In today’s competitive market landscape, achieving sustainable growth requires more than just incremental gains—it demands a strategic shift in how resources are allocated, and accounts are managed. Recently, our team at Eendigo partnered with a global leader in market research and insights to address these very challenges. Our mission was clear: to conduct a bottom-up estimation of the Addressable Market, assess the Ability to Win, and establish a Growth Ambition across a large sample of key strategic accounts. This analysis would then be extrapolated to inform a broader set of accounts, guiding resource allocation prioritization to accelerate growth.
The Challenge: Navigating large “Mixed Bag” account portfolios
Our client, a renowned leader in brand strategy and consumer behavior insights, faced a significant challenge. Their commercial teams were juggling portfolios that were a “mixed bag” of both very large and very small potential accounts. This lack of focus led to a scenario where the largest, most lucrative opportunities were often overlooked in favor of smaller, more immediate wins. With teams pressured to deliver short-term results, the focus naturally shifted to low-hanging fruit, leaving substantial growth potential untapped. Lastly “industry specialization” was not fully leveraged leading to sub-optimized levels of penetration across industries.
Strategic Approach: Grounding Ambitions in Data
To address this, we embarked on a two-step approach. First, we conducted a bottom-up estimation for a substantial sample of accounts, second, we extrapolated these insights to a larger set of accounts. This process involved the participation of over 45 team members of the commercial team, with a rigorous focus on ensuring consistency through two rounds of feedback loop. Extensive triangulation benchmarking and feedback from different stakeholders within the organization were crucial in refining our estimates.
We developed an approach which allows the organization to shift from chasing incremental growth towards pursuing a long-term strategic step-change growth ambition. This required a granular, fact-based quantification of potential value, with clear priorities at both the account and product area levels. We needed to address both share-of-wallet within current clients and identify new targets in untapped “white spaces.”
Key Insights: A Tiered Model for Resource Allocation
Our analysis led to a pivotal new framework: a new tiered model for resource allocation. This model distinguishes between two types of key accounts: “whales” and “tunas.”
Whales are the largest long-term potential accounts, whether they are current clients or not. These accounts demand strategic, continuous development, with each client partner focusing intensively on five key accounts.
Tunas are the next tier of accounts, currently contributing significant revenue and needing protection, though with a more moderate cross-sell focus due to limited time dedication.
This strategic reallocation of resources allows the same commercial team to target fewer accounts with larger potential, optimizing their efforts for maximum impact.
Finally, sardines are low potential, low revenues accounts.
Impact: Realizing Aggressive Growth Ambitions
The impact of this approach has been profound. By setting “realistically aggressive” growth targets, the client is now on track to achieve an average growth rate of ~20% per annum over the next two years. Year one is expected to be driven by cross-sell opportunities, while year two will see growth driven by sheer volume.
Our granular data set has empowered each team member to identify their “big five/ten” accounts within their portfolio or industry specialization, ensuring focused efforts that align with their strategic goals.
Moreover, this new approach targets approximately 10% more potential value with 35% fewer accounts, streamlining efforts and maximizing value.
Conclusion: A Blueprint for Sustainable Growth
This project underscores the importance of strategic resource allocation and the power of granular, data-driven insights in driving sustainable growth. Even without additional investment and new resources, by focusing on the most valuable opportunities and aligning team efforts accordingly, our client is now positioned to achieve significant growth, not just in the short term, but well into the future.
no new investment no new resources but better allocation of existing ones to target double digit growth with strong internal commitment
At Eendigo, we are proud to have partnered with this global leader in market research and insights, helping them navigate the complexities of account management and unlock their full growth potential.
Written by Martino Bissoli
Reviewed by Lorenzo Avitabile