Proliance: Transforming Marketing to Drive Growth in a Competitive Market
Industry
Data Privacy & InfoSec
HQ: Munich, Germany
Founded: 2017
The Challenge
Proliance was struggling with a disjointed marketing team lacking leadership and heavy reliance on a limited number of marketing channels leading to a declining pipeline and ineffective lead generation. The company was also facing intense competition from newly emerged, cheaper providers and was in the midst of a transition from a single-product to a multi-product offering, which was not reflected in their value proposition.
The Solution
To tackle these issues, Proliance brought in Anastasia from B2B Practitioners as interim Head of Marketing. She aligned the team on clear objectives and key results (OKRs), focused on generating pipeline through bottom-of-funnel initiatives like webinars, paid search, nurturing programmes, and revamped the company’s value proposition to better position their expanded product offering in the market.
The Result
Within just one and a half months, Proliance saw a significant increase in their marketing-generated pipeline, reaching one of its highest levels since mid-2023. The marketing team not only met but exceeded their goals by 66%, marking a major turnaround in performance and positioning the company for sustainable growth in a competitive market.
Proliance, a platform specializing in data privacy and information security, was facing a significant challenge: their marketing team was leaderless and disjointed. Without a clear focus or responsibility, the team struggled to generate sales-ready leads, leading to a decline in marketing-generated pipeline.
Additionally, the company was dependent on organic and direct channels with a downward looking trend due to low content output and bottlenecks within the team. Proliance was engaged in fierce price wars due to high competition from cheaper providers and thus decided to transition from a single-product to a multi-product offering.
The outdated value proposition and messaging did not reflect this new direction, further complicating the company’s efforts to differentiate itself in the market.
External Expertise to Boost Marketing Generated Pipeline
Proliance realized they couldn't afford to wait for a permanent Head of Marketing hire, as the CEO needed to focus on broader strategic initiatives. To address their challenges, they enlisted the help of B2B Practitioners, bringing in Anastasia as interim Head of Marketing.
Alexander Ingelheim, Founder & CEO at Proliance:
“Anastasia was fast in delivering results, e.g. bringing in strategic partners, launching new channels, improving nurturing programmes, as well as sales and marketing collaboration to get more out of the existing marketing pipeline.”
The decision to bring in external expertise was driven by the urgency to reverse the decline and reposition the company in a highly competitive market. Anastasia’s immediate focus was on reviewing existing marketing initiatives, aligning the team with clear objectives and key results (OKRs), ensuring everyone was working towards generating pipeline. Her leadership in moderating critical strategic discussions around the company’s value proposition and market positioning was pivotal in driving the necessary changes.
Alexander Ingelheim, Founder & CEO at Proliance:
"The new value proposition is a game-changer. It clearly positions Proliance in the market, highlighting our strengths in both privacy and information security."
B2B PRACTITIONER'S APPROACH INCLUDED:
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Review of marketing strategy and initiatives to understand the trending decline in marketing generated pipeline.
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Align the team on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), ensuring everyone was focused on contributing to more pipeline.
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Launching bottom-of-funnel initiatives, including paid search and webinars with partners like SoSafe and SevDesk to quickly boost lead generation.
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Improving lead nurturing programmes in close alignment with the sales team to tackle lower intent leads and convert them to opportunities.
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Developing a new value proposition and messaging to reflect the new direction of the company. This involved conducting a competitive analysis, external and internal interviews across sales, customer success, marketing, and product teams to understand customer personas, pain points and the value from Proliance.
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Hiring support as well as evaluation and integration of suitable freelancers.
The results
The impact of Anastasia’s leadership was swift and significant. Within just one and a half months, the marketing-generated pipeline reached one of the highest levels since mid-2023. The marketing team not only met their goals for the first time in 2024 but exceeded them by 66%.
Alexander Ingelheim, Founder & CEO at Proliance:
"Seeing the marketing team exceed their targets by 66% was incredibly rewarding. It showed that with the right focus and strategy, we can reverse the negative trend."
This success underscored the effectiveness of aligning the team, launching new marketing channels, improving existing initiatives and refining the value proposition, to drive growth in a highly competitive market.
Conclusions
Proliance’s partnership with B2B Practitioners, particularly the leadership provided by Anastasia, was transformative. The strategic overhaul not only reversed the declining performance metrics but also positioned the company for sustainable growth. This successful collaboration highlights the importance of strong leadership, clear focus, and a well-defined marketing strategy in achieving business goals in a competitive environment.