Ping Identity: Breaking Growth Barriers
Messaging & Positioning
Breaking Growth Barriers by Changing Messaging and Positioning
An eight-year-old security company stalled at ~$20M revenue. Through win-loss analysis and 40 executive interviews, we repositioned the product around cloud and HR-efficiency buyers.
Key Results
- Bigger, faster deals within months of new messaging
- ~40% compounding annual revenue growth through 2016
- Successful acquisition for $600M
- Repositioned from “nice to have” to essential purchase
The Challenge
Ping Identity, founded in 2002, is a Denver-based enterprise software company offering identity management, multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on tools. In 2010, when The Artesian Network was engaged by the Chairman and CEO, Ping was an eight-year-old company in the $20M annual revenue range. The question: “Why was such an important security product considered a ‘nice to have’ by some companies where sales stalled, yet a critical purchase in other companies where accounts grew quickly?”
What We Did
Our team took a dual approach: an external interview protocol with 40 non-Ping customer executives spanning industry verticals and geographies, combined with a three-year historical win-loss pattern analysis of Ping’s sales data.
Key findings: (1) No compliance requirements drove sales. (2) IAM was “nice to have” for security personnel ~50% of the time. (3) The largest, fastest-closing deals had HR executives as key constituents, though Ping sold as a security product. The insight: with cloud apps cresting at 18 per large enterprise, IAM wasn’t about security per se, but about efficiently on-boarding and off-boarding employees — an HR priority.
We remapped buyer journeys to include HR executives, revamped messaging to include cloud and HR efficiency alongside security, and adjusted the marketing mix to include HR-related conferences and demand generation targets.
The Outcome
With the new messaging, positioning, and adjusted sales approach, Ping began seeing bigger and faster deals as soon as the second half of 2010. The company adopted an aggressive cloud stance and grew at an average of 40% annually through 2016. annually. Ping Identity went public on September 19, 2019 and reached a valuation of $1.56 Billion.