Sales and Marketing Due Diligence

Private Equity Case Study

 

BACKGROUND

A PE firm sought assistance conducting a “deep dive” into a targeted platform company to review sales and marketing components. During the PE firm’s initial discussion with the company, they uncovered some red flags that warranted an outside team with sales and marketing functional expertise to identify current weaknesses and opportunities, and develop an actionable “roadmap” with clear forward direction.

OBJECTIVES

Empirical was tasked with the following:

  • Review strategic plan for both marketing and sales organizations, and check for alignment between the functions
  • Determine skillsets of both management and team members and the ability for the team to effectively carry out their roles
  • Review current tech stack to ensure it aligned with future goals of the business
  • Develop a value creation roadmap to take advantage of early wins and buy-in for the team

SOLUTION

Empirical assigned a team of three experienced sales and marketing executives. The trio reviewed the target company in-depth and identified several opportunities, including:

  • Misalignment and poor communications between sales and marketing that was causing friction and poor results
  • A much-needed rebuild of the sales compensation structurer
  • A “Voice of the Customer” study that indicated a needed improvement on messaging and value proposition to better align with the key decision-makers within the target audience
  • The lack of value-add content was causing a disconnect between prospects and the company, which was evident in poor website analytics

RESULTS

Empirical delivered the required action plan and roadmap forward that the company successfully implemented. By the end of year 1, the company saw revenues improve by 20%.