Best Practices for Marketing & Sales of SaaS Products

Name Title Organization

Agenda
Key Success Factors for SaaS Best Practices in Action Selling Hosted Exchange to Existing POP Email Customers Best Practices in Action Using the Web to Attract New Customers Working with Service Providers Q&A

Based on Experience and > 100 BDS Workshops

Service Providers who are performing poorly are doing so for a number of different possible reasons:
Poor Product Messaging Packaging & Pricing that Created an Artificial Barrier to Sale Lack of Competitive Differentiation A Web-Site that Lacked All of the Required Information A Customer Buying or Implementation Experience that was Painful Demand Generation Activities that were mis-aligned with the target customer Direct/Indirect Sales Teams with No Effective Integration with Product Management/Marketing Lack of Ownership / Accountability within the company or a lack of willingness to improve the offering iteratively

By Comparison
Successful Providers have common characteristics
Customer-centric Messaging & Positioning Packaging & Pricing aligned with User Personas and No Artificial Barriers to Sale Real Competitive Differentiation A Web-Site that Allowed Customers to Self-Qualify and Take Action A Positive Customer Experience Integrated and Aligned Demand Generation Campaigns Integrated Sales Teams Agile Organizations willing to take an Iterative Approach

And were at least Functional in each of these areas

Assessing SaaS Provider Maturity

The methodology for assessing SaaS Provider maturity with respect to 8 key Success Factors:
Messaging & Positioning
Packaging & Pricing Competitive Differentiation Web-Driven Business Model Demand Generation Online Customer Experience Direct/Indirect Sales Processes Inhibited Organizational Effectiveness
Ineffective
Optimized Competitive

Predictable

5 4 3 2 1

Assessing SaaS Provider Maturity Each maturity level within

the framework has a focus or theme

5 4 3 2 1

Solution Focused with Continuous Improvement

Target Market (or segment) Focused Customer (Needs & Benefit) Focused & Service Driven

Benefit Focused
Product-Dependent Focus and Ad-Hoc Behavior

The Mural KSFs in Action

1. Take the Mural KSFs and refine 1 them based on the type of BDS provider (pure play, hosters, telcos) and specific environment. 2. Implement changes against each KSF based on the 2 providers current target + 6 mo. customer (SMB, Enterprise, Consumer) and product portfolio. 3. Evaluate product additions and updates to fill gaps and enhance 3 differentiation in the market. 4. Translate lessons-learned from + 12 mo. the current target customer to alternate markets/customers and channels.
Mural's SaaS Key Success Factors
Level Competitive Differentiation
Provider has created true Blue Ocean (aka uncontested market space) by differentiating along a unique axis that reaches beyond current market boundaries and existing demand

Messaging & Positioning

Vertical (e.g. Real Estate), Horizontal specialization (e.g. Finance), or other micro-market specific positioning. User focus groups or surveys are pro-actively used to incorporate customer feedback into product life-cycle.

Packaging & Pricing

Micro-market specific packaging/bundling of service with vertically focused add-ons. Market research used to understand customer price-point sensitivities.

Web-Driven

Demand Generation

Online Customer Experience

Integrated up-sell and cross-sell activities into customer "control panel". Pro-active and ongoing customer feedback management (surveys of customer panels by segment to assess overall customer experience, satisfaction, and future needs). Integrated online knowledge-base and live-chat for both sales support and post-sales support. Pro-active email communication during first 30-60 days provides training, tips, tricks, etc.

Direct/Indirect Sales Process

Vertical or micro-market focused channel partners with lead flow integrated into micro-marketing campaigns. Channel partner branded sales sites. Integration of channel partner into knowledge base, live chat, etc. Integrated lead/opportunity flow for channel partners. Mature process for lead qualification and routing of leads. Customer segmentation and qualification "drives" the opportunity management. Willing to "walk away" from bad opportunities.

Organizational Effectiveness
Organization is designed and internally aligned for change. Specific processes for continuous improvement. Healthy balance of management (stability) and leadership (fostering change).

