team was eager to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and prospects to sharpen their marketing messaging and ultimately grow revenue. They also needed a strong third-party partner to take a studied look at the competitive landscape and garner feedback that would generate a measurable ROI.

Joe Vangsgard, Vice President of Marketing at Ascentis, stated that they were looking for an experienced partner, one who “would act as an extension of our team by fully embracing our cultural norms and delivering outstanding results.” That’s why they called on Satrix Solutions.

Gathering Actionable Feedback for Exponential Growth

Satrix Solutions’ approach was as efficient as it was thorough. Vangsgard appreciated Satrix Solutions’ flexibility as they worked closely with the Ascentis marketing team to devise a custom solution. He was impressed how “Satrix consistently strived to exceed expectations by owning their projects and being extremely agile to adjust to the needs of our fast-paced organization.”

And agile they were. Sooner than anticipated, Satrix Solutions delivered rich, valuable insights that Ascentis quickly leveraged to drive action and transform Ascentis’ position in the marketplace, driving both top-line revenue and the bottom line.

The strategy included three key initiatives:

• Sales Win-Loss Research
• Competitive Differentiation Research
• Vertical Market Research

To execute on their plan, Satrix Solutions conducted a series of in-depth phone interviews (IDIs) with a range of personas, including:

• Current clients
• Sales targets – both won and lost
• Key decision-makers, including those in Finance and HR
• Industry contacts unaffiliated with Ascentis

Satrix Solutions also administered an online survey with non-client companies in the Ascentis target market. The goal was to evaluate the needs of the market, while also gathering takeaways on Ascentis’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Ascentis appreciated that Satrix Solutions served as an independent third party, which led to greater trust in the findings and recommendations from these surveys.

Through these interviews, Satrix Solutions uncovered opinions on Ascentis involving their pricing strategy, messaging, and feature/functionalities — invaluable information that ultimately propelled them into their next phase of growth.

Measurable Results

Successful client acquisition, and retention, cannot happen in a vacuum. Armed with a wealth of new insights, Ascentis and their marketing partners developed informed buyer personas that led to major changes in their marketing messaging — and their sales pipeline.

Vangsgard shared, “My favorite quant tied to the brand story and the research support Satrix Solutions provided is that +80% of qualified sales pipeline was from our target markets. This was huge for sales because it gave them the best chance to win.”

Ascentis shared key findings from this data at their sales kick-off (SKO) to help representatives refocus their efforts. With a fresh awareness of the competitive landscape and Ascentis’ true differentiators, the sales team was able to better communicate the value of their product to leads. Ascentis also engaged a third-party marketing firm to redesign their website, stemming from the results of the Satrix analysis.

As a result of these findings, Ascentis beat its previous quarter’s sales goals and is on track to capture significantly more market share in the years to come.