THE CHALLENGE

Though Safeguard Technology offers industry-leading products, revenues had remained flat over the last four years, and there was no forward momentum or energy in the marketing or sales departments. “We’d hit a wall,” said Merv Litzow, president of Safeguard Technology. The company lacked an overall vision for its future, and there was no plan for achieving new growth. In addition, the company had no formal marketing strategy, or performance- evaluation method for its distributors or field sales persons. Safeguard came to realize having great products was not enough to guarantee success in the marketplace. The company needed a more proactive approach to growth, “but we didn’t know where to apply our resources,” said Litzow.

THE APPROACH

MAGNET Client Services’ first action was to help Litzow remove himself from the day-to-day struggles of his responsibility and think long term. This resulted in a vision for Safeguard to achieve, by 2014, almost an eight-fold increase over 2004 revenues. Facilitated by MAGNET, the company began developing specific shorter-term strategies and tactics to reach that objective. Customers were SIC coded, and market segments defined to understand the company’s core revenue base (off-shore oil rigs), and identify potential opportunities in related industries. MAGNET also helped the company develop criteria for distributor evaluation resulting in more focused assistance for the most profitable ones. Likewise, the distributors were asked to evaluate Safeguard, noting they wanted more product and technical knowledge and support. In response Safeguard personnel significantly increased worldwide travel, visiting Europe, Asia, Mexico, and North Africa aiding distributors at trade shows, providing training, and making joint sales calls. To help guide the efforts of individual sales persons, MAGNET helped the company develop a tactical plan including formal goal, obstacles, strategy, and action elements for each. “The ‘Quad Plan’ gave us the first metrics we’d ever had for evaluating sales person performance” said Litzow.

CUSTOMER QUOTE

“MAGNET helped us transform from an operation where there are a few people doing all sorts of different jobs to a more planned and focused group, where people fill specific, individual roles. MAGNET helped us identify the activities each individual should be involved with, how they should pursue them, and how we can measure their performance. It’s given us a lot more structure, and I’m sure we will benefit even more in 2006.”
Merv Litzow - President

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