Focus & Behavior

Target Market Focused w/ Continuous Improvement

5 (Optimized)

Micro-market sales sites for Micro-market specific demand specific vertical markets (e.g. real- generation campaigns with estate). Fully integrated PPC/SEO integration across all forms of and pro-active analysis of webdemand generation (e.g. PPC, analytics Banner Ads, email, direct mail, print)

4 (Competitive)

Provider has differentiated with a Best Practice positioning based Some type of unique vertical market focus with vertical on a well-defined messaging & differentiation of packaging or (or micro-market) specific add-on position framework (see pricing that sets the provider apart capabilities/features. template). Customer centric of the reset of the pack. positioning that blends customerbenefit as the solution for the customer pain point/problem. Provider has differentiated from Customer centric positioning with the competition by bundling Benefits (e.g. Anytime, Anywhere additional services or capabilities access), then supporting benefits not offered by the competition. points, then features as appropriate. Consistent application of messaging throughout ALL collateral. Provider's offering is functionaly equivalent to that of other providers, resulting in a "my feature X beats your feature X" competitive differentiation tactic, but ultimately resulting in a pricecompetitive sale. Small number (2-3) of different customer/user "plans" that align correctly with end-user or customer personas. Value differentiation between different price plans is clear and significant.

Differentiated sub-sites and/or landing pages aligned with bestpractice positioning of value proposition according to messaging & positioning framework

Demand generation campaigns drive to a specific sub-site or landing page. All campaign activities are well coordinated and integrated. Pro-active PPC/SEO campaign management with periodic (e.g. bi-weekly) refinement.

Strong executive sponsorship for improving existing offerings and adding new value-added service offerings. Proven organizational agility and rapid time-to-market in response to competitive threats.

Transition Phase Focused on Competitive Differentiation & Discrete Improvements

3 (Predictable)

Best-practice site that allows customers to 1) Search; 2) Find; 3) Self Qualify; 4) Try (Free Trial where possible); 5) Make the buying decision; 6) Buy; 7) Activate. Web-site is the focal point of the business. Customers can search, find, and buy. Provider is actively working to ensure that all of the information required to make a successful buying decision is on the site and correctly presented, eliminating any final inhibitors to selling.

2 (Inhibited)

Still product and feature centric Competitive pricing and correct positioning with progress towards packaging, but actively working to customer-centric benefits eliminate other inhibitors (e.g. positioning. Typically a lack of contract minimums). consistent application of messaging across all channels and collateral.

1 (Ineffective)

Provider is offering the exact same service offering as other providers (perhaps based on thirdparty technologies) with no opportunity for true differentiation, resulting in a Red Ocean in which the only remaining competetive differentiator is price.

Positioning is completely product and feature centric. Positioning is effective only for customers who already know what they need and are already familiar with the specific application domain.

Typically characterized by Customers are unable to find uncompetitive pricing, minimum offering, presentation is contract terms, minimum # of confusing, no online selfusers, confusing pricing, too many subscription is available. tiers of service, multiple tiers instead of "add-on" options.

Makes use of pro-active Self-guided sales experience, self- Pro-active management of direct PPC/SEO campaigns. All demand admin capabilities, no barriers to sales, inside sales, and channel generation activities lead to one sale via web, or phone. Easy partners. Focus on customer place -- the web-site. signup and activation. segmentation and lead qualification. Pro-active training. Overlay sales team with deep solution expertise supports all channels. PPC/SEO and other demand Self-guided signup, support, Direct Sales, indirect channels, generation capabilities are and/or self-administration but telesales, but with ineffective leveraged, but with some inhibited in some way -- e.g. processes for lead qualification inhibiting factors that limit their overly complex registration and routing of leads to "best effectiveness (e.g. mismatch process, complex activation. qualified" channel. Provider is between PPC terms and landing Active progress is being made to actively working to train sales and page positioning). Active progress eliminate remaining inhibitors. revise processes to improve is being made to eliminate effectiveness. remaining inhibitors No PPC/SEO campaigns. Other No self-signup capability, direct Direct sales only. No pro-active demand generation activities (e.g. sales interaction required. No lead qualification. No customer Print ads, direct mail, etc) do not offering self-administration. segmentation by size or industry. leverage the web-site. Characterized by tendancy to focus too far up-market. Long sales cycles. Lack of "solution specialist" capability results in inability to overcome common ob

