Phil Oye

The sales pursuit

The sales cycle on this project had gone on for more than a month, and in the final round one of our competitors created a prototype to help close the deal. We, of course, had to respond in kind. As part of a three person team, we developed a presentation that would show a possible solution for Morgan Stanley that emphasized our business and user centered approach.

We were called in on Friday to create something that would “wow” them on Tuesday. Not a lot of time.

We crafted a story about how Morgan Stanley could meet its business objectives (which we didn’t know, but could guess) by meeting the needs of their users (who we didn’t know either, but could invent).

Our approach was to tell the story of Doris, a ficitious investor concerned about her 401(k) due to the recent market volatility. We brainstormed features that would help Doris, but ensured that each feature would meet a business need as well.

It must have worked. We won.

Next: Redesigning the marketing site »