Case Studies
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ASI Solutions – successfully tendering for growth
An educated approach to government
ASI Solutions is an IT services business, delivering innovative IT solutions throughout Australia. Founded by two teachers, who saw the potential for technology in the classroom, ASI, now run by the next generation of the founding family, still focusses heavily on the Education sector, as well as on other federal and state government departments. They have built a reputation for great service and expertise in technology supply support.
Dealing with government is rewarding, but demanding. Government contracts generate significant revenue but are awarded through a rigorous tendering process that takes time and skill to handle.
Freeing up account managers
ASI have a long history of success with Government, but as they grew, the demands of bidding for everything they wanted to was outstripping the capacity of their client facing teams. “Our business development managers and account managers are at their best when with the client, understanding requirements, developing relationships and managing our ongoing business”, says Justin Lowe, Executive Director at ASI. “Responding to tenders is part of their role, but it requires quite a different skillset. Not to mention the time it takes, time when they are tied to their desks, rather than being with their clients.”
ASI therefore decided that specialist help was needed, and engaged Words2Win to manage a number of their Government tender responses, at State and Federal level.
Win themes – the foundation of a great proposal
For each response, Words2Win firstly engages with ASI’s executive leadership and account team to establish the key win themes. “The win themes are essential”, says Justin, “they summarise the ways in which ASI can meet the client’s requirements, how we differentiate ourselves and what our key messages need to be for that particular opportunity.”
Once the win themes are established, Words2Win manages the process of building the response document, liaising with all parts of the business, from the client facing account team, to the services team, HR, Marketing, Procurement and leadership. “There is no such thing as a ‘standard’ response”, says Justin. “Every RFP is different and although we might re-use some material, it’s really important to answer exactly what that particular client is asking. Words2Win pulls together all the required material and shapes it into a response that clearly answers each question and articulates our value.”
Not just technology – the growth of social procurement
Justin adds “Almost all Government tenders now include not only a requirement for technical and service capability, but they are looking for suppliers who share the public sector’s commitment to social procurement objectives. We’ve responded to tenders that ask about our policies for engaging with aboriginal businesses and social enterprise, our domestic violence policy, our policy to ensure against modern slavery, as well as our environmental and sustainability policies. Words2Win have been extremely valuable in this area too, helping with research and making introductions to appropriate social procurement organisations”.
Successful outcomes
The proof of any tender is in the result, and ASI’s results since engaging Words2Win have been very positive, with a very high success rate. “Words2Win are totally committed to helping us win, so much so that they put their money where their mouth is and reflect that in their fee structure”, says Justin, “so we feel we are working with a partner who is really committed to helping to grow our business.”
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Building better proposals
DESIGNING FOR BAYSIDE
JDA Lammin is a Melbourne-based architectural studio focusing on new and extended residential designs in the picturesque Bayside area of Melbourne. Director and architect Harriet Lammin approaches every project with a blend of creativity, commercial reality and accountability, creating unique, bespoke buildings. She collaborates closely with her clients to create environments in which they can work and live with joy.
DESIGNING FOR BAYSIDE
JDA Lammin is a Melbourne-based architectural studio focusing on new and extended residential designs in the picturesque Bayside area of Melbourne. Director and architect Harriet Lammin approaches every project with a blend of creativity, commercial reality and accountability, creating unique, bespoke buildings. She collaborates closely with her clients to create environments in which they can work and live with joy.
The Bayside clientele is savvy and they make themselves informed when sourcing the market for an architect. As competition is robust and tendering is commonplace, JDA Lammin know the importance of one shot at winning a new project.
ENGAGING CLIENTS AT THE FINAL STEP
Harriet appreciates that her proposals are the final step in the process of successfully winning a new client. But she felt that the documents she was creating were somewhat ‘utilitarian’. They outlined her fees, processes and services and, though technically and commercially astute, there was scope for them to be a great deal more engaging for the customer. After all, the client was interested enough to ask her for a proposal, and she wanted to reciprocate by showing she was truly passionate about winning their project.