Organizational alignment around business objectives and customer needs. Organizational ability to End-Customer repeatedly follow a relatively short Focused & Serviceand defined life-cycle for the Driven successful introduction of new or revised product offerings. Good executive leadership in place and committed to drive change and improve business performance by driving improvements in accordance with the "key success factors".

Transition Phase Focused on Initial Change

Ad-hoc organizational and departmental behaviors with a lack of internal alignment towards achieving a common vision or business objectives.

Product-Dependent Focus & Ad-Hoc Behavior

Mural's SaaS Key Success Factors

Level

Competitive Differentiation
Provider has created true Blue Ocean (aka uncontested market space) by differentiating along a unique axis that reaches beyond current market boundaries and existing demand

Messaging & Positioning

Vertical (e.g. Real Estate), Horizontal specialization (e.g. Finance), or other micro-market specific positioning. User focus groups or surveys are pro-actively used to incorporate customer feedback into product life-cycle.

Packaging & Pricing

Micro-market specific packaging/bundling of service with vertically focused add-ons. Market research used to understand customer price-point sensitivities.

Web-Driven

Demand Generation

Online Customer Experience

Integrated up-sell and cross-sell activities into customer "control panel". Pro-active and ongoing customer feedback management (surveys of customer panels by segment to assess overall customer experience, satisfaction, and future needs). Integrated online knowledge-base and live-chat for both sales support and post-sales support. Pro-active email communication during first 30-60 days provides training, tips, tricks, etc.

Direct/Indirect Sales Process

Vertical or micro-market focused channel partners with lead flow integrated into micro-marketing campaigns. Channel partner branded sales sites. Integration of channel partner into knowledge base, live chat, etc. Integrated lead/opportunity flow for channel partners. Mature process for lead qualification and routing of leads. Customer segmentation and qualification "drives" the opportunity management. Willing to "walk away" from bad opportunities.

Organizational Effectiveness
Organization is designed and internally aligned for change. Specific processes for continuous improvement. Healthy balance of management (stability) and leadership (fostering change).

Focus & Behavior

Target Market Focused w/ Continuous Improvement

5 (Optimized)

Micro-market sales sites for Micro-market specific demand specific vertical markets (e.g. real- generation campaigns with estate). Fully integrated PPC/SEO integration across all forms of and pro-active analysis of webdemand generation (e.g. PPC, analytics Banner Ads, email, direct mail, print)

4 (Competitive)

Provider has differentiated with a Best Practice positioning based Some type of unique vertical market focus with vertical on a well-defined messaging & differentiation of packaging or (or micro-market) specific add-on position framework (see pricing that sets the provider apart capabilities/features. template). Customer centric of the reset of the pack. positioning that blends customerbenefit as the solution for the customer pain point/problem. Provider has differentiated from Customer centric positioning with the competition by bundling Benefits (e.g. Anytime, Anywhere additional services or capabilities access), then supporting benefits not offered by the competition. points, then features as appropriate. Consistent application of messaging throughout ALL collateral. Provider's offering is functionaly equivalent to that of other providers, resulting in a "my feature X beats your feature X" competitive differentiation tactic, but ultimately resulting in a pricecompetitive sale. Small number (2-3) of different customer/user "plans" that align correctly with end-user or customer personas. Value differentiation between different price plans is clear and significant.

