Intouch Design

In a nutshell:

Marketing workshop and sales coaching proves a winning formula for Wellington-based Intouch Design. With funding support through the NZ Trade & Enterprise voucher scheme, GoodSense delivered a programme of support for business owner Juliet, helping to turn product innovation into sales success.

What was needed:

Talented exhibition designer Juliet Cooke of Intouch Design had used her expertise in creating affordable, interactive exhibitions to develop a proven prototype product when GoodSense met her, at a Sustainable Business Network event in Wellington last year.

Juliet’s goal is to enable smaller museums to host exhibitions which create stand-out interactive experiences for visitors, on a shoestring budget and with low environmental impact. By developing the Flexhibit display system, and the Survivor WW1 exhibition, the first theme in a planned library of content, Juliet had taken the first steps to achieve this goal – and added a product to her service business.

However this proof of concept stage is only the start of what can become a long, lonely sales and marketing journey. Juliet had a great product but was running out of steam and knowledge in how to build sales.

How GoodSense helped:

We established quickly that Intouch Design was a potential candidate for support from the NZ Trade & Enterprise Business Capability voucher scheme and so we introduced Juliet to Grow Wellington, who manage the scheme in that area.  To qualify for help under the scheme, sales and marketing programmes need to transfer skills and capability to the participants.  GoodSense are registered nationwide to provide sales and marketing support to qualifying companies.

The programme we structured for Juliet consisted of a planning workshop and a programme of structured coaching sessions to support Intouch Design to implement the plan.

In advance of the marketing planning workshop we supplied discovery questions, to help Juliet prepare, and we reviewed materials and information supplied.  During the half-day workshop we focused on barriers to sales and prioritised the sales and marketing actions for the next 3 to 12 months.

This included a practical look at market size, penetration and what the target audience needed in order to buy.  After the workshop, we worked with Juliet to create a step-by-step action plan with clear priorities and milestones. A key focus was a structured approach to identify suspects for sales and a contact strategy to develop them into leads and purchasing.

Other key outputs from the workshop included a process to review pricing, which led to implementation of a price increase for the Flexhibit and a messaging structure, to promote the benefits more clearly, as well as checklists for making marketing materials more clear for the target customer.

Crucially, the marketing planning workshop was followed by a series of monthly coaching meetings, to support Juliet implement the plan.  These were mainly conducted by phone with email support in between calls.  Each call reviewed progress and agreed clear actions and deadlines.

What this has meant for Intouch Design:

With GoodSense coaching, Juliet successfully maximised sales of the Survivor WW1 Flexhibit, improved Intouch Design’s marketing collateral and established a structure to market future themes more efficiently.  The increased price generated important additional revenue.

Juliet’s increased outbound sales and marketing activity also helped secure a higher profile at industry events and in publications, growing reputation and awareness in advance of the next product release.

“It’s so great to have you helping me. The way forward is now much clearer.  I now know to expect to spend at least as much energy and time selling as creating.” 

You can find out more about the interactive, flexible, sustainable Flexhibit approach and Juliet’s work at Intouch Design.

To find out how we can help you scale up your sales and marketing for growth, call   Kath Dewar   on 09 973 0960 or   email us   today.