An architect-client relationship runs for months, sometimes over a year, so clear communication on a personal and professional perspective is imperative from the get-go. Harriet wanted to communicate more of herself, her expertise and her portfolio of past projects. She also wanted to articulate the client’s issues and how she would address them, before highlighting the benefits from working with her.
Carol seemed to understand exactly what I needed and distil what I was trying to say. She was professional, but friendly and came back quickly with her own proposal to me.
Harriet needed to positively address technical aspects such as compliance, functionality and aesthetic elements, in a comprehensible, appealing and resonating way. Above all, a new space can dramatically impact her clients’ quality of life and Harriet wanted to ensure her proposals really communicated the changes she could bring to her clients’ living and working environments
CLEAR, CONSISTENT PROPOSALS
Carol from Words2Win was quick to appreciate Harriet’s needs and vision, before recommending a consistent process and quality format when preparing a proposal in response to a brief. Carol provided Harriet with an effective and useable template for proposals. The template uses a structured approach, yet allows for individualisation of the document. It also takes into consideration the client’s aspirations, requirements and outcomes in addition to an associated work and fee schedule. Carol’s guidance also aided Harriet to convey herself and her service offering more personably. Once this consistent template and content were finalised, Carol advised on how to make the document look more appealing and impactful.
A TEMPLATE FOR SUCCESS
“I had immediate success with the new proposal template, which makes me feel confident that my fees are en pointe and that I am effectively communicating how my value is going to improve someone’s lifestyle,“ says Harriet. Harriet enjoyed the experience and journey with her service-provider, Carol, something she too deems important with her own clients. Harriet is pleased she made the decision to engage Carol, because the time consuming process of writing a proposal is now more consistent, efficient and enjoyable. Harriet’s proposals now provide a strong final impetus for prospective clients to decide to work with JDA Lammin.
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Building trusted relationships
A FRESH APPROACH TO NETWORKING
Fresh Networking is a professional business networking group focusing on building connections, establishing relationships and expanding networks. Founder and director Darren Kelk believes that when
people know, like and trust each other, business referrals naturally flow. It’s an approach that appeals to savvy business people, and since launching it in 2014, Darren has seen Fresh Networking grow to 24 hubs throughout Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.A FRESH APPROACH TO NETWORKING
Fresh Networking is a professional business networking group focusing on building connections, establishing relationships and expanding networks. Founder and director Darren Kelk believes that when
people know, like and trust each other, business referrals naturally flow. It’s an approach that appeals to savvy business people, and since launching it in 2014, Darren has seen Fresh Networking grow to 24 hubs throughout Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.Darren aims to continue this growth, and has ambitious plans for the future. To differentiate Fresh from other networking groups, Darren’s strategy is to educate his market – members and potential members – about the benefits of the Fresh approach.
A DISTINCT AND CONSISTENT STYLE
Fresh Networking has a very distinct style and he wants to ensure this is carried through in his communication.Written communication is essential at Fresh – from the moment that someone comes
along to a meeting as a guest, to joining as a member, to attending meetings, going through the induction programs and renewing their membership. Darren uses letters, meeting scripts, guides – and wants to ensure that the Fresh brand style is repeated strongly in every form of communicationThough Darren could identify his unique approach and the style he wanted expressed, he felt his materials had no story and his brand did not stand out in his written words. Too time poor and not wishing to be stuck at his desk writing content, he engaged Fresh member Carol Benton ofWords2Win.
I’m so proud of my journey, the website and my decision to trust Carol. She wasn’t the cheapest, but I give back to the people who support Fresh. Cost-effectiveness was found in her ability to understand me so genuinely and meet agreed deadlines without having to be chased.
