Planting Seeds for Growth
Overview:
Like most Silicon Valley venture firms, Scintera Networks had a revolutionary product and a meager marketing budget. Fortunately, their product, an adaptive radio frequency power amplifier linearizer used in cellular infrastructure base stations, had three things going for it: wide bandwidth, lower power consumption and BOM count, and cost On the other hand, base station manufacturers are limited in number, conservative, and geographically diverse.
Scintera’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing had been handling Japan and Asia by making quarterly trips to Asia. However, as the European market was developing concurrent to Asia, his ability to travel frequently to both territories diminished.
Major Japanese manufacturers had expressed interest in the company’s products at trade shows, but subsequent follow up never resulted in a commitment to evaluate Scintera’s technology. After factoring in the typical lead time to sales of 12 - 18 months, the high cost of international travel, employee utilization, and overhead, Scintera realized it couldn’t efficiently or effectively expand in the Japanese market without a local presence to support their potential customer base there. Neither could it afford a local office. That's when Scintera contracted with Asia Business Group to provide sales support in Japan.
Results:
Conclusion:
By allowing Asia Business Group to focus on the Japanese market Scintera was able to engage additional prospects while using its internal resources to their highest level. Using ABG's resources Scintera was able to lower its expenses, increase its business prospects, and decrease its time-to-market.
Like most Silicon Valley venture firms, Scintera Networks had a revolutionary product and a meager marketing budget. Fortunately, their product, an adaptive radio frequency power amplifier linearizer used in cellular infrastructure base stations, had three things going for it: wide bandwidth, lower power consumption and BOM count, and cost On the other hand, base station manufacturers are limited in number, conservative, and geographically diverse.
Scintera’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing had been handling Japan and Asia by making quarterly trips to Asia. However, as the European market was developing concurrent to Asia, his ability to travel frequently to both territories diminished.
Major Japanese manufacturers had expressed interest in the company’s products at trade shows, but subsequent follow up never resulted in a commitment to evaluate Scintera’s technology. After factoring in the typical lead time to sales of 12 - 18 months, the high cost of international travel, employee utilization, and overhead, Scintera realized it couldn’t efficiently or effectively expand in the Japanese market without a local presence to support their potential customer base there. Neither could it afford a local office. That's when Scintera contracted with Asia Business Group to provide sales support in Japan.
Results:
- Within 3 months Asia Business Group had sold evaluation kits to two of the five initial targets and had begun to expand it base of targeted accounts
- Eventually Asia Business Group engaged with a total of 23 prospective companies, sold 14 evaluation kits, and identified potential sales in excess of $500M.
- Asia Business Group's focus was expanded to provide customer support and distributor management.
Conclusion:
By allowing Asia Business Group to focus on the Japanese market Scintera was able to engage additional prospects while using its internal resources to their highest level. Using ABG's resources Scintera was able to lower its expenses, increase its business prospects, and decrease its time-to-market.