Differentiated sub-sites and/or landing pages aligned with bestpractice positioning of value proposition according to messaging & positioning framework

Demand generation campaigns drive to a specific sub-site or landing page. All campaign activities are well coordinated and integrated. Pro-active PPC/SEO campaign management with periodic (e.g. bi-weekly) refinement.

Strong executive sponsorship for improving existing offerings and adding new value-added service offerings. Proven organizational agility and rapid time-to-market in response to competitive threats.

Transition Phase Focused on Competitive Differentiation & Discrete Improvements

3 (Predictable)

Best-practice site that allows customers to 1) Search; 2) Find; 3) Self Qualify; 4) Try (Free Trial where possible); 5) Make the buying decision; 6) Buy; 7) Activate. Web-site is the focal point of the business. Customers can search, find, and buy. Provider is actively working to ensure that all of the information required to make a successful buying decision is on the site and correctly presented, eliminating any final inhibitors to selling.

2 (Inhibited)

Still product and feature centric Competitive pricing and correct positioning with progress towards packaging, but actively working to customer-centric benefits eliminate other inhibitors (e.g. positioning. Typically a lack of contract minimums). consistent application of messaging across all channels and collateral.

1 (Ineffective)

Provider is offering the exact same service offering as other providers (perhaps based on thirdparty technologies) with no opportunity for true differentiation, resulting in a Red Ocean in which the only remaining competetive differentiator is price.

Positioning is completely product and feature centric. Positioning is effective only for customers who already know what they need and are already familiar with the specific application domain.

Typically characterized by Customers are unable to find uncompetitive pricing, minimum offering, presentation is contract terms, minimum # of confusing, no online selfusers, confusing pricing, too many subscription is available. tiers of service, multiple tiers instead of "add-on" options.

Makes use of pro-active Self-guided sales experience, self- Pro-active management of direct PPC/SEO campaigns. All demand admin capabilities, no barriers to sales, inside sales, and channel generation activities lead to one sale via web, or phone. Easy partners. Focus on customer place -- the web-site. signup and activation. segmentation and lead qualification. Pro-active training. Overlay sales team with deep solution expertise supports all channels. PPC/SEO and other demand Self-guided signup, support, Direct Sales, indirect channels, generation capabilities are and/or self-administration but telesales, but with ineffective leveraged, but with some inhibited in some way -- e.g. processes for lead qualification inhibiting factors that limit their overly complex registration and routing of leads to "best effectiveness (e.g. mismatch process, complex activation. qualified" channel. Provider is between PPC terms and landing Active progress is being made to actively working to train sales and page positioning). Active progress eliminate remaining inhibitors. revise processes to improve is being made to eliminate effectiveness. remaining inhibitors No PPC/SEO campaigns. Other No self-signup capability, direct Direct sales only. No pro-active demand generation activities (e.g. sales interaction required. No lead qualification. No customer Print ads, direct mail, etc) do not offering self-administration. segmentation by size or industry. leverage the web-site. Characterized by tendancy to focus too far up-market. Long sales cycles. Lack of "solution specialist" capability results in inability to overcome common ob

Organizational alignment around business objectives and customer needs. Organizational ability to End-Customer repeatedly follow a relatively short Focused & Serviceand defined life-cycle for the Driven successful introduction of new or revised product offerings. Good executive leadership in place and committed to drive change and improve business performance by driving improvements in accordance with the "key success factors".

Transition Phase Focused on Initial Change

Ad-hoc organizational and departmental behaviors with a lack of internal alignment towards achieving a common vision or business objectives.

Product-Dependent Focus & Ad-Hoc Behavior

Mural's SaaS Key Success Factors

Level

Competitive Differentiation
Provider has created true Blue Ocean (aka uncontested market space) by differentiating along a unique axis that reaches beyond current market boundaries and existing demand

Messaging & Positioning

Vertical (e.g. Real Estate), Horizontal specialization (e.g. Finance), or other micro-market specific positioning. User focus groups or surveys are pro-actively used to incorporate customer feedback into product life-cycle.