THE FRESH MESSAGE ONLINE
In early 2021, Carol wrote new content for the website, which aims to attract potential members, encouraging them to attend a meeting as a guest. It also provides useful information to members, helping them find and refer each other. The website has consistent branding, a fun but professional tone, engaging content and SEO optimisation. The Fresh Networking website now brings alive the story of how Darren’s initiative has thrived, including embracing online connection adaptations, to become the networking success it is today.
DARREN’S MONTHLY MUSINGS
Furthermore, each month Carol interviews Darren, and in his ‘voice’, writes a blog, focusing on a different networking topic each time.
“I am a dynamic networker and have great ideas, which Carol is able to get out of my head and turn into operative messages, plus she understands my quirky personality. She gets it.
DEVELOPING NETWORKING SKILLS
Fresh Networking runs the ‘Fresh Academy’ program of networking training workshops. Carol developed the ‘Make the most of…’ concept that underpins the program. She developed and delivers two of these workshops, Make the most of your pitch and Make the most of your 10 minutes, coaching members on pitching and presentation structure and skills.
Carol collaborates with Darren on the other written communication formats that Fresh uses – letters, scripts, and a Fresh Buddy Book – with Carol reviewing or writing the material.
Words2Win’s approach, providing clear messages and quality written materials, is 100% aligned with Darren’s goal of educating the market, differentiating Fresh Networking as a value-adding networking group.
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Distributing the message
Sektor – the technology experts
Sektor are an IT distribution company, specialising in providing leading edge technology to the retail, hospitality, health, mobility and security sectors. They represent some of the world’s leading IT vendors, taking their products far and wide into the Australian and New Zealand markets through a highly skilled, expert and experienced team. Their clients are systems integrators, software developers and IT consultancies who put together best of breed solutions for end customers, and who rely on Sektor to bring them the latest and greatest the technology world has to offer.
Sektor’s greatest asset is its people – the ‘Green Team’ are known for their industry and technology expertise and their commitment to getting the right solution for their clients. Sektor positions itself around this expertise and wanted to ensure that its communications consistently enhanced this message.
Two-way communication
Cameron Arnold, Director says; “We communicate in two directions – to the vendors whose products we distribute, and to the clients we service – and we need the message to each of these groups to be clear, and focussed to their requirements. We engaged Words2Win because Carol understood our business goals and could help us to deliver our message effectively.”
Cameron, along with Marketing Managers Edyta Esplin in Australia and Linda Tso in NZ, engaged Words2Win to help with web content, brochures, blogs, eDMs and a company presentation. They also used Words2Win when bidding for the distribution rights for a major new vendor.
Winning new business
“The vendor went through a proposal process to select new distributors”, says Cameron. “The detailed responses needed input from a number of different people within our team, and we wanted to ensure that we presented our capabilities fully and consistently. We engaged Words2Win, who helped us build a clear win theme, crafted a strong response, managed the document creation process and helped us develop a client presentation. We won the business and Words2Win’s contribution to that success was significant.”
Presenting Sektor’s value
“Our team often make presentations to vendors or clients about Sektor”, says Cameron, “but whilst they are all good at it, their approaches lacked consistency. Words2Win helped us define our value proposition and differentiators consistently and put them into a presentation format. The message differs in focus for vendors and clients, so we developed two versions of the presentation. It’s helped us explain clearly what we do and what we offer and we know that whoever is presenting, they are going to cover all the key points. We then used the same messages in a company brochure and even in a new on-hold phone message, so we can be sure that our clients hear the same message through every communication channel.”
Showcasing vendors
Sektor’s website is another of those channels where Words2Win helped ensure consistency and clarity. “Our website includes information about all our vendors”, explains Linda, “and we needed to explain the value that each one offers. Carol researched over 100 vendors, got to the heart of what they offer and put together a concise summary of each. It’s given us a consistent format, making it very accessible and easy for our clients to use.”
