In 2019, a German company decided to expand its portfolio in the aerospace and automotive sectors into rail vehicle technology. The interim manager with experience in this sector was tasked with driving forward the market entry. He was tasked with developing a market entry strategy, establishing a sustainable product management system and promoting the new products in the industry - not least through his personal network.
Developing a market entry strategy and service portfolio
The client company is a long-standing service provider to the German and European aerospace industry. It has built up a high level of expertise in the testing of aircraft and satellites at its Bavarian site. In addition to test and simulation facilities for high-tech products, the company has around 1,100 highly qualified engineers and scientists with enormous expertise. Among other things, the focus is on cutting-edge topics for the industry relating to digitalization such as autonomous driving and its safeguarding as well as cybersecurity.
The slump in the aviation industry in 2019/2020 called into question the company's previous business concept and therefore its overall turnover. The company management therefore decided to use free engineering and testing capacities for a strategic realignment in the rail industry.
As the company did not have the market-specific knowledge, the interim manager was tasked with developing a market entry strategy within 6 months in collaboration with the company's employees. In addition, possible services for the rail industry were to be derived from the existing service portfolio.
Roadmap created for prioritizing tasks and approaching target customers
Due to the tight deadline, the interim manager created a roadmap with prioritization of tasks and potential target customer approach in the shortest possible time. This roadmap included the following components
- Planning and coordinating the systematic market entry and development within the organization
- Strategic and comparable service portfolio divided into target groups of operators, vehicle manufacturers, system suppliers and engineering service providers
- Analysis of potential customer needs divided into testing and inspection services, digitalization topics (autonomous driving, Cybersecurity and drive technology with fuel cell technologies)
- Clustering of customers in a target approach and communication matrix and, based on this, further subdivision into specialist departments with contact persons
- Specific planning basis for resource allocation
- Operative framework for the client's organization including definition of expert teams
- . Definition of the expert teams
- Implementation of the approach in the company and organization of internal interdisciplinary cooperation
- Targeted approach to customers, Documenting the conversations in the CRM and planning cyclical follow-up
- Customer presentations and expert discussions
- Documenting and tracking information and commitments from the conversations
Contacting companies under coronavirus conditions
The interim manager created a contact matrix with possible contacts to whom the information could be sent in the form of teasers. As the company's services focus in particular on digitalization topics such as condition-based maintenance, artificial intelligence, automated driving and cybersecurity, it was also necessary to identify and approach the relevant experts at the target companies in addition to the existing C-level network.
The particular challenge in making contact was that this took place at a time when contact restrictions were in place due to the pandemic and most of the contacts were not available for a face-to-face meeting as usual and were often working from home. It was also necessary to organize a team within the organization that could accompany the customer meetings with the appropriate expertise.
Product portfolio presented to decision-makers
The interim manager successfully identified the contact persons at potential customers in the DACH region who could have an interest in the company's specific services from a technical perspective and also have the decision-making powers to initiate further steps for a possible collaboration. In the next step, appropriate presentations were compiled for these contacts and presented in web conferences. In addition to the familiar presentation techniques, VR tools were also used to virtually demonstrate the practical application of specific services.
Presentations lead to specific customer inquiries and orders
In the space of 6 months, the interim manager managed to identify and approach more than 100 contacts and arrange appointments for presentations and technical discussions. One of the key objectives was to derive a commitment for the next steps from these customer meetings. After more than 30 initial customer presentations, a large number of expert discussions were held, which in turn resulted in specific customer inquiries and orders. Further clients have shown concrete interest in future collaboration.
The company will now continue to align its service portfolio to the specific market in line with the interim manager's concept and ensure the sustainable development of the industry in organizational terms.
