Virtual Sales Engine
Joint Partnership Go-to-Market Strategy Targeting SMME’s
Client
Tech x Telco- Accenture
Key deliverables
User Research | Service Audit | User Journey's | Product value prop design | Conceptual Designs | GTM Playbook
Timeline
3.5 months
Team
Team of 6 consisting of 2 strategists, 2 tech & data analysts, an enterprise architect and a service designer (me)
The Challenge
The companies enterprise business unit has established a strategic partnership with Microsoft to provide digital solutions targeting SMEs in Africa, with a focus on Nigeria and South Africa. The goal is to empower African SMEs to grow and future-proof their businesses through enhanced digital products and services.
This exciting partnership which had launched a year prior did not, however, meet their desired targets despite the brands reach, hiring and training new teams and developing digital products for the sale of their combined offerings, only managing to sell 3 products.
My Role
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Conducted customer interviews to gather insights and contributed to creating actionable research findings.
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Performed benchmarking to identify industry best practices and conducted mystery shopping, resulting in strategic recommendations.
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Completed a UX assessment of existing platforms, scoring and identifying key areas for improvement.
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Led the creation of customer archetypes and developed a comprehensive customer journey.
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Collaborated on designing go-to-market product bundles and participated in their validation to align with customer needs.
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Designed screens and features for the customer and agent digital platforms, enhancing the user experience.
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Mapped the customer and agent journey and created service blueprints for call centre agents, including documentation for alignment across front-stage and back-stage capabilities.
The Process
We were tasked with creating the GTM strategy for this partnership, encompassing:
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Customer insights to guide product and service design.
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A tailored customer journey experience for SMEs, agents, and operations teams.
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A robust operating model and technology infrastructure to support these initiatives in South Africa.
The Process
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Conducted in-depth customer interviews to assess the end-to-end servicing journey and identify pain points and preferences.
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Analysed SME behaviours, need states, and drivers to create detailed customer personas and prioritise target markets.
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Redefined the product and service portfolio, focusing on bundling and differentiation to increase appeal.
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Mapped out a customer-centric experience, detailing key touch points across awareness, sales, and support for customers, agents, and operations teams.
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Developed an operating model to optimise organisational transparency, decision-making, and sales structure.
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Outlined the required technology and data infrastructure, embedding best practices in enterprise architecture and data management to support continuous feedback and improvement.
Figure 1 & 2 | Research & Analysis
Figure 3 | Anchoring Framewrok & Approach
Figure 6 | High level customer Journey
Figure 4 | User Archetypes based off SME interviews & Research
Figure 6 | Service Blueprint
Figure 5 | Conceptual mockups for fulll service
Outomes
Delivered a go-to-market strategy spanning business alignment, opportunity sizing, customer archetypes, end-to-end customer experience mapping, customer-led product strategy, enablement capabilities, sales structure and strategy, and a scalable playbook for market implementation and growth.
Project lead feedback
Monthati is great at structuring her thoughts and bringing them together in a way that is easy to understand and communicate to the client. She can take a concept into a story that resonates with the client, this is an invaluable skill that she should continue to practice refining and growing
This project was one of the most challenging I’ve encountered, primarily due to the intricate nature of the company’s operations and legacy systems. Faced with an urgent request from the CEO to launch immediately, rather than waiting several months to build a new platform and capabilities, I learned the importance of incremental innovation. This experience taught me that delivering value from day one is crucial, as clients increasingly expect swift results. The days of waiting one to three months for a solution to be built from scratch are quickly becoming a thing of the past.