SITUATION:
Actionstep is a global provider of legal practice management software, enabling law firms to run, automate, and grow their practices with an adaptable software solution. Backed by Serent Capital, their cloud-native platform puts a focus on workflows to automate routine tasks and streamline administrative needs to help attorneys and staff focus on their client work.
PROBLEM:
As Actionstep accelerated both its investment in new product capabilities and its client growth in the United States, the need to refine its go-to-market capabilities and sales enablement strategy became clear. Establishing clear practices, key messaging artifacts, and effective, repeatable processes were necessary to keep up with Actionstep’s rapid growth.
SOLUTION:
Fluvio embedded an experienced team, consisting of a Senior Consultant and Principal Consultant, to implement the refinement of the product marketing function at Actionstep. This included a laser focus on creating compelling messaging and competitive intelligence for sales and commercial teams as well as quickly addressing imminent product launches by customizing and implementing Fluvio’s proven go-to-market processes. With effective engagement across cross-functional teams, Fluvio helped to build a solid product marketing foundation to carry Actionstep forward.
CLIENT INTERVIEW
We sat down and interviewed Triona Saunders, Chief Marketing Officer, and Cody Bender, Chief Product Officer, to get their thoughts on our work together over the past year.
Triona Saunders
Chief Marketing Officer at Actionstep
Cody Bender
Chief Product Officer at Actionstep
“We were impressed by Fluvio’s ability to develop relationships across and outside Actionstep, which greatly helped our understanding of Voice of Customer and translated into effective messaging for our sales team to use from discovery to demo to close.”
“Fluvio seamlessly integrated themselves into our in-progress go-to-markets. They helped us understand what a successful effort looked like, while also arming the full team with repeatable building blocks to make future releases successful. ”
Who is Actionstep?
Since 2004, Actionstep has been a leader in helping law firms focus on client work. From CRM functionality to matter management to document automation to accounting, billing and, trust, Actionstep’s cloud solution streamlines legal workflows by providing attorneys and their teams with a secure, all-in-one system.
What problems were you encountering that led you to believe a product marketing consultant could help?
As Actionstep continued its growth in the United States market, it was critical the team had a comprehensive understanding of the legal practice management ecosystem. We needed to empower our sales teams to win deals in the unique US competitive landscape while simultaneously demonstrating the value of our investments in new features and functionality. This meant we had an immediate need for messaging to support both general market sales enablement as well as distilling market, customer, and product insights to make our go-to-markets successful.
How has Fluvio helped you?
By forging fast and effective relationships across the entire organization, including sales, product, marketing, partnerships, and more, Fluvio was able to help us execute on known, high-value initiatives while also identifying new strategic opportunities to develop our go-to-market capabilities for the long term.
Going beyond positioning and sales enablement, we were able to launch not just our first complete sales playbook but also segment-specific playbooks. At the same time, the Fluvio team provided actionable strategic guidance to ensure in-flight feature launches received the rigor and cross-functional buy-in that we needed to be successful. Fluvio also gathered and delivered an objective, comprehensive research database on the US market, giving us the strategic ammunition to continue to succeed.
What are some of the benefits you’ve experienced since you kicked off the partnership?
Finding the bandwidth to conduct market research and test our positioning assumptions was challenging – which meant these foundational activities often weren’t getting done. Thanks to our engagement with Fluvio, we were able to not only gain a more complete understanding of the US legal technology market, but also increase the confidence of the entire organization in our solution and product-market fit.
At the end of the day, this translates to more impactful sales conversations, more rigor in the analysis of our bets on product innovation, and an increased ability to effectively roll out new functionality that helps attorneys spend more time on the practice and less time on admin.
What does Fluvio offer that is unique compared to other consulting firms you may have worked with in the past?
Other consultants and contractors can take a hands-off approach, gathering data in silos and coming back with recommendations that might or might not work in the real world. This wasn’t the case with Fluvio – they were closely embedded with our teams, continuously gathering insights and getting alignment during every day we worked together.
The proof comes when we talk to our teams about the Fluvio engagement and look at the thorough, high-quality work they delivered. From impactful sales resources to clear success metrics, goalposts, and activities for go-to-markets, the Actionstep organization feels better equipped to accelerate its global growth thanks to Fluvio.