From stalled growth to 3,000+ users at 76% retention.
ABOUT
The Client: A UK-based AI-powered sales coaching platform built by a technical solo founder. The product was a role-play tool for sales: trainees practiced sales scenarios with the AI, the platform recorded the conversation, and produced structured analysis afterward. Strong product, sophisticated technical foundations, and a year of build-out before the engagement. The platform was live with users — but growth had plateaued. The Challenges 1. Wrong buyer level. The team was selling to VPs of Sales at mid-market and enterprise companies. Long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, complex procurement. Conversion was slow and inconsistent. 2. Pricing model didn't match actual usage. The platform was sold as a monthly subscription, but the actual product usage was event-based — sales coaches deployed it during training workshops, not continuously. Customers paid for months they didn't use. 3. Every customer required manual product customization. When the platform was used, the team had to hand-tweak the AI for each customer's specific training scenarios. The work didn't scale across customers. 4. A year of work had built momentum in one direction. Reversing the segment, the pricing model, and the productization approach all at once wasn't an attractive prospect for the founder. But the data didn't support the path forward. 5. What was known had blurred with what was assumed. Untested beliefs about who the buyer should be and how they'd decide had become operational truth.
SOLUTION
Mapping actual users, not just buyers Strategy: Look at who was getting value from the product simultaneously with who was paying for it. Outcome: A clear mismatch surfaced. The platform's heaviest users were sales coaches — sometimes internal at large companies, often external trainers and agencies hired by the VPs of Sales who were paying. ICP shift: from VPs to the coaches they hired Strategy: Sell directly to the actual users - sales coaches and training agencies, instead of to the VPs who hired them. Outcome: A faster-converting buyer with shorter sales cycles, clearer purchase decisions, and lower friction. Buyer and user finally aligned in the same role. Pricing model rebuild: subscription → pay-per-use Strategy: Match the pricing model to actual usage. Coaches deployed the tool during workshops, not continuously, so charge per workshop, not per month. Outcome: Adoption friction dropped sharply. Coaches could try the platform without committing to ongoing spend. Cost scaled with the value they generated. Conversion rate improved across the funnel. Productization: from custom tweaks to self-serve configuration Strategy: Productize the AI customization layer so coaches could configure the tool themselves before each workshop. Stop hand-tweaking the product per customer. Outcome: Coaches got the personalization they needed without the platform team manually customizing for each customer. The product became scalable across the new ICP. The team's internal work moved from per-customer customization to product development. The Results In the months following the pivot: -> Platform grew past 3,000 users at a 76% retention rate -> Pricing model converted from monthly subscription to pay-per-use, matching actual usage patterns -> Product customization layer made self-serve, no more per-customer hand-tweaking -> Named client case studies live on the company's website, signaling depth of customer engagement that wasn't possible with the prior segment -> Pisana engagement was renewed after the pivot landed