Packaging & Pricing

Micro-market specific packaging/bundling of service with vertically focused add-ons. Market research used to understand customer price-point sensitivities.

Web-Driven

Demand Generation

Online Customer Experience

Integrated up-sell and cross-sell activities into customer "control panel". Pro-active and ongoing customer feedback management (surveys of customer panels by segment to assess overall customer experience, satisfaction, and future needs). Integrated online knowledge-base and live-chat for both sales support and post-sales support. Pro-active email communication during first 30-60 days provides training, tips, tricks, etc.

Direct/Indirect Sales Process

Vertical or micro-market focused channel partners with lead flow integrated into micro-marketing campaigns. Channel partner branded sales sites. Integration of channel partner into knowledge base, live chat, etc. Integrated lead/opportunity flow for channel partners. Mature process for lead qualification and routing of leads. Customer segmentation and qualification "drives" the opportunity management. Willing to "walk away" from bad opportunities.

Organizational Effectiveness
Organization is designed and internally aligned for change. Specific processes for continuous improvement. Healthy balance of management (stability) and leadership (fostering change).

Focus & Behavior

Target Market Focused w/ Continuous Improvement

5 (Optimized)

Micro-market sales sites for Micro-market specific demand specific vertical markets (e.g. real- generation campaigns with estate). Fully integrated PPC/SEO integration across all forms of and pro-active analysis of webdemand generation (e.g. PPC, analytics Banner Ads, email, direct mail, print)

4 (Competitive)

Provider has differentiated with a Best Practice positioning based Some type of unique vertical market focus with vertical on a well-defined messaging & differentiation of packaging or (or micro-market) specific add-on position framework (see pricing that sets the provider apart capabilities/features. template). Customer centric of the reset of the pack. positioning that blends customerbenefit as the solution for the customer pain point/problem. Provider has differentiated from Customer centric positioning with the competition by bundling Benefits (e.g. Anytime, Anywhere additional services or capabilities access), then supporting benefits not offered by the competition. points, then features as appropriate. Consistent application of messaging throughout ALL collateral. Provider's offering is functionaly equivalent to that of other providers, resulting in a "my feature X beats your feature X" competitive differentiation tactic, but ultimately resulting in a pricecompetitive sale. Small number (2-3) of different customer/user "plans" that align correctly with end-user or customer personas. Value differentiation between different price plans is clear and significant.

Differentiated sub-sites and/or landing pages aligned with bestpractice positioning of value proposition according to messaging & positioning framework

Demand generation campaigns drive to a specific sub-site or landing page. All campaign activities are well coordinated and integrated. Pro-active PPC/SEO campaign management with periodic (e.g. bi-weekly) refinement.

Strong executive sponsorship for improving existing offerings and adding new value-added service offerings. Proven organizational agility and rapid time-to-market in response to competitive threats.

Transition Phase Focused on Competitive Differentiation & Discrete Improvements

3 (Predictable)

Best-practice site that allows customers to 1) Search; 2) Find; 3) Self Qualify; 4) Try (Free Trial where possible); 5) Make the buying decision; 6) Buy; 7) Activate. Web-site is the focal point of the business. Customers can search, find, and buy. Provider is actively working to ensure that all of the information required to make a successful buying decision is on the site and correctly presented, eliminating any final inhibitors to selling.

2 (Inhibited)

Still product and feature centric Competitive pricing and correct positioning with progress towards packaging, but actively working to customer-centric benefits eliminate other inhibitors (e.g. positioning. Typically a lack of contract minimums). consistent application of messaging across all channels and collateral.

1 (Ineffective)

Provider is offering the exact same service offering as other providers (perhaps based on thirdparty technologies) with no opportunity for true differentiation, resulting in a Red Ocean in which the only remaining competetive differentiator is price.

Positioning is completely product and feature centric. Positioning is effective only for customers who already know what they need and are already familiar with the specific application domain.

