# CE × Cropster Pilot Proposal ## Draft — Internal Working Document --- ## What Christina Actually Said (Her Words, Not Ours) ### Her 5 real problems (in order of urgency): 1. **"We have a 150-slide product narrative and I need to translate it into marketing speech"** - A consultant built the product/pricing story. It's product-heavy. She needs it in brand language. - This is happening NOW — May launch is weeks away. 2. **"How are you tackling the messaging for all the different ICPs?" — her new CRO asked her on Day 1** - Roasteries (XS to XL), wholesalers, retailers, cafe chains, enterprise producers (Starbucks, Blue Bottle) - Each segment × each region = dozens of messaging variants she has zero capacity for. 3. **"90% of our traffic is inbound — I'm afraid the website revamp will break that"** - This is a real fear. Inbound is their engine. New positioning could alienate existing audience. - She needs data on what's actually working before she changes it. 4. **"People know us as a roast profiler — that's 5% of what we do"** - Repositioning from single-product perception to productivity platform. - "We need to educate people" — market doesn't know their own problem. 5. **"I want market feedback to inform a brand strategy in Q3/Q4"** - She explicitly does NOT want a brand strategy now. - She wants the DATA that leads to one. Customer feedback, market signals, competitive positioning. ### What she does NOT want: - "I hate sales calls where people show their solution blah blah blah" - "If you offer me a basket with 10,000 sweets, I'd want 10,000. But I don't have budget or time." - She doesn't want a TOV update right now - She doesn't want a rebrand - She doesn't want creative production ### Her buying criteria (she stated these explicitly): - **"What brings revenue? What helps with retention?"** — she needs to justify through business impact - **"How can I justify this?"** — needs internal sell story, even though she has board autonomy - **"Partnership, not vendor"** — wants to learn, grow together, mutual value - **"I search for problems, not solutions"** — she buys problem-first, not capability-first - **"Budget constraints"** — "broke as hell like every marketer" --- ## The Pilot: Three Concrete Services ### Service 1: ICP Message Architecture (Immediate — May launch support) **Her problem:** 150 slides of product narrative, no marketing translation, new CRO asking about ICP messaging, May launch in weeks. **What we deliver:** - Take the 150-slide consultant deck + existing brand guidelines - Produce an ICP Message Map: core messaging framework for each customer segment - Small roasteries (1-2 machines, quality-focused, maybe 1-2 staff) - Medium roasters (production scale, consistency matters, team of 10-50) - Large producers/wholesalers (supply chain, enterprise features, compliance) - Cafe chains (multi-location, ops efficiency, standardization) - Enterprise (Starbucks-level, full platform, integration, analytics) - For each segment: positioning statement, key messages, proof points, objection handling, tone guidance - Regional calibration notes for key markets (DACH, Nordics, Americas, Asia-Pacific) **Format:** Living document, updated weekly based on feedback. Not a 50-page PDF that sits in a drawer. **Why she'd say yes:** This solves the "my CRO asked me on Day 1 and I had no answer" problem. She needs this before May. **Timeline:** 2 weeks from receiving the 150-slide deck. --- ### Service 2: Market Signal Monitoring (Ongoing — builds the data foundation) **Her problem:** "We need an ear in the market." She wants feedback from communities, customers, competitors to inform Q3/Q4 brand strategy. She's flying blind on how the market perceives the new positioning. **What we deliver:** - Automated monitoring across coffee industry channels: - Specialty coffee publications (Daily Coffee News, Sprudge, Perfect Daily Grind, Roast Magazine, 25 Magazine) - Reddit (r/roasting, r/coffee, r/barista, r/coffeeindustry) - Industry forums and Facebook groups (Home Barista, coffee professional groups) - LinkedIn conversations (coffee tech, roastery management, cafe operations) - Competitor activity (Artisan, RoastLog, Bellwether, CoffeeMind, Typica) - Event chatter (World of Coffee, SCA events, Roast Summit) - Trustpilot/G2/Capterra reviews (Cropster + competitors) - Weekly signal report: what's being said, what matters, what's noise - Monthly trend synthesis: what's changing in how the market talks about Cropster's category **Why she'd say yes:** She said "I don't have to choose which assumptions to explore — we can explore all of them." This is exactly that. She gets market intelligence she'd never have capacity to gather internally. **Timeline:** First signal report within 1 week of kickoff. Then weekly. --- ### Service 3: Sales Narrative Translation (Short-term — supports May launch) **Her problem:** The consultant's 150 slides are product-heavy. Sales team needs different talk tracks for different segments. The website needs copy that doesn't alienate 90% inbound while repositioning for enterprise. **What we deliver:** - Segment-specific sales one-pagers (1 per ICP, distilled from message architecture) - Website copy recommendations: what to keep, what to change, risk analysis for inbound - Email/campaign copy frameworks per segment (not full campaigns — frameworks her team can execute) - Competitive positioning one-pager: how Cropster compares on what each segment cares about **Why she'd say yes:** Her team can execute immediately. She doesn't have to hire a copywriter or brief an agency. She gets actionable tools, not strategy decks. **Timeline:** Rolls out alongside Service 1. First drafts in 2 weeks, iterated weekly. --- ## What We DON'T Propose (Yet) - ❌ Brand strategy (she said Q3/Q4 — we earn the right to do this through Services 1-3) - ❌ Tone of voice update (she explicitly said not now) - ❌ Creative production / visual assets (no budget, no need yet) - ❌ Social content (premature) - ❌ Full rebrand (the prize at the end, not the entry point) --- ## Pricing ### The principle: Christina said "not agency pricing." She said "broke as hell." She also said "I don't need to justify to the board" and "this should be a partnership." The right price is one where: 1. She can say yes without a procurement process 2. It's obviously less than one junior hire (which she'd need 2-3 of to do this internally) 3. CE isn't losing money — this is a pilot, not charity 4. There's enough skin in the game that she takes it seriously ### Proposed structure: **Pilot: May–July (3 months)** | | What's included | Monthly | |---|---|---| | **Core** | ICP Message Architecture + Sales Narrative Translation + Weekly Signal Reports | €2,500/mo | | **Full** | Core + Monthly Trend Synthesis + Competitive Positioning + Sales One-Pagers | €3,500/mo | - First 2 weeks: intensive (message architecture + first signal report) - Then: weekly cadence, 1 sync call per week (30 min) - All deliverables are living documents, not final PDFs - Christina's team owns everything we produce - Cancel anytime with 2 weeks notice **Comparison for her internal justification:** - Junior brand manager in Austria: €45,000-55,000/yr = €3,750-4,600/mo + overhead - Agency engagement for this scope: €15,000-25,000/mo minimum - CE pilot: €2,500-3,500/mo, no contract, first output in 2 weeks ### After the pilot (if it works): - Q3/Q4 brand strategy engagement — scoped and priced separately - This is where the real revenue is, but we earn it --- ## How This Becomes a Real Partnership Christina said "partnership, not vendor." Here's what that actually means in practice: 1. **Week 1:** We get the 150-slide deck, brand guidelines, access to any existing research 2. **Week 2:** First ICP Message Architecture draft + first signal report. 30-min review call. 3. **Weeks 3-4:** Iterate message architecture based on Christina's feedback. Sales one-pagers start. 4. **Month 2:** Signal reports are running weekly. We start seeing patterns. Competitive positioning sharpens. 5. **Month 3:** We have 2+ months of market data. We present a "brand strategy readiness" brief — here's what the