Re-Defining a Company’s Mission

The client CEO said, “There’s been a tangible change in how we talk about ourselves. We’re in a space of one—no one else does what we do.”

“Rubicon gave our executive team clarity and focus. There’s been a tangible change in how we talk about ourselves. We’re in a space of one — no one else does what we do. It’s easier to sell the things we’re selling, employees are energized and the way we speak with clients has changed.” James Westrick, President & CEO, Collaborative Learning, Inc.

CLI’s new mission statement: “CLI serves educators by providing quality tools and professional development necessary to use data for making critical decisions that improve student performance. We build lasting relationships through exceptional personal service, support and caring employees who respect educators and their desire to succeed.”

After growth and an acquisition, CLI had three different independent products. The company needed a mission and vision supported by a story that told potential clients about the powerful learning solutions CLI provided and how the pieces integrated.

About Collaborative Learning, Inc.

Founded in 1999, CLI is a standards-based learning company. Endorsed by educational service centers across the country, CLI’s software is deployed in more than 3600 schools. The company has 8+ years of K-12 learning success and the largest database of curriculum maps in North America.

CLI has three products. Curriculum Mapper® is a curriculum mapping tool that teachers use to record the operational curriculum and match it to standards and topics. WebGrader® is a system that replaces paper gradebooks with a secure, web-based application. CLI’s third offering, Professional Learning Associates™ (PLA), is a group of experienced educators who deliver specialized work sessions to facilitate the curriculum mapping and standards-based grading processes.

James Westrick, President & CEO, designed their first product, Curriculum Mapper, while he was a K-12 teacher and administrator. In 2004-2005, the professional development division was created. The acquisition of WebGrader occurred in 2005.

The challenge

Two years after acquisition, CLI’s product line was only loosely integrated. Separate salesforces specialized in the selling of each product. The company faced a long sales cycle, but had a solid trade show calendar and knew where to find their customers. The seasonality of the educational software business, which meant that products were installed and rolled out over the summer, was a challenge.

CLI understood the process of selling into education agencies, and wanted Rubicon to help them develop a clear strategy, executive alignment and consistent messaging that integrated the three product lines. The executive team knew their products provided powerful synergy to customers, but struggled with how to articulate this synergy.

A new mission statement

Initial discussions with Rubicon revealed how CLI’s three products fit together, as well as the company vision. Jim Westrick showed a diagram of the benefits CLI provided their customers. The products hadn’t yet been branded together and there was no central marketing theme.

Rubicon created a new mission statement. Rubicon mapped out new pre- and post-sale roles for professional development services, making services the glue that held everything together.

“The added value we got from Rubicon was their insight. They’re able to read people, read the subtext, then identify areas we didn’t even know we needed to work on and help us sort them out before moving forward.” James Westrick, President & CEO, Collaborative Learning, Inc.

Knowing that customers need statements backed by evidence, Rubicon helped CLI identify a series of proof points for CLI. Their curriculum mapping software was proprietary and success was assured by integrating PLA benchmarks to aid student performance.

Additional sales opportunities

Further discussion revealed additional opportunities to sell to installed base customers who only had one CLI product, to upsell, to gain referrals from existing customers, and to gain leads from the professional services team.

“It was the neutral, third-party point of view from people who knew the business but were outside the company that was so valuable.” James Westrick, President & CEO, Collaborative Learning, Inc.

The result

CLI took away a different perception of their market and their company. All parts of the company understand how they fit together. No longer is CLI a product company; they are an education company. Their new mission statement supports the move to obtain increased revenue. Innovative changes to the selling methodology — such as a starter promo to be sold in January-February — will be tested.

The company now knows the right questions to ask regarding research and data.

The improved fit between the company vision and integration is leading to new synergies within CLI that complement the quality learning products it delivers to its customers.

“The only thing I would have loved more of was time. They have amazing insight into what the real problem is and the underlying issues.” James Westrick, President & CEO, Collaborative Learning, Inc.