Positioning new golf technology to sell

Product Messaging | Product Positioning & Naming

Sagacity is a golf technology company created by the merger of 3 software companies with individual products. They offer a suite of SaaS products that helped golf course managers increase revenue and efficiency in their daily operations. Sagacity turned to Punchy for help with messaging and positioning their products, so they could go-to-market with a bang.

“The best thing we did was get out of all those stupid buzzwords. Now our sales and marketing talks about stuff no one else is talking about. Punchy carved us out a position in the marketplace where no one else is operating.”

Brett Darrow, CEO & Co-founder

Challenges

Communicate complex technology in a simple way

Golf course managers and owners didn’t know (or care) about technical stuff like big data or revenue management. These messages simply didn’t sell. Sagacity wanted a simpler way to talk about their innovative products, so prospects could understand the value.

Make sense of a large portfolio of different products

Sagacity was launching 8 different products. Some were existing products from a previous company and some were brand new. They needed to present their products under the new Sagacity umbrella brand, and clearly articulate the value of each to sell and cross-sell.

Inspire people to change the status quo

The golf industry has been slow to adopt new innovation. As a brand new technology, Sagacity’s biggest challenge was to convince prospects to change how they do things. Sagacity needed a story that inspired people to change the status quo.

Build trust with an audience skeptical of software vendors

Golf course managers and owners are notoriously wary of software vendors with false promises. Sagacity didn’t want to sound like just another software vendor. They wanted to convey the incredible value of their products in a credible way.

“We’ve got a lot of different products and some great data...but trying to put it all together in a message that made sense was difficult. Punchy just simplified it all."

Solution

Tell a story around customer needs — not buzzwords

Most golf technology companies talked about their technical features and integrations. But this messaging fell flat with golf course managers and owners, who were skeptical about investing in technology and making big changes to their daily operations.

Punchy interviewed Sagacity customers to understand why they used their products, the problems it solved for them, and the value it brought to their businesses — in their own words. We discovered the real things that motivated customers: worrying about unsold inventory, wondering if your pricing is right and having too much work to do every day.

Punchy positioned Sagacity’s technology in the context of these problems, so prospects could instantly see how it could help them.

Established a unique market position

Sagacity’s competitors positioned themselves in technical categories like revenue management, which had little meaning to customers. Punchy positioned Sagacity as business performance tools that help you unlock new revenue in everyday tasks.

Created new product architecture & product names

Out of Sagacity’s 7 products, 4 were brand new and didn’t have names; and 3 were existing products from the previous companies with different names. It was unclear how these products were related, and how they connected to the parent company, Sagacity. This complicated marketing and sales.

Punchy created a product architecture that clarified the relationship between Sagacity and the individual products. We grouped them in a way that made them easier to sell, upsell and cross sell. We also gave them golf-inspired names that were simple and memorable, to make them more accessible.

Clarified value propositions for individual products

Based on customer interviews, Punchy outlined the value propositions for each individual product and the company, to ensure consistency across marketing activities and their sales team. Each product had a clear value proposition and benefits that resonated with Sagacity’s target customer.

“Punchy sat down with our team and took us through a process that helped our simpler messaging come out. They helped us really get down to the core of what we were doing and the problems we’re solving.”

Results

Powerful marketing & sales enablement

With messaging and positioning finalized, we brought everything to life on Sagacity’s website. The messaging speaks simply and directly to golf course owners and managers — without the technical jargon — so they can easily grasp the value of Sagacity products. This messaging also extended into sales enablement through sales sheets and presentation decks.

Wowed investor meetings

Sagacity has secured investment using the new pitch deck and messaging.

More successful demos

Prospects have become more engaged in product demos. Now, they start the demo with a clear understanding of what the product can do for them.

“Punchy helped us wrangle all our different products and articulate them. Now that we’ve named the products and established why they’re important, the messaging flows very naturally. It all makes perfect sense.”

“It’s daunting to go try and sell when you can’t clearly articulate what we do. We had an investor presentation last week and we were able to show them the true value of the products and how we got to this point. They walked out of there and said 'This is amazing'."'