CASE STUDY
The Right Time to Change Your Sales Strategy: A Case Study
PIVOTAL ADVISORS
Founded in 1999, Protolabs offers digitally-enabled injection molding, CNC machining, industrial-grade 3D printing, and sheet metal fabrication services to companies looking to accelerate time to market and reduce total cost of ownership for custom man- ufactured components. The company has manu- facturing facilities in five countries and says it is the world’s fastest manufacturer of custom prototypes and on-demand production parts. Its designers and engineers upload designs and receive custom pro- totypes and low-volume production parts in as fast as one day. Protolabs employs about 2,300 people, including around 200 sales representatives.
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THE CHALLENGE A profitable, publicly-held company, Protolabs had been growing rapidly by focusing its sales force on acquir- ing new engineers with product needs and leveraging its on-demand proto- typing and manufacturing capabilities. This formula had worked for years, and the sales team was doing well. In early 2016, however, Protolabs’
growth rate slowed in conjunction with the overall softening in the manufacturing market. The company had recently expanded its offerings and was working to engage multiple stakeholders within their customers’ organizations – beyond traditional engineering – including supply chain and quality leaders. Around the same time, the company experienced changes in sales leadership, with a couple of key members departing the organization. While Protolabs has been a quick market adapter – always looking at what’s going to help their business in three to five years and scaling their actions for the long term – everyone knew it was time to ask a lot of tough questions if they were to adapt and stay ahead of their competition. Recognizing the need to become a
VALERIY N EVLAKHOV /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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