From Customer Insight to New Sales Opportunities
How D-Fence, a Finnish cybersecurity expert, listened to its customers in a new way and turned its findings into action within weeks.
25
Years of expertise in the information security field at D-Fence
100 %
Domestic Services for Business Customers
2
The following customer groups were interviewed: current customers and companies used for comparison
6 weeks
Applying Findings in Sales and Customer Service
The question that kicks off a strong customer insight project is always the same. It can be phrased in many ways, but its essence remains the same: Why did the customer choose us, and why did another company end up choosing someone else after comparing options?
The Finnish cybersecurity company D-Fence Oy has been operating in the market since 2000. The company’s service portfolio is built around domestic solutions: the Easy GDPR service, designed for managing GDPR compliance; email security; and the broader Email Security suite. The company has a diverse and established customer base and enjoys a strong reputation in the industry.
But as is often the case with long-established consulting firms, there was one conversation that had never been systematically held: a conversation with the client in their own words, without a sales agenda.
It was D-Fence’s decision to initiate that discussion, which yielded results within six weeks.
Goal: an outside perspective, a deeper understanding
D-Fence wasn’t born out of a crisis. On the contrary: the existing services were working well, customers were satisfied, and the company’s core business was strong. The goal was to build on that foundation.
Still, the company’s management had a hunch that customers actually had more to say than what routine customer interactions revealed. Customers were buying. They valued the service. But what, exactly, did they value about it? What else did they want? And what were the companies—the ones that had once compared options but ultimately chosen a different solution—really looking for?
In a typical situation, these questions remain unanswered. They aren’t asked because there’s no simple way to answer them. NPS scores provide a number but not a reason. Customer feedback surveys work well for short questions but run into the problem that respondents tend to phrase their answers politely.
D-Fence took a different approach. They decided to build a project that would generate genuine conversations with real people—conversations deep enough that customers would discover new things even about themselves.
Two groups were selected as interviewees. The first consisted of D-Fence’s current customers: companies that had chosen D-Fence as their partner and were familiar with its services. The second group consisted of companies that had previously compared options but ultimately opted for a different solution. Comparing these two groups was a deliberate choice: only when considered together does the picture of D-Fence’s market position become complete.
The goal was simple but challenging: to bring an outside perspective to the management team that would help develop services and identify new sales opportunities. Not a survey, but a real conversation.
Approach: real conversations, not forms
Voitto Group conducted the interviews as an external interviewer with nothing to sell and no personal stake in the outcome. This is a methodologically significant difference. A customer does not share the same information with a salesperson as they would with a neutral conversation partner. They are mindful of their politeness, their own role, and their relationship with the salesperson, and choose their words accordingly.
An outside interviewer has a different kind of access. He has no product to defend, no offer to make, and no history of previous conversations to recall. They can simply ask: “What were you looking for when you set out to find a solution? ” And listen to the answer.
This methodological choice was the cornerstone of the D-Fence project. It set this work apart from a survey: a survey produces numbers, while an in-depth interview produces insight.
The customer interviews conducted by Voitto Group provided us with concrete and actionable data. We were able to respond immediately: we offered additional services to our existing customers and reached out again to selected companies with a more clearly targeted message.
The interviews were in-depth, and the findings were synthesized into a format that D-Fence’s management could use: not as a long report that no one would read, but as a concrete picture of what customers value, what they’re satisfied with, and where there are opportunities to bring them more value. The synthesis was structured so that each finding was linked to a potential action. Not just observations, but guidelines for moving forward.
The project lasted a total of six weeks. Afterward, D-Fence had not only an analysis but also an action plan on the table.
Results: From Findings to Action
The outcome of the project was not a presentation. It was three immediate actions that D-Fence was able to implement right away.
The first was providing added value to existing customers. The interviews revealed that many satisfied customers were unaware of all of D-Fence’s services that would have provided them with tangible benefits. This wasn’t because of a lack of communication, but because the information hadn’t been tailored to their specific situation at the exact moment it would have resonated with them. The information was shared with the sales team, and targeted outreach was conducted to those customers who had a clear need. In a nutshell, this is the difference that the targeting insights gained from customer understanding make: the right message to the right customer at the right moment.
The second was a return to the companies that had been compared. Some of those who had once compared solutions but ultimately decided otherwise found themselves in a situation that had since changed. In some cases, the organization had evolved; in others, regulatory requirements had become more specific; and in still others, the original choice no longer met their needs. D-Fence reached out again, this time with a more clearly targeted message that addressed what the customer had previously been looking for. Many of these conversations were reignited.
