Need:
Goal: $10m sales and $2m in EBIT in a few years
Market: $3,000 license seats sold to 200,000 people
Competitors sold to service bureaus
Our Target was end users and for them to think of this as a computer printer. Other machines are expensive, complex, hazardous
We sell machines to design companies for them to produce rough draft prototypes. Our machine is fast and simple, and the firm will go through multiple iterations early in design process to reduce number of design flaws.
This machine replaced need for firm to outsource design to remote location. This is labor intensive.
-Machine was fast, user friendly, low material cost
-One salesperson sold 20 machines in 1.5 years. But we sold to big blue chip companies. Will small companies be able to afford us?
-Machine is 300 pounds and will need to be loaded in vans to go to on site for demo.
-Breakeven is 50 machines and to reach goal we will need to sell 80 machines
Option 1: Internal sales force
Pro
-Better access to customer information with direct feedback.
-Sellers will become experts by only selling this product
Con
-Fixed expenses and limited coverage
-Salary is not good for sales
- Need to hire very good salespeople in certain geographical location(hard)
- Can take 6 months to find and train salespeople
-30 calls to 15 different customers will result in 2 sales a month
Strategy: Lease out system with $2000 a year. Hire CAD employees quickly. Try to reduce onsite visits from two to one by bringing actual product to site with key decision makers.
Option 2: Value added resellers of CAD software
Pro
- All competitors use this channel
-Existing customer