Marketing campaigns, to promote vendor products to clients are at the heart of Sektor’s marketing activity. “We send out campaigns as eDMs, which link back to landing pages”, explains Edyta. “They are a short communication format and need to engage an audience very quickly. Words2Win manages to find the balance between enough information to catch the reader’s interest, and a short concise format.”
Sharing the expertise
“Blogs are an important way of strengthening our position as experts”, says Edyta, “but our team needs to be with clients, not sitting at their desks writing. So we engage Words2Win to interview them, capture their IP and turn their words into blogs that share their expertise with our audience.”
“By using Words2Win, we’ve been able to help our in-house marketing team to develop content that speaks clearly to our vendors and clients, and continues to position us as experts in our field”, says Cameron. “And that’s a win for everyone.”
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Helping to make connections
MAKING EVERYTHING CONNECT
Built on 100 years of continuous innovation, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) ‘Makes everything connect’. They deliver digital age networking, communications and cloud solutions to clients in the healthcare, aged-care, government, education, hospitality and transport sectors. ALE helps them connect with their users and communities, delivering high value outcomes through ruggedised and highly available systems.
MAKING EVERYTHING CONNECT
Built on 100 years of continuous innovation, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) ‘Makes everything connect’. They deliver digital age networking, communications and cloud solutions to clients in the healthcare, aged-care, government, education, hospitality and transport sectors. ALE helps them connect with their users and communities, delivering high value outcomes through ruggedised and highly available systems.
BIDDING FOR BUSINESS
As a telecoms provider wanting to build its government business in Australia, ALE needed some help with putting together strong responses to tenders. ALE’s business is technical and so is the language used in their tendering. The content of their tender documents must connect people and businesses, as much as their innovations do. But the challenge was how to convey a complex technical proposal in business terms, particularly the Executive Summary, which is often read by non-technical procurement and department leaders. Carolwas engaged to support Karl Sice and his ANZ team in preparing professional proposals, with solutions that translate into business value. The proposals needed to make a difference in expressing ALE’s capabilities, service outcomes and value
delivery to private and public sector. Specifically, Carol helped Karl and his team to develop ‘win’ themes – an overall story about their value, credentials and why the government should pick them. Carol managed the whole submission process. She ensured all content was created on time, executive reviews were carried out, all supporting materials were included, documentation was in the
right format and the overall submission was finished on time. This allowed the ALE staff to continue their client facing activity. She also provided the team with advice and guidance on how to address broader public sector policies, such as social procurement, which play an increasing role in the Government’s evaluation of suppliers.
Carol makes deciphering our messages easy, because she cuts right through with objectivity and telling me the truth. Her opinion always counts.
ACCELERATING UNDERSTANDING
“The market now expects a greater level of professionalism in howwe translate solutions and we only get one shot.We know our core business, and Carol has shown us how to communicate it,” says Karl.
By helping Karl and his team to articulate their value and shape their narrative into more meaningful and commercial language, rather than technical jargon, Carol is bringing an accelerated understanding of ALE to the market. She continues to generate professional transformation in her writing and/or editing of all or key sections, resulting in stronger responses to targeted government tenders, which so far, have been shortlisted or selected in every instance. CONFERENCE COMMUNICATION ALE also called on Carol’s skills in coaching for verbal communication. Theywere running a half-day conference for their partners, and needed to ensure messages were succinct, direct, clear and focused on helping partners to succeed. Carol provided consulting advice on the agenda, themes, and content of the ALE team’s presentations and speeches to ensure that the goal of providing partners with a value-adding experience was met. The outcome was a very successful event, with partners re-energised, and relationships strengthened. ALE continues to be seen as a company that partners want to engage with – one that is focussed on them and invested in their success.WINNING MESSAGES
Not only is the business realising the positive impact of Carol’s engagement, but the team members are enhancing their communication skills from her mentoring. She works with a team or individually, on tenders and special projects, helping to articulate why the team or their proposed solutions, services, or products are ideal for the clients. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise makes everything connect by delivering technology. Carol Benton ofWords2Win makes everything connect by giving them winning words.
