Case Studies

A professional services agency wanted to lower their reliance on a major client by accelerating and diversifying their growth including the goal of adding another major client.  Harden helped them revisit their market – where the opportunities were expected to be and how they measured up – and we interviewed their best customers to learn what they truly valued from their perspective.  Key messages were revised and updated, and a comprehensive marketing and sales plan developed.

Our client experienced a doubling of revenue in the first year, and 50% growth in the second.  Even in a challenging economy, they were able to add four new Fortune 500 clients with new billings of $250,000 to $500,000 each.  Staff productivity increased by 50% without adding additional staff supported by a new CRM/ERP solution Harden researched, recommended, and helped implement.

The best compliment came from a partner who said, “We accomplished more in one year working with Harden than we could have accomplished in seven years – if ever – by ourselves.”

A manufacturer of high end diagnostic tools and equipment was under pressure from wholesalers to reduce the price of their product.  The options to meet these demands appeared to be to either lower the quality of their product, or consider manufacturing outside the country.

Harden spoke with representatives of the company, the wholesalers they sold to and, most important, end users.  The primary recommendation was that their quality position in the market had high perceived value that supported a higher price by users.

Twelve recommendations were made to the company, and an immediate result was the sharing this information with one of their major customers who was considering abandoning them for a lower cost supplier. The information we provided saved the relationship by demonstrating that quality was by far the key issue with end users, and that price was not the determining factor if quality was established.  Because of this, we set direction for the company’s marketing thrust for the coming years.  In addition, information gained from end users pointed to a major shift in how marketing dollars should be invested resulting in greater sales for less cost.

Growth had flattened for the manufacturer of electronic switches, and they were only about 10% the size of the market leaders.  Not surprisingly, their brand was not the first to come to the mind with potential customers.

Harden worked with the management team to identify what was most important to the people who bought their products, what strengths could be leveraged, and where improvements could be made that truly mattered.  Customers were interviewed to gain insights from their perspective, and to learn the most impactful way to communicate with them.

A unique positioning was created including a new identity for the company.  Most important, the way the company was communicating with the market was totally reengineered resulting in the following comments from the Chairman:

“Working with Harden has been very valuable. You quickly understood our business, so we didn’t have to keep explaining everything.  You helped us get focused with a simple, targeted message — to be something, and to stand for something.  You guided us, and put structure around us. You forced us to be strategic, and yet do some “blue sky” thinking as well.  We now have a clear understanding of who we are, who we should focus on, and how we are going to accomplish it all.  The switch in how we are delivering our message was critical for us, and everyone we have talked with has been aware of it — very effective.”

A provider of financial services was promoting one of their product lines in the traditional way without clearly understanding why people bought their product.  Harden determined what the potential buyers’ critical needs were and discovered that the buying process was much different than how the market was currently being approached. We recommended and implemented an entirely different tactical execution that resulted in reducing existing advertising costs by a third ($1 million) while increasing revenue by 22%.

A provider of professional services was struggling with a market downturn that was impacting the entire industry. Harden guided them through an analysis of how the company could function more efficiently while at the same time creating more value for clients.  The result was that nearly one-third of non-billable support positions were repositioned as revenue producing, increasing billable hours by 10% with no perceived decline in service.

A small private Midwestern liberal arts college needed to identify and articulate what its position should be in the market and, more important, identify what specific action needed to be taken to support that position.  Harden guided the executive committee through a positioning exercise followed by recommendations on how to leverage the desired position through all areas of the college to its many stakeholders.

We met with the executive committee over a six week period, and identified the college’s various stakeholders, what the expectations of each group were, what the quality of the existing relationship was perceived to be, what the college would like the relationship to be, and specific steps to take to get the relationship to where they would like it to be.  Next, each area of the college identified their own “customers” and specific action steps needed to bridge the gap between customer expectations and current performance.

The whole program was designed to get the various contact points within the college to look at themselves through the eyes of those using their services and where improvements in performance would yield results in the form of higher user satisfaction.

A service organization was struggling with the financial implications of a quickly changing market. As always, resources were at a premium and Harden discovered they were not currently being allocated to the highest potential and most profitable markets. It was a case of learning to do with the resources available after expense reduction opportunities were identified and implemented. Rather than simply cut costs across the board, the thought was that there were areas that were not contributing to the bottom line, and others where there was significant opportunities for growth and needed to be funded. We helped direct the redeployment of resources after a 15% expense reduction ($2 million) that resulted in 40% growth for four consecutive years in high potential business units.