Instinctive Solutions Ltd

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Business and Product Development at Grapl. Grapl is a software company that offers a central command center to help companies drive greater productivity from their employees through stronger communication, collaboration and organization so they never lose track of their ideas, meetings or projects again.

For what projects/services did your company hire Instinctive Solutions Ltd?

Grapl as a solution, can solve so many different problems for so many different people and industries, that it was difficult for us to clearly message what we do and who we do it for. Which features do we focus on? What is the ROI? What is our Elevator Pitch? Which words are most impactful when speaking with people, either in person or through our online presence?

How did you select this vendor?

Dave and Instinctive Solutions were referred to me. I met with Dave via Grapl, and he made a number of suggestions on how we can proceed. We chose to go through a Messaging Workshop which forced us to answer a lot of hard questions and scenarios about Grapl and what Grapl is. Dave ran this workshop and helped us navigate through all of our ideas and thoughts in an effort to come to some solid conclusions.

The end result was that we are now more clearly able to describe what Grapl is and the benefits it brings to our customers. The process we went through of what Grapl is and is not, has helped us create a more unified message across our website and one pager collateral and will soon permeate into our social media presence and other marketing campaigns.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Dave and I had a couple of discovery calls to outline what it is we needed help with. Once we decided on the messaging workshop, we scheduled the first of four calls. The first call was with our marketing and leadership team. We focused on answering a series of questions that Dave threw at us. He played devils advocate and pushed us to say what truly differentiates Grapl from other companies in our space, what specifically makes us different and who would care about these differences.

We were not trying to come up with the answer on this call. We were only trying to get words and phrases out on paper. Dave took those notes back to his team and came back to us with a PowerPoint deck that was not meant to be a final deck, but it organized our statements into some possible taglines, elevator pitches, twitter pitches and more detailed pitches.

We scheduled a follow up meeting for him to present his ideas back to us. After his presentation, we gave feedback and he went back and updated the deck based on that feedback. We did this same process one more time before his final presentation back to us. Forcing us to really think about what Grapl is, the problems it solves and who it solves them for, has been incredibly powerful for us.

Marketing and Messaging is an ever evolving thing for a company, so it is never "finished". However, you need to feel comfortable explaining who you are as a product and company. Dave assisted us in reaching that comfort level. Startups like Grapl only have so many resources. Dave really helped bridge the gap for Grapl to get the team unified and on the same page as to what Grapl is.

What was the team composition?

Dave and his team worked closely with me to organize our workshop and followups. The Marketing Team actively participated in the meeting and provided answers to his question and feedback on the material that Dave provided. Other company leaders at Grapl also attended the meetings and provided feedback and followup on any questions or content that Dave requested.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We just recently finished the workshop with Dave and Instinctive Solutions but we have already updated our website and have had a strong positive response to our updated messaging and general layout. We have also created a new explainer video that has utilized many of the ideas that came out of the Instinctive Solutions sessions. We are in the process of updating our social presence and additional website pages with a unified message.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Dave and I stay in contact. He is always happy to provide his thoughts on a direction we are going. We have also increased our marketing meetings in house to ensure we stay on the same unified path that Dave helped us with. I expect to have additional engagements with Dave and Instinctive Solutions in the future.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even before we decided to work with Instinctive Solutions and participate in the Messaging Workshop, Dave threw himself into learning as much as he could about Grapl and our product. We gave he and his team a Grapl license so that they can use it to get even more familiar with the value Grapl brings to our customers.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

Not really. I probably could have given him a tour of the Grapl product a little sooner in the process so he could hit the ground running even faster, but Dave and his team did a really good job of getting us through the process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Managing Director of ARONDOR US, a global software company subsidiary based in New York City. Our software is for the enterprise content management space.

What challenge were you trying to address with Instinctive Solutions Ltd?

They helped on our most successful project, ARender. They helped with the marketing strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped with the first marketing collateral to go to market. Our business is 100% indirect business, we go through partner and system integrators. They helped us in building case studies, info sheets, infographics, sell kits, and more to reach out to multiple audiences for our partners.

They provided the initial test, that we worked on for two months. We’re submitting an RFP, and we’ll possibly move forward with them. They built 35–50 different marketing materials for us so far.

What is the team composition?

We worked with David (Founder & CEO) as our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Instinctive Solutions Ltd?

I knew David from before when he was working for other companies in the same ecosystem. I knew he was good, and when he told me he was building his own company I told him I would try his services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November to December 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

There are no metrics for the marketing yet. However, I received feedback that the marketing content was very much appreciated. It’s on the right path, easy to understand, and brings clarity to understanding the value of our projects.

How did Instinctive Solutions Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through phone calls, meetings, and online conferences.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reactivity and adaptability impressed me. They really understood where we were coming from, and what we were trying to build, so they could then adapt their methods and building accordingly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far nothing. They’ve completely achieved everything we wanted. It’s been an excellent experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build a detailed RFP. Tell a story, share it with David, and they’ll propose a marketing strategy. Be open, and they’re going to respond well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of GrackleDocs Inc, a pioneering software company making output from Google G Suite accessible to all. Headquartered in Toronto with customers in North America and around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Instinctive Solutions Ltd?

As an already growing company purely by word of mouth we realised that there was a huge market that did not know we existed. With little in house experience or time we had to turn to a partner to help with marketing and social media.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to reach out further, primarily in the education space and communicate our offering on a regular basis.

How did you select Instinctive Solutions Ltd?

We went to market ti find a partner that was not only knowledgable and trusted but also flexible to work within our budget and time constraints. After speaking with Instinctive Solutions a couple of times, we realised they were definitely the partner we had been looking for.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Instinctive Solutions were tasked with building marketing campaigns that would be focused through social media, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter. They produced a three month plan with daily communications to be placed. The plan had to be flexible so that different messages could be dropped in at a moments notice depending on current market forces.

What was the team composition?

I have worked closely with the principles of the firm to lay out my requirements. I have not had (or needed any) direct access to further team members.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Not only has our social media recognition gone through the roof, but we can also see a positive impact on web visits too.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication between our teams has been effortless and seamless. We see them as an extension to our own team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing was how quickly they got to grips with our technology and the personas within our customer base. Accessibility can be a tricky discipline to master but this presented no problems at all.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I haven't found areas for improvement yet.