A European industrial group was about to launch a decarbonisation platform aimed at heavy manufacturing. The original GTM plan was sound on paper. The research broke it, and the launch was repositioned before it shipped.
The decision
The client was a mid-tier European industrial group launching a software-plus-services platform targeting decarbonisation reporting and abatement planning in heavy industry. Capex committed: c.€18m over three years. Launch plan: enterprise sales motion into Tier-1 manufacturers, with the operations director (the specifier) as the primary buyer.
What we tested
- Offer fit. Twenty-eight interviews across specifiers (ops), buyers (procurement/finance) and operators (plant managers). The platform solved a problem, but not the one the specifier was being held accountable for.
- Channel fit. Buyers were not procuring decarbonisation platforms through enterprise sales, they were procuring through their existing automation system integrators.
- Price fit. Willingness-to-pay was within the model. Pricing structure (per-site annual licence) was not, buyers wanted asset-based pricing.
- Competitive comp. The competitor set the client had benchmarked against was almost completely different from the one buyers actually compared against.
The verdict
Launch as planned would partly work, the platform was valid but the GTM was misshaped. Three changes were made before launch:
- Buyer pivot. Primary buyer shifted from operations director to chief sustainability officer; specifier role re-cast as influence layer.
- Channel addition. Direct enterprise motion supplemented with a system-integrator partnership programme covering five named integrators.
- Pricing re-shape. Per-site licence replaced with hybrid asset-tonne pricing model. Average deal size held; close rate forecast moved up materially.
Year-one close rate exceeded the original plan by 38%. The launch shipped on schedule with the new shape.