Terra Advisors

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Case Studies

Since 2008 we have helped more than 90 companies with their international expansion. Please find here a few examples of successfully finished market introductions.

Overview

Octasic

Target customer(s)

A German based wireless communications company

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

We met senior executives at a trade show.

Initial feedback from the target customer

The customer said that they had a solution already and that they didn’t need a new solution. They felt the client we were representing was too small to do business with them.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal
  • We drove the executive relationship, developed a winning value proposition, convinced the customer of the solutions return on investment.
  • We then drove the contract negotiations, supported the customer through the development cycle into production with an annual year run rate of $2 million dollars per year over a five year life cycle.
Time to deal closure

6 Months to deal closure, 12 Months to revenue

Also worth mentioning

Octasic targeted this customer as a Tier 1 top 3 global target and had been unable to build traction in building a relationship until a Terra Advisors Business Development Director developed the relationship. The target customer has revenues of $1.7 Billion Euros, is present in 70 countries and has 10,000 Employees.

Bitbar

Target customer(s)

Flipboard - Mobile App developer

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Terra Advisors followed up on a website lead.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Initial feedback was one of interest however, they had concerns that they would not get full support with Bitbar being based in Europe.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Our Business Development Director made regular onsite visits together with Bitbar personnel. Plus, we had a successful evaluation and we were able to expand Bitbar’s support hours to accommodate the needs of US customers.

Time to deal closure

4 months

Also worth mentioning

Once we started signing up local customers (i.e. US based) others were more comfortable to join.

Jasper Wireless

Target customer(s)

8 mobile network operators

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

The target customers were approached through a combination of existing 'rolodex' contacts as well as researching key contacts and cold calling/e-mailing.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Just about every target customer was very impressed with the Jasper platform and its M2M/IoT SIM management capabilities and features. Also, the extensive alliance of existing Jasper Partner Operators (JPOs) was a significant selling point.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal
  • Over our 2-year engagement, we successfully introduced the Jasper platform to mobile network operators internationally increasing Jasper's brand recognition and leading to at least one signed deal.
  • We successfully held workshops for their M2M management platform and successfully arranged 2 in-person meetings for their SCP mobile subscriber engagement platform.
  • All of the workshops and meetings were preceded by extensive phone/e-mail dialog and at least one online WebEx presentation/demonstration of the solutions (after 1 year, we had arranged 23 online WebEx presentation/demonstrations with target customers - many more followed over the 2nd year of the project).
  • The next step after the WebEx presentation was a workshop or in-person meeting at the customer's office. This then lead to further workshops and meetings leading to a signed deal/contract.
Time to deal closure

Our first contact with key executives at the operator took place in June 2012. By January 2013, our efforts led to a workshop and a deal was signed sometime around June 2013. A 1-year sales cycle.

Also worth mentioning

Two Terra Advisors Business Development Directors managed this project.

ID8 Mobile

Target customer(s)

Elite Mobile: Vodafone, DSG, Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Relationships was already in place

Initial feedback from the target customer

They liked the qwerky product concept but struggled with Bluetooth.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

We convinced them that Bluetooth products would create value for the product synergy in this product and this allowed us to conclude the sale.

Time to deal closure

3 months

ID8 Mobile

Target customer(s)

ComputerWorks AG, Apple, Retail stores

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Link from the customer

Initial feedback from the target customer

They were very positive and already ranged the previous version.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

They were very positive on the product ranging and needed to see a direct relationship with me rather than having increased costs through an intermediate distributor, which is what they had on the last product. Therefore, the retail costs were very competitive.

Time to deal closure

3 months

ID8 Mobile

Target customer(s)

Amazon UK: Online Sales

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Relationships was already in place

Initial feedback from the target customer

They were very slow but keen to range.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

We continued pressure on getting the product ranged and then managed the administration of ranging it online.

Time to deal closure

3 months

Baynote

Target customer(s)

Touring - Members and other car drivers in Belgium

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Touring has had contact with Baynote before our BDD came on board, but he reached out and met with them numerous times in order to close the deal.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Just finished implementation prod recs, was a long process which was due to both parties and due to change in personnel on clients side, will implement onsite search next. Needed to manage the technical implementation very closely to ensure we met the customer's expectations.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Onsite presentation, no PoC, contract negotiations, PO.