This is an important insight in a broader sense as well: a previous “no” is not a permanent “no.” Once a company understands why the conversation stalled the first time, it can return with the right message when the situation has changed.
The third item was refinements to the sales team’s training. The interviews highlighted situations in which the sales team received concrete feedback on their own development. Not criticism, but constructive guidance on what the customer responded to positively and which conversation points were worth highlighting. This insight was incorporated into coaching and day-to-day work. A small adjustment to the rhythm of a sales interaction can have a big impact when it hits the mark of what the customer is actually listening to.
We received some great, straightforward tips on how we can improve the customer experience and help our salespeople succeed even more.
Nature of the collaboration: valuable and smooth
The collaboration developed into a smooth process. At the outset, we worked together to define the list of interviewees, the framework for the questions, and the desired outcome. Voitto Group conducted the interviews, reported interim findings to the management team, and the summary was presented and discussed together at the end.
For D-Fence, it was essential that the process lead to action. There are two worlds in consulting projects: those that end with a report, and those that end with action. From the very beginning, D-Fence was clear about which world this project belonged to.
Once the interviews were completed and the findings analyzed, we had concrete steps laid out on the table. Each finding was linked to what it meant in practice: who does what, and when. This is the difference that sets useful customer insight work apart from academic research.
The project was truly valuable to us. It gave us new insights and immediately helped us make concrete progress—not just reports, but action.
What Did D-Fence Actually Get?
After the project, D-Fence saw five tangible benefits that were evident in day-to-day operations.
Use of customer data in sales and service development. The interviews yielded a wealth of information that the sales team was able to apply immediately and that can serve as a basis for planning in service development. This was not a one-time finding but an ongoing tool that can be revisited when making new decisions.
New initiatives aimed at comparable companies. Previous discussions that did not result in a sale were not actually concluded; rather, they opened up new opportunities when the message was crafted based on what the company was looking for at the time. This is the unique benefit that a customer insight project delivers: it not only helps serve current customers better, but also reopens previously dead-end situations.
Interactions during sales situations are more focused. A small but impactful change: the sales team now has a clearer understanding of which talking points resonate with customers and how to enhance the customer’s experience of the meeting. A small adjustment at the right moment, in the right situation.
A clearer picture of the logic behind purchasing decisions. The interviews revealed how the target group actually makes decisions. This is information you can’t get from surveys or your own intuition—only from real conversations. Understanding the logic behind decision-making is what sets apart a salesperson who makes offers from one who closes the deal.
An outside perspective to support internal development efforts. When an outside party brought these observations to the table, the management team had a stronger basis for making decisions than if they had relied solely on their own views. An internal perspective is always valuable, but it is also always rooted in one’s own assumptions. An outside perspective does not invalidate the internal one, but rather reinforces it with a new perspective.
Recommendation: Making Customer-Centricity a Reality
At the end of the project, Jani Pajari of D-Fence summed up the collaboration in two sentences.
I highly recommend Voitto Group to anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of customers and make customer-centric decisions.
There is one key word in the recommendation: customer-centricity. It’s a term every company endorses. But putting it into practice requires a structure that truly brings the customer to the decision-making table.
For D-Fence, that structure came about through this project.
What does this mean if you recognize the same situation?
D-Fence’s starting point was not unusual. Most consulting firms have a strong view of why a client chooses them, but a less clear understanding of what clients actually want more from them, or what a company weighing its options considers when making a decision.
This isn’t because companies are negligent. It’s because listening to the customer’s own voice requires a space where the customer can speak without a sales agenda, and where the listener has the time and skill to ask the right follow-up questions.
Customer insight is not a customer survey. It is a systematic, externally led process in which customers speak in their own words and the company hears what it needs to inform its strategic decisions.
Working with D-Fence generated new sales opportunities, a more targeted message, a stronger sales team, and a clearer picture of the dynamics of the entire business—all within six weeks of the project’s start.
The same is possible in your organization if you start listening to your customers in a new way.
Here’s one question you can think about right now. If you could ask five of your customers one question to which you’d like an honest answer, what would it be? And when was the last time you asked it?
What would your customers say if they were asked?
Let’s go over your situation and see how your business looks from your customers’ perspective. Let’s start with a conversation. The first one is free.