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Leading the way
A FLAIR FOR COMMUNICATION
Ricky Nowak is a leadership coach, presentation trainer, panel moderator, workshop facilitator, keynote speaker and emcee.
A FLAIR FOR COMMUNICATION
Ricky Nowak is a leadership coach, presentation trainer, panel moderator, workshop facilitator, keynote speaker and emcee.
With amazing flair and energy, Ricky draws on her theatrical background in creating scenarios that bring to life corporate challenges. Specialising in executive development, she helps men and women develop communication skills to lead themselves, their teams and ultimately the whole business.
Ricky provides expert coaching for leaders and prospective leaders. Many have advanced technical skills and commercial expertise, but they seek improvement in succinct communication and
individual leadership effectiveness.Ricky coaches individuals, runs group workshops and is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker. Through these various formats, she shares insights, tips and techniques to clearly explain to executives how to connect and collaborate to drive business outcomes.
LEADING IN A CHANGING WORLD
The changes to working practices wrought by the pandemic meant that leaders found themselves having to reset how to communicate authentically and manage learning and development in an environment of displaced work teams.
Rickywanted to communicate with these leaders that she could help them to find their narrative and legacy and to articulate their renewed vision.
Carol was dynamic in helping me to restructure my offerings, pushing me to keep to a tight deadline and took on the responsibility ofworking with mywebmaster on content. She didn’t need me as a conduit.
She brings information to life in a succinct manner, helping me to become cleverer on the promotion and delivery ofmy services. I could get on with what I do.
She needed to explain how she could work with them to re-imagine their approach, and give them practical strategies to lead their business in this revised setting. Ricky realised she needed to update her online presence to reflect these new requirements. She had two websites, so also decided to take the opportunity to streamline them into a single site. She approached Carol Benton ofWords2Win to restructure the content and create additional newwording to reflect the changing nature of her offer.
NEW PROGRAMS FOR NEW DEMANDS
As the business world moved from crisis to new reality, Ricky rapidly developed more new offerings to help leaders navigate the changing landscape. One was a workshop program designed to help companies navigate a new post-Covid return to work model, balancing the needs of employees with company goals. Again, Ricky turned to Carol Benton to help her communicate her offer, this time through an electronic brochure to be used in a marketing campaign.
LEADERSHIP BY THE BOOK
Along with a fellow leadership coach in Hong Kong, Ricky has regular video discussions on key topics. One of these, on making the transition from team member to leader, proved so popular with Ricky’s LinkedIn following, she decided to make it into an eBook. She saw there was a demand for her to share the insights from the discussion more widely. Carol turned the video discussion and subsequent comments and questions into an engaging eBook, which Ricky makes available through her website. “Communication is no longer a soft skill, but a critical skill. Carol bolsters my message about guiding executives to find comfort in discomfort as they realise their individual story”. With a portfolio of clients locally, nationally and globally Ricky needs to ensure her communication with her audience always hits the mark. She needs it to consistently reflect her own personal brand of professionalism and expertise. She values Carol’s ability to efficiently create a set of marketing collateral to communicate her new approach in coaching offerings, helping her to adapt rapidly to unprecedented market changes.
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Making the case for value
Recipe for Success
IMI are an IT services company who specialise in large-scale end-user device rollouts and support. They help organisations with extended branch networks to deliver IT infrastructure services efficiently and rapidly anywhere in Australia and New Zealand. Their ‘secret sauce’ is an unwavering focus on user experience and on ensuring identical, positive outcomes in every location. This approach has seen them build and retain highly valued client relationships with some of Australia’s highest profile organisations.
IMI is a highly successful business, but Doron Rom, Managing Director, and the leadership team realised that their public persona really wasn’t reflecting the full value of their offerings and their success in the market. “We were doing well as a business”, says Doron, “but we weren’t promoting that success to help win even more clients”.