Typically characterized by Customers are unable to find uncompetitive pricing, minimum offering, presentation is contract terms, minimum # of confusing, no online selfusers, confusing pricing, too many subscription is available. tiers of service, multiple tiers instead of "add-on" options.

Makes use of pro-active Self-guided sales experience, self- Pro-active management of direct PPC/SEO campaigns. All demand admin capabilities, no barriers to sales, inside sales, and channel generation activities lead to one sale via web, or phone. Easy partners. Focus on customer place -- the web-site. signup and activation. segmentation and lead qualification. Pro-active training. Overlay sales team with deep solution expertise supports all channels. PPC/SEO and other demand Self-guided signup, support, Direct Sales, indirect channels, generation capabilities are and/or self-administration but telesales, but with ineffective leveraged, but with some inhibited in some way -- e.g. processes for lead qualification inhibiting factors that limit their overly complex registration and routing of leads to "best effectiveness (e.g. mismatch process, complex activation. qualified" channel. Provider is between PPC terms and landing Active progress is being made to actively working to train sales and page positioning). Active progress eliminate remaining inhibitors. revise processes to improve is being made to eliminate effectiveness. remaining inhibitors No PPC/SEO campaigns. Other No self-signup capability, direct Direct sales only. No pro-active demand generation activities (e.g. sales interaction required. No lead qualification. No customer Print ads, direct mail, etc) do not offering self-administration. segmentation by size or industry. leverage the web-site. Characterized by tendancy to focus too far up-market. Long sales cycles. Lack of "solution specialist" capability results in inability to overcome common ob

Organizational alignment around business objectives and customer needs. Organizational ability to End-Customer repeatedly follow a relatively short Focused & Serviceand defined life-cycle for the Driven successful introduction of new or revised product offerings. Good executive leadership in place and committed to drive change and improve business performance by driving improvements in accordance with the "key success factors".

Transition Phase Focused on Initial Change

Ad-hoc organizational and departmental behaviors with a lack of internal alignment towards achieving a common vision or business objectives.

Product-Dependent Focus & Ad-Hoc Behavior

Best Practices in Action Selling Hosted Exchange to Existing POP Email Customers

Background
Many Service Providers have a POP Email base that is either cost neutral or worse Many have tried simple campaigns to leverage this base and failed Common approach that demonstrates being doomed from day 1: Send 1 email blast to current base, sending customers to a web site for product or generic toll-free phone number Measure conversion on backend Whats wrong with this? Our experience has shown us that the KSFs must be applied in parallel Customers respond best to multi-impression selling and consistency between online and offline channels

Up-Sell Campaign Process

Trial Offer Customer is contacted Free trial offered

Trial Accepted Customer accepts 60-day free trial initiated

Trial Activation Customer offered activation assistance Remote PC management offered Remote PC management offered Customer accepts by visiting micro-site: Outlook 2003 configured and OWA introduced E-mail Tips Weekly tips sent to customer Offers advice on making the most of the trial Trial Check-up Customer called after 30 days Asked if customer is happy with trial Offers tips and assistance Trial Closure Customer called after 60 days Offered full MAPI service Sale closed

Results and Learnings at Large EMEA SP

Results Roughly 25-30% of all contacted companies accept the free trial The conversion rate from trial to customer is now 80% Giving a total up-sell success rate of close to 20%! Improvements along the way: Telesales now remotely help the customer set up Outlook etc. Improvements to tools (telesales script, tip emails, etc.)

