Speechmatics is a UK-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) platform that enables companies to transcribe millions of minutes of speech into text over 100 languages for their own applications. Speechmatics’ technology is regarded by Gartner analysts as one of the best in the market for ASR and exceeding the boundaries of machine learning.

In 2019, Speechmatics won Series A funding from venture capital investors and was charged to plot a course to growth through:

• A focused go-to-market strategy
• A well-articulated, niche brand position and a clear market message that would enable growth in new markets and regions
• Predictable, data-driven marketing and sales pipeline

‍“We get good recognition in the ASR industry for having a great product,” said John Milliken, CEO of Speechmatics. “But we knew we had to fight harder outside of the industry to win in new markets. Proposo has helped us to do that through with some very good work.”

Your Market Story™​

Market Position and Message

Speechmatics needed to create a brand story and market message for each type of customer. It had to go beyond the standard industry selling points and stand out for its strengths. Speechmatics at the time was making sales but had not positioned the brand or claimed a market category it could own.

Proposo’s Your Market Story™ is a brand-story and market message framework that enables customers to understand the value of a company through its unique strengths. The co-creative process uses pre-defined data inputs from customers and leadership teams, combined with performance analytics, UX, go-to-market strategy, market, press and analyst reports. By selecting the best USP messages for the customer requirement, a strong position and message are formed to stand out, win customers through targeted efforts and make competitors look weaker.

Outcome 1​

Staff were immediately able to tell a better story about the business, which led to better sales and marketing engagement all round. This was measured by share of voice and demand gen metrics.

“We love our new position and the category Proposo has helped us with,” said Milliken. “The process has given us internal alignment so we can be confident in our growth story. It’s invaluable we can fall back on a story the market is now using without having to second guess.”

Venture Marketeer™​

Marketing Performance & Predictability

Speechmatics’ investors wanted it to become a data-led marketing and sales organisation, growing the performance and predictability of its pipeline activity in brand awareness, automated demand generation, nurturing and sales closure. There were numerous challenges in driving this change.

Venture Marketeer™ drives better marketing team performance in companies where either process, content, data or leadership require support. Gathering a prioritized mix of goals, marketing performance, data and team behaviours, the Venture Marketeer™ programme creates a roadmap  to marketing-sales maturity.

Using a blend of new goals, coaching and introducing specialists to address particular blockages in the pipeline, outcomes include: a marketing plan with goals, accountability and operating rhythm, brand awareness and lead  generation activity defined, segmented buyer maps with a prioritized campaign plan, user journeys redefined and performance dashboards

Outcome 2

John Milliken, CEO, Speechmatics said: “We now have a global marketing team and a set of processes that are producing awesome results. I’m delighted with the outcome as we can now get hyper targeted and see almost immediate bang for buck on our activity. The combination of creative thinking and data precision has taken us forward leaps and bounds.”

Speechmatics now has:

• A clear maturity roadmap, which in just three months has enabled the team to drive much greater performance through focused campaigns, 300% higher lead gen rates and reduction in wasted time.
• Investors and the sales team are reassured the pipeline and marketing team are more focused and capable of driving high-quality engagements with new customers
• The team has regular planning, data analysis and retro meetings with a continuously iterative to do list. They are building an analytics dashboard.
• The team has a segmented, prioritised buyer map and a lead-gen calculator that enables them to work out cost vs benefit for every activity they undertake.
• Leadership has improved with more of the team stepping up to be accountable and capable of managing a wider agency model. Campaign planning and management has a process.