Sharing the story
Doron approached Words2Win for help in developing targeted and powerful messages that communicated the full IMI story. Words2Win firstly helped Doron, along with Technical Director Todd Hampson to clarify and refine the IMI message, focusing on what really made them different and had driven their success to date.
The next step was to get those messages out to the world through a brand new website – IMI engaged a web designer and Words2Win worked hand in hand with them to develop the written content.
Telling the customer story
One of the things that stood out to Carol Benton of Words2Win as she planned the content was that IMI had some great customer stories, but that they just weren’t being told.
“We’ve worked with Australia’s biggest and best retailers, banks and technology companies”, confirms Doron, “and they are all really happy with what we do for them. So it made sense to ask them for their stories and make them a key focus of the website”.
Carol interviewed seven of IMI’s top clients and captured their stories, which now form the heart of IMI’s website. “There is no better way to explain what we do, and how we help our clients than to tell their stories”, says Doron.
The stories were also designed into a brochure format, and emailed to potential target clients. “I had a very positive response to the brochures, with over 50% of the recipients contacting me back for more information”.
Skilling up the team
With the website and brochures complete, IMI turned its attention to the next part of its communication strategy – ensuring that the IMI message was being told consistently by its staff. “Our team spends a lot of time face to face with clients, and we wanted to make sure they had the skills to be communicating our message clearly”, explains Doron.
IMI engaged Words2Win, who delivered a tailored Business Communication Skills course to 60+ staff in Melbourne and Sydney through a series of half day workshops. These were coordinated by GM National Services, Tony Younes. “The training sessions focused on helping our teams to keep the client uppermost in their mind and gave them practical tips for communicating the IMI message clearly”, said Tony.
Communicating IMI’s value
IMI have been delighted with the new website and brochures and the training their teams received. Doron sums up the benefit of the engagement with Words2Win; “We feel confident that we’re clearly communicating the value we deliver to our clients”.
You can see IMI’s website and read their customer stories at www.imi.solutions
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Neo engineers a new value message
Self-service by design
Neo are a custom design and technology company specialising self-service kiosks. They help their clients deliver 24/7 customer service, anywhere and everywhere. Neo’s custom designed kiosks are in use throughout Australia, Asia and Europe, for applications as diverse as passport checking, photo processing, ticketing, wayfinding, shopping, gaming, paying bills, carrying out health checks, managing correctional institutions security and HR.
Kiosks can be sited outdoors, put through their paces by inexperienced users, or be literally thousands of miles from the nearest technician – so Neo designs them to be tough, easy to use and easy to service and hangs its hat on having the longest warranty in the industry.
Neo has been successful for many years, but when Managing Director Mike Mitchell took on the leadership in 2015, he wanted to ramp up and deliver greater growth. That meant winning new clients as well as continuing the excellent relationships Neo had cultivated with existing customers.
A focus on value
Mike knew it was important to communicate Neo’s value – to focus on their design and custom-build skills, and how those translated into benefits for users. Neo not only deals direct with clients, but also partners very closely with leading systems integrators who build Neo’s technology into end-to-end solutions, and it was important to ensure the message resonated with them as well.
“As engineers, we were very good at telling the world about our technical skills and production processes”, explains Mike. But we knew that in order to continue to grow the business, we had to be able to communicate our value, in terms our customers and partners would understand.”
The website was the first port of call for the refreshed message and Neo engaged Words2Win to help get the right content onto a newly designed site.
Identifying the message
Carol Benton of Words2Win started by facilitating a workshop to draw out the key messages that Neo wanted to communicate. “The workshop really clarified our value proposition and messaging”, says Mike. “We worked through what we offer, our target audiences and how we benefit them. We solidified our positioning and the strategy behind our communication”
But Neo didn’t want to base the content solely on its own views, and asked Words2Win to design, carry out and report on a survey of some of its key customers and SI partners.
