A new arrival to the UK learning technologies market headquartered in Finland.  This learning platform (LMS/LXP) provider specialises in the delivery of robust curation of a wide range of learning content via a system that heavily leverages data science to proactively push recommended content to the learner.  Along with data science, a key differentiator was a well-built and feature-rich authoring tool which could rapidly convert pre-existing content into a digestible format.  The UK was targeted as the next territory for growth outside of Finland and the US for its reputation for being an early adopter of emergent technology in the learning space.

The learning platform market is a crowded space with well-established and recognised brands frequently included in RFP processes or industry discussions.  The platforms are often backed or part of a larger technology organisation such as SAP or Oracle.  Newcomers typically find it challenging to compete with these feature-rich platforms, particularly at an enterprise level.  Those who do succeed have taken a significant time to build a reputation and carve out a niche within the marketplace.

With no brand recognition within the UK market, the challenge was to grow a modest customer base whilst simultaneously building the profile of the brand and it’s unique position within the segment.  This needed to be achieved with minimal support on the ground in the UK whilst the market potential was explored.

Leveraging two avenues to market

With such a blank canvas it can be daunting to work out how you are going to start building momentum.  in situations like this, you have to make use of the USP or assets that the company has at its disposal.  First of which was an experienced SDR with many years honing their craft in unlocking closed doors.  Their second asset was the genuine thought leadership around what was a relatively unique approach to learning curation.  No other provider was making use of unstructured data in the same way and the impact was truly transformative.  As such, the following activities were embarked upon to raise revenue and brand awareness:

• Targeted account prospecting – based on successes in other territories and with high-profile customers (NASA)
• Cultivating relationships with industry analysts – Thought leadership from organisations such as Gartner and the Learning Performance Institute (LPI) were highly regarded and directly influenced the decision-making process
• Partner with industry thought leaders – leverage the network and influence of recognised individuals whose messages and values align with the organisations.
• Utilise resources in other teritories – the US team in particular was roughly a year ahead in growth and was where the head of marketing was stationed.  Similarities in market and language made this a perfect solution to the UK’s lack of resources.

Become thought leaders in the marketplace

The marketing efforts were largely focused on brand profile and exposure.  There were a number of competitors that had seen rapid growth through public exposure and raising their profile as experts in the field.  One of the reasons for this is that the average contract term in learning technology is 3 years.  This long cycle provides time for organisations to get to know their vendors, what they stand for and the platform’s approach to learning.  All these are integral to the success of any learning platform once implemented.  By making our own voice heard we could begin to influence buying decisions, helping organisations to understand that there had been facets of professional development that had been overlooked by other systems.

To achieve the right level of ‘noise’  we created our own webinar series with like-minded thought leaders, attended and spoke at events, produced a significant number of white papers and case studies supporting our theories and findings, and ensured that the major industry analysts included us in their matrix grids (recommendation models) that most larger organisations used to shortlist potential suppliers.

Traction here was remarkably fast, perhaps due to the high level of cadence of the content we had going out of the door, with tangible results within 6 months rather than the 6-12 we were initially expecting.

Targeting sympathetic minds

With marketing/brand awareness activities generating inbound activity we needed a measure of outbound activity to build a pipeline more quickly.  Due to the nature and design ethos of the platform, it was clear that there were certain sectors that we could really resonate with.  This largely revolved around the data-driven approach to learning curation.  Organisations with a penchant for data were sitting on goldmines of potential for the platform, with little ability to leverage it.  As such, organisations in science, pharmaceuticals, technology, education and the civil service we perfect candidates to target.

This approach allowed us to create extremely focused messaging, often targeting companies directly, and avoiding direct competition from other platforms.  The revelatory nature of what we were proposing immediately appealed to the analytical nature of the organisations we were targeting and often the stakeholders we were engaging with.

£0-10M in pipeline

Leveraging both routes to grow the pipeline saw us exceed our expectations and by the end of 12 months were sustaining a healthy pipeline month on month.  By this time the outbound and inbound activity were working in unison and being adopted by other territories being explored by the organisation.

3 industry endorsements

Annual recommendation reports from the likes of Gartner and the LPI are hugely influential in the buying process within the L&D space directly after publication we would see an influx of inbound leads wanting to learn more.

£1.2M in ARR closed

Conversion rates ramped massively as we entered the second year of the transformation project.  we were beginning to reap the rewards from influencing during the ‘downtime’ that many prospects had within their buying cycle and we were now appearing as a credible alternative to established solutions on the market.