Mar 12, 2013

how we made our product best on the market


This is a story about a B2B international company entering the Romanian market a while ago, finding a rocky territory, taking the challenge and achieving to produce and market the best product available in its sector - fiduciary B2B services.


You have to know that the raw "material" used by this int'l company to create its product - company data - is found, in Romania, in a diversity of sources, more or less known, accurate, concurring or updated. Ergo the difficulties, later turned opportunities, of creating a complete and coherent product to offer to the market. 

Initially, this company came with a product similar to what the competitors were offering, but soon it stepped out of this "safe" zone and steps were taken in the direction of leadership:


#1 Scrutiny, Curiosity
The sector we were in had lots of buried treasures, gold sources of data to enhance our product, that only small audiences were aware about. We dug deep, in specific places, and used the know-how to improve our product. The bonus was that, being educated in detail about every change, new regulation, new public sources of companies' data, we were sometimes the ones to delivered the news to the client - therefore their perception that we are reliable specialists in this domain.

#2 Technology, Automation
Most of our innovation ideas were only possible through investment in technology. IT improved the quality of our service and made us faster, more accurate and reliable in delivering our product to the client. 

#3 Clients 
During our conversations with clients, we've asked about and learn about the secrets, particularities and wishes regarding the service we provided. We followed almost every thread to discover its potential and feasibility in order to put it in practice. Then we went back and provided the cumulative developments arising from our numerous clients visits.

#4 Competition's Weakness 
Our competitors were part of large multinational groups, with bureaucratic internal processes and inertia tendency. We noticed that, although the domain was evolving, their products remained unchanged for a long period of time. We understood that being faster will keep us ahead and we convinced our group to be faster.

#5 Local Approach
Having the support of the management team in the Headquarters, we had the confidence to explain the differences and adapt our products to the Romanian market characteristics.

#6 Compelling pleas
However dynamic our company was, our proposals had to undergo the Headquarters' approval process as well. We made it as simple as possible, by following each time a clear line of reasoning: investment required, development duration, effort, gains in terms of market positioning, financial outcome, impact, plus clear specifications.

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