The outcome of the workshop and the customer survey were used to shape the web content.Neo’s kiosks are used in such a wide range of situations, and perform so well, that the company has a host of great customer stories. These form an important element of the web content. “The best way to explain how we add value is through our customer stories,” says Mike. “Words2Win wrote some new case studies and refreshed our existing ones.”
Sharing expertise
Sharing useful information was another key strategy behind the content on the site. “Being a technology company, there are a number of things that we take for granted, but which our customers don’t necessarily know”, explains Lindsay Frost, Neo’s Sales Manager. “Carol helped us to identify pieces of our knowledge, like ergonomic and anthropometric design, and the pros and cons of different touch technologies, and put them into explanatory articles. They help us get found in searches and offer real value to site visitors.”
The result has been a clear, consistent and customer focussed message, delivered through a website that is engaging, informative and which is driving business growth for Neo.
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Redcat serves up a new value message
The Hospitality System Experts
Redcat provides a complete hospitality IT platform for cafes, restaurants, bars, franchise and multi-site venues. Their locally developed system offers a completely integrated solution, including point of sale, loyalty, kitchen management, stock, payroll accounting and business management. This end-to-end approach, and their in-depth understanding of the hospitality industry has seen them win some the best known names in the Australian food and drink market as customers: Boost Juice, Grill’d, Nandos, Chatime, The Press Club, Maha, Jimmy Grants – from QSRs to top end dining venues.
2017 was a turning point in the business, when the leadership team of Jeff Lamb, Lawrence Pelletier, Frank Tarrantino and Pepe Ochoa led a management buy-out of the business. With the opportunity to take greater control, revisiting their messaging to the market was one of the first items on the agenda.
A great product deserves a great message
“We have a great product, with a wider breadth of functionality than anything else on the market”, says sales and marketing director Lawrence, “but we weren’t necessarily doing the best job of communicating exactly what we do offer and how we can help hospitality businesses”.
Having heard Carol Benton of Words2Win speak at a conference, the Redcat team believed that Words2Win would be able to help.
“The first thing Words2Win did”, said Lawrence, “was run a workshop to help us clarify exactly what our message was – our target clients, our offer, what set us apart, and why we do what we do, the passion behind our business. Having that strategy in place was exactly the right place to start – it meant that everything we did from there referred back to our key messages. It saves reinventing the wheel every time we create a piece of marketing content, and ensures that we are 100% consistent in our communications”.
Getting it out there
The first step in implementing the messages was the website and a set of brochures. Redcat selected a designer, AK-D, and Words2Win worked closely with them and Redcat to develop the content. “Working with Words2Win was easy”, says Lawrence, “Carol very quickly understood what we’re all about and turned that into the words to explain it clearly to our market”.
Since the launch of the website, Redcat has continued to work with Words2Win to add new content: “We’ve got a very happy set of clients”, explains Lawrence, “and we want to showcase them and keep creating new content to keep the website fresh. “Words2Win interviewed key clients and developed case studies that are being added to the site”.
A showcase for value
The result for Redcat is a website that truly showcases the excellence of its offering and a set of brochures that explains each element of the solution and how they all fit together. “Our new website and content is a real asset”, Lawrence sums up. “We have a strong, clear and consistent message that is helping us to grow the business”.
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Risesmart – a realigned message for a changing workplace
Navigating change
Risesmart are an outplacement services company, helping organisations and their employees navigate workforce changes. As people move into, within and out of a business, Risesmart helps to ease those transitions with coaching, training and technology.
Risesmart Australia started life as SageCo – founded by Alison Hernandez and Catriona Byrne in 2004 the company took a fresh approach to outplacement services that resonated with the market and saw it grow significantly. In 2017, SageCo became part of the Risesmart group, a global player in the talent mobility market.
As they merged the best of SageCo with the global experience and reach of their new parent, Alison and Catriona wanted to ensure that their message was fully aligned with Risesmart without losing the value that SageCo’s clients had come to value.
