Case study

Let’s go global with the Finnish school

Polar Partners Case Study

Polar Partners is an expert company specialising in export of education. The company’s school concept covers a child’s school path from early childhood education and care to the end of upper secondary education. The school concept developed by the company includes the design of learning environments, the curriculum, teacher and management training, and learning materials. Polar Partners’ school concept is based on the Finnish education model and suits as an alternative for instance schools in developing countries.

 Challenge

How to support global growth with sales

Polar Partners aims for global growth, supported by a clear sales strategy to guide growth and choices that support growth. The aim was to create an easily updatable sales strategy that serves as an agile sales management tool.

 Solution

Effective sales built upon an agile strategy model

The sales strategy was built through five sparring meetings and supporting tasks during spring and summer 2020. The process utilized Intolead’s Insight architecture model, where the sales strategy is built through areas that have a major impact on sales. These include the company itself, customers, ecosystems and partners, as well as the market conditions and competitors. In the light of the information gathered from the various areas, the final strategy was created and documented. The strategy was also visualized to make it more illustrative.

The sales strategy highlighted Polar Partners’ strengths, attractiveness and winning themes, as well as the value proposition to which the partners also wanted to commit. The value proposition created through strategy work emerged to communicate in an understandable way the benefits that the customer derives from cooperation with Polar Partners.

 Results

Strategy helped to identify right focus areas, partners and customer profiles

Polar Partners’ sales strategy was documented in an easy-to-understand format and supported by an OKR model utilizing agile strategy implementation methods. With the OKR model (Objectives and Key Results) the results of the strategy are monitored systematically and regularly. The strategy was implemented immediately as part of sales and partner recruitment and has been used to guide the focus of sales to the agreed geographical areas and buyer personalities. The sales strategy has been integrated as an important part of the practical implementation of sales.

“The collaboration with Intolead was straightforward and clear. The work progressed according to the agreed schedule and the sales strategy resulting from the cooperation was exactly what we ordered and needed.”

Maria Haapaniemi
CEO
Polar Partners Oy