Challenge

With billions in annual revenue and over 20k employees, our steel producer client is among the largest in North America. Despite their evident success across multiple industries, they had a small footprint specifically in the automotive industry. Accordingly, as their steel production capacity increased and their technology improved, the auto industry became a natural target market for growth. The steel supplier set an aggressive goal to increase sales within the auto industry. However, the industry was already saturated with experienced competitors and decision makers in the company needed to understand in what areas of the industry they should invest first to capture sales quickly.

Solution

The steel supplier’s growth in the automotive industry required significant investment, but in order to successfully break into this new market they needed to know where that investment would be best placed. They partnered with us to gain a deeper understanding of their customers’ current and future needs. Decision makers needed to understand: • Which investment would increase market share the fastest • The factors most important to customers when choosing to buy • Their most important competitive advantages • Their competitor’s strengths and weaknesses With this information, they were able to identify which specific segment of customers they needed to target and how they would best demonstrate value to those customers.

Key Insights to Drive Actions

Results

We provided a major steel supplier with the confidence to focus on the right type of investments that brought immediate returns. By focusing on what matters to customers, sales grew in this new market by 17%.

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