Best Practices in Action Using the Web to Attract New Customers

Backgrounder on the Web-Driven Business Model

In a global survey, 39% of new customers that purchase online originated from a web search on a leading search engine (e.g. Google, Live.com, Ask.com) Approximately 40-50% of the new customers in any given month for the top pure-play Providers are referred from existing customers When responding to word-of-mouth recommendations, prospects most often begin with the web site of the Service Provider When actively engaged to help individual service providers to renovate their online web and marketing efforts, that often resulted in a significant boost in offline sales Conclusion understanding how to leverage the web (paid search, natural search, web-based sales methods) to attract, influence and close new customers is absolutely critical in the SaaS era

Common Approach to Web-Driven Marketing

Paid & Natural Search

Main Web Page

Product 1 Page

Product 2 Page

Approach Several hundred paid search terms directed to main site and product pages Typical Results 3 Cost-per-Click (CPC) (for purpose of example only) 1% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) 1-3% Call-to-Action (CTA) Cost-per-Trial of 100 - 300 Trial-to-Paying Conversion Rate of 3-5% Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) of 2,000 - 10,000

Prod 1-A Prod 1-B Prod 1-C

Prod 2-A Prod 2-B Prod 2-C

Better Approach to Web-Driven Marketing

Paid & Natural Search

Main Web Page

Product 1 Page

Product 2 Page

Prod 1-A Prod 1-B Prod 1-C

Prod 2-A Prod 2-B Prod 2-C

Approach Several thousand paid search terms directed to: Product Detail Pages Product Pages Main site Typical Results 1.5 Cost-per-Click (CPC) (for purpose of example only) 2% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) 3-5% Call-to-Action (CTA) Cost-per-Trial of 30 - 50 Trial-to-Paying Conversion Rate of 3-5% Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) of 600 - 1,667 Improvement over previous approach of 300-500%

Best Approach to Web-Driven Marketing

Paid & Natural Search

Main Web Page

Product 1 Page

Product 2 Page

Prod 1-A Prod 1-B Prod 1-C

Prod 2-A Prod 2-B Prod 2-C

Microsite 1
Microsite 2 Microsite 3

Approach Several thousand paid search terms directed to: Micro-Sites (e.g. setup-email-onmy-phone.com) Product Detail Pages Product Pages Main site Typical Results 1 Cost-per-Click (CPC) (for purpose of example only) 3% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) 10-15% Call-to-Action (CTA) Cost-per-Trial of 6.67 - 10 Trial-to-Paying Conversion Rate of 35% Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) of 133 333 Improvement over previous approach of 400-500% Potential Trial-to-Paying Conversion Rates as high as 6-8% with the right product creates potential for decreasing CPA an additional 50%

Working With Service Providers

Business Design Sessions (BDS) & Follow-On Engagements

BDS
An executive-level business workshop to gain understanding of global best practices, identify gaps in current execution and action plans to address them Pre-BDS discovery process via survey and phone 2-day BDS workshop delivered by Mural on site at service provider Mural works with a service provider to create a high-level action plan to align with global best practices

Follow-Up Engagements
Mural has developed simple follow-on engagements for most common actions Designed to have a quick impact (30, 60, 90 day) Examples: redesign web site, design and execute paid and natural search marketing campaigns, sales training and management

The BDS was very valuable and gave us a clear perspective on ways that we could improve our success with Hosted Exchange. Based on the action plan that we developed with Mural Ventures during the BDS, we reengineered our web site in less than 45 days. Since the rollout of the new web site our monthly growth rate for online sales has doubled.
Wenceslao Garca Arias, Director of Operations, Acens

Mural Background
Mural Ventures is a Microsoft partner that works with service providers to execute activities that significantly grow sales of hosted applications and services Mural team comprised of executives that have built many of the top performing hosted application providers in the world Mural, in partnership with Microsoft, developed a Business Development Session (BDS) program for global service provider executives to share learnings and best practices (research and real-life based) on delivering software-based services to the marketplace. Mural has delivered more than 100 Business Development Sessions in the past 12 months Mural is currently engaged in post-BDS projects with ~20 service providers Mural has an active venture capacity designed to allow us to co-invest with their service provider partners to bring differentiated SaaS offerings to market (e.g. BT Workspace).

Questions & Answers

Alex Hawkinson, CEO alex.hawkinson@muralventures.com +1 703 403 2281
Rick Flood, Director, EMEA rick.flood@muralconsulting.com +44 (0) 7887 644 774