Aileron was founded in 1996 with a mission to unleash the potential of private business through professional management. Founder Clay Mathile understood that passion alone was not enough to propel an entrepreneur. In addition to passion, entrepreneurs also need tools, strategies and processes to advance their businesses and have a meaningful impact on their communities. Aileron’s focus was on constantly researching, innovating, and developing the very best tools and programs to bring to their clients. By 2017, Aileron had a rich client base and a long history of success in helping entrepreneurs thrive.
Challenge
Aileron was doing well with a constant stream of innovative products, tools and programs, and they decided they were ready to expand their footprint. They had a strong team of smart, dedicated and innovative leaders working in Research & Development (R&D) and program development, but they had no marketing structure and no dedicated resources focused on building their own value proposition or increasing awareness of the brand. They had great products, but needed to shift their overall offering to a client-centric one. To address the challenge, Joni Fedders, President of Aileron, asked the head of R&D, Nicole (Luisi) Dalichau, to add marketing as part of her purview. Dalichau posted a marketing manager role, but was not having success finding the right person. At the same time, the team was short-handed and had a few critical projects that needed to be managed. With the team strapped more than usual, Dalichau knew she needed to find a resource that could help with both strategic positioning and short-term marketing implementation.
Solution
Both Fedders and Dalichau knew Amy Connor, President and Owner of CMO-OnLoan, from past working relationships. Through a number of exploratory conversations, Aileron and CMO-OnLoan built a strong foundation of trust as well as a clear understanding of the work that needed to be done. Aileron engaged CMO-OnLoan for a contract with the goals of helping Aileron both begin their strategic shift from being product-driven to being client-centered as well as providing more tactical marketing support during Aileron’s short-term capacity issue.
Unlike some big, expensive consulting firms, CMO-OnLoan is more interested in understanding what will help vs. just billing hours. Aileron’s Nicole Dalichau says “We talked to Amy 4 or 5 times before official engagement and each time she was patient and added something extra for me to think about. She would give me a small kernel and help direct me to sharpen what I was actually looking for.”
Approach
Since Aileron was starting from a place without a marketing structure, CMO-OnLoan began by working with Dalichau and her team to establish fundamental marketing processes that would build Aileron’s internal capability in marketing.
The work then shifted to a simultaneous flex between strategy and execution. The team worked together to clarify and build alignment around the customer target. Together they uncovered the drivers that were causing their value proposition to be less clear and some needed changes to clarify the brands within the portfolio. They revised the brand architecture to ensure the Aileron brand was clear and at the forefront. Simultaneously, CMO-OnLoan worked as a part-time embedded team member to translate the new strategy, build an annual marketing & communications plan, and take the lead on some detailed project management work. Says Dalichau “CMO-OnLoan is not about just getting it done or showing what we did, but enabling the team to be the winners.”
Results
The two primary drivers of success for were CMO-OnLoan’s commitment to uncovering and understanding the work that needed to be done before starting an engagement and the ability of CMO-OnLoan to quickly and easily flex from strategy to execution.
CMO-OnLoan delivered:
+ Marketing foundation – team understanding of definitions & processes
“CMO-OnLoan is driven to have a real and lasting impact – not just doing the work, but also building the skills of the team already in place. Their ability to easily flex up and down from strategy through execution was exactly the combination that Aileron needed. R&D Leader, Nicole Dalichau, says, “Amy puts her ego aside. She has humility and is willing to help the team wherever they need it. She’s not about just getting it done or showing what she did. She wants to enable the team to be the winners.”CMO-OnLoan+Case+Study_Aileron
Want to enhance the value you provide to your clients and fuel growth for your organization? Develop “Top Account Plans” for your most important clients.
Growing top accounts is often an important focus area for organizations. But we can get busy “doing the work” for our clients and we don’t stop and reflect on how we can serve them better. Developing and implementing a top account planning process has been shown to not only enhance the value you provide to your clients, but also fuel growth for your organization.
First, it’s important to identify which of your clients you want to create plans for. Start with the top few that you believe are critical to the success of your organization.
In order to create the plan, you need to review your impact in the last period and identify opportunities for the next period.
For each client, answer these questions:
What did you set out to accomplish together?
What were your biggest accomplishments?
What worked well?
What didn’t work well?
Document the answers
Try to keep it to 1-2 pages.
You can add more details, but to start, you want to focus on the main points.
Set time to meet with your client and go through the responses together.
Ask for and gain your client’s feedback on the questions.
Together, answer the following questions:
What are the top 3-5 priorities for the next period?
What is our action plan to implement the priorities (what, when, and who is responsible)?
Document the priorities and action plan and send them to your client for confirmation.
Execute the action plan and track results throughout the next period.
“Rinse & repeat” – Conduct the process again after the next period.
PUT IT IN ACTION
Determine the top accounts you will use this process with.
Choose one of the top accounts to pilot the process.
Follow steps 1-7.
Once completed, review the process and answer these questions:
What worked well in the process?
What didn’t work well in the process?
How should we enhance the process?
Document the enhanced process.
Follow the process with your other top accounts.
Continue to review the process and enhance it as necessary.