One team, one message
They engaged Words2Win to help them. “Carol ran a workshop that helped us to distil and clarify exactly what we want to say to the market’, says Catriona. “We captured what drives us, who we help, what we offer them and the difference it makes. It was a really useful process to go through, and a good structure to get the leadership team together and focussed on our message.”
Once the message strategy was defined, Words2Win compared it to Risesmart’s current communications, including their website, brochures, and proposals. “We identified where the gaps were, and where we need to put our effort to make sure that our message is clearly and consistently communicated”, says Catriona.
One of the key areas identified was harnessing the breadth and depth of knowledge within the Risesmart organisation, so Risesmart worked with Words2Win on thought leadership articles to share the experience and expertise of the team.
“Working with Words2Win has helped us shape our message and communicate it effectively”, sums up Catriona. “We have a lot to say, a lot to share and this process has been invaluable in helping us organise our thinking and turn it into meaningful content that helps to drive our business.”
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Unlocking their value message
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO ACCESS CONTROL
SALTO develops complete access control solutions leveraging the latest in wireless technology, cloud management and mobile security. Their aesthetically designed electronic locks and devices are found everywhere – from government and educational institutions to hospitals, hospitality properties, corporate spaces, and multi-residential complexes.
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO ACCESS CONTROL
SALTO develops complete access control solutions leveraging the latest in wireless technology, cloud management and mobile security. Their aesthetically designed electronic locks and devices are found everywhere – from government and educational institutions to hospitals, hospitality properties, corporate spaces, and multi-residential complexes.
As part of an organisation with its global headquarters in Spain, SALTO’s ANZ marketing team is responsible for local marketing initiatives, which include communications to a large partner channel, architects and consultants, and ultimately end user customers. This communication, needs to be relevant, regular and consist of high quality content.
CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY
Josie Rae, Marketing Manager ANZ for SALTO understands the value of salient, consistent communication as a part of her marketing strategy. The more that her target audience sees SALTO, reads about its leadership and customer success stories, the more the brand is strengthened. But with a full marketing portfolio to manage, she realised very quickly that extra hands would be needed on deck.
Having used Words2Win in a previous role, she approached Carol Benton about creating localised content for SALTO.Words2Win provides two pieces of content every month for SALTO, which are published
in specialist industry media (including The Urban Developer), and distributed through social channels and the company’s own website. The communication project withWords2Win was so successful in its first year that Josie had no hesitation in extending it.
EngagingWords2Win to develop a long-term schedule and produce written content monthly, enabled me to focus on the company’s marketing strategy and expand our tactical initiatives.
MAKING THE CASE
SALTO’s projects produce a lot of interesting case studies, which are a great medium for sharing the narrative of how their innovation enhances the customer experience. In writing SALTO articles, case studies and e-guides,Words2Win manages the production process completely. Carol takes care of the interview, seeks draft approval from the client and finalises the work flow with content approved for ‘sell-in’ to publications and advertising mediums. In safe hands
Carol quickly grasps the technical concepts, and is able to ‘boil down’ the benefits and challenges to organisations, highlight the emotive aspects, before explaining solutions in language suitable for SALTO’s audiences.
For Josie, the decision to useWords2Win has been one she’s delighted she made. Knowing that SALTO’s content is in ‘safe hands’ frees up her time to focus on the strategic aspects of bringing SALTO’s innovative products to the ANZ market.
Entrepreneurial, as well as technology and business savvy, Carol doesn’t need an elaborate brief, though she does reach out for clarification if required.
She has a no-nonsense-get-it-done approach and is a lovely person to deal with.
Changes are never a problem.
Let’s create your winning words
From ‘what’ to ‘so what’. If you’re good at describing the ‘what’ of your business, but not so good at the ‘so what’, reach out to us at Words2Win. We’ll help you translate from ‘what we do’ to ‘how we add value’.
Reach out to talk about your business messaging or content writing.