Bottom-Line Growth Through People

"S4 came to the table with a lot of experience and knowledge of the B2B world. They also came not just with theories but with a lot of practical tools; for example, a road map and a detailed communication plan. I hate consultants who just tell us what to do and then walk away. They stayed and worked through the highs and the lows and helped us create a sustainable, competitive advantage."

"Whatever S4 did, it was done in a professional manner. They spent a lot of time listening and trying to understand what we wanted and needed. They were very thorough in customizing what they did for us. We've had difficulty getting the entire organization aligned early on. They helped us work as a high-perfoming organization. Our leadership team, especially, has benefited tremendously. We've seen great business results from our partnership with S4."

"Most of my experience has been with two kinds of vendors: research firms and technical consultants. The research companies gather intelligence on industry products, sales and service, and then they dump and run. Some might make a few verbal suggestions, but they're not tailored to our specific situation. The technical consultants come with a tool set, but they haven't studied our business enough to realize that their solutions don't necessarily work for a regulated industry or a financial services industry. S4 understands B2B so they are not suggesting things that are so "out there" that they are unreasonable. A lot of firms come in and propose to retool everything. S4 takes a very practical approach. They say let's take on one or two issues and try to make them better. Then when we've accomplished that, we'll decide if we want to take on more."

"I didn't expect that we would end up partnering so much with S4. They have really helped us understand relationship management, align our organization, and engage people throughout the organization as part of the process. We have grown-- both personally and financially--as a result of our work with S4."

"What I've liked about S4 is their clear application. Theory is great, you can talk about best practices all you want, but S4 offers a bridge to implementation and seeing how a practice can be applied to our organization. Some consultants are so high-level or "fluffy" that their ideas are never usable...S4 does a different job in a different space from [some of the big name players] ... They could not have done what S4 did in terms of creating organizational alignment."

"Most consultants have canned answers or they tell you what they think you want to hear. S4 listens. We had a problem with a major customer. S4 went out and did field research with the customer. They talked with us about the life cycle of a customer and showed us what we would have to do if we wanted to keep the customer. Together we used S4's recovery process to win back that customer. Now years later that same customer is our largest customer. They helped us transform both our internal and external relationships so as to significantly grow our business."