Time to deal closure

4 months

Also worth mentioning

Touring is kind of AAA for Belgium. They want to improve their online sales but also improve site navigation for its members. Could be a good reference account for ADAC and others.

Baynote

Target customer(s)

Playmobil - Kids at age 4 to 10 years, toys (similar to Lego blocks) and online games

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

We worked hard to sell our solutions into a partner we determined to be the quickest path: the systems integrator, T-Systems. We eventually got an intro from T-Systems.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Our product addresses one of their main business needs: the ability to render content dynamically in order to personalize the user experience on the website.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Onsite presentation first, then solution to a very specific client problem, no PoC! Project was initially a USD 200 K project. Due to budget constraints we had to cut it into pieces and got a USD 100 K deal now. Next USD 100 K will come in 2011.

Time to deal closure

6 months

Also worth mentioning

Our Prod. Recs will go live in 16 languages worldwide. Prod. Recs for a sister company (www.lechuza.com) will follow. Onsite search as well. Playmobil is also a candidate for our new SIM product.

GestureTek

Target customer(s)

Sony Ericsson

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Several contacts into the customer technical people and decision makers in Sweden, China and Taiwan.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Good interest towards the technology from GestureTek but no hesitation about the right use cases. After several meetings in Sweden and Taipei with the customer product planning departments, they requested several demo products on existing customer devices for their internal tests.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Provide the demo devices that had shipped in Japan with the GestureTek technology as well as some additional SW components. Brought technical people from GestureTek R&D into Sweden for technical discussions. Finally, push additional ideas into the product marketing people in charge of new products from SonyEricsson.

Time to deal closure

4 months to start first SW deliveries but 12 months before signed contract.

Also worth mentioning

Legal discussions very long; it took about 5 months from product management decision to get the legal contract signed.

LogMeIn

Target customer(s)

Orange Group

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

Contacted directly the EVP Customer Service level and immediately got a first meeting set up with hierachical and technical assets of our client.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Immediate interest and requested a 2-month testing platform with real customers which resulted in some interesting statistics for the Orange and was very promising in terms of cost reductions and additional source of revenue.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Extended the demo platform to two more months and at a larger scale and provided an ROI matrix to show the financial benefits.

Time to deal closure

8 months

Also worth mentioning

Approximately 4 months were lost on pure contract red-lining and client was lacking a few legal elements to be able to sell in Europe.

Ultimately, 7 other countries in the Orange Group took on this technology based on the initial launch that we orchestrated.

LogMeIn

Target customer(s)

o2 Germany

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

After analyzing the options and the product I contacted various persons via email and phone from different departments cold and existing contacts at o2 to finally reach out to the right person who was in charge of this kind of projects / software implementations.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Was positive but contained some hurdles to pass like needs, ROI, legal and privacy restrictions as also technical questions.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Setting up meetings with different people from different departments as also involving the budget holder in later meetings to be aware and able to sign the budget. We also helped in creating a business case and being the interface between the technical account manager and the customer. Later it was important to organize the tech, legal, testing and operational teams to progress and finalize this project.

Time to deal closure

14 months

Baynote

Target customer(s)

s.Oliver - Young to middle age male and female

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

We worked hard to sell our solutions into a partner we determined to be the quickest path: the systems integrator, T-Systems. We eventually got an intro from T-Systems.

Initial feedback from the target customer

Very happy with products recs; add profits from revenue lift is a multiple of the fees they pay Baynote.

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Onsite presentation, contract negotiations, PoC, PO. Up for renewal on Feb 16, 2011. Additional potential for onsite search and SIM.

Time to deal closure

5 months

Also worth mentioning

s.Oliver has about 35,000 SKU’s and exchanges about 10 % of its products every month.

LogMeIn

Target customer(s)

Vodafone Portugal

How Terra Advisors entered the target customer

First conf call with customer was set up by LogMeIn based on inbound interest

Initial feedback from the target customer

Immediate interest and requested a proposal

What Terra Advisors did to close the deal

Prepared a business proposal with ROI analysis and provided a 3-month testing/demo platform.

Time to deal closure

5 months

Also worth mentioning

Acted in coordination with the client's own sales team, but eventually took over the project lead.

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If you are successful in your home market and are ready to expand your sales footprint, we are your resource to enter a new market – either through our Interim Business Development or Recruitment service. We have completed more than 120 projects across the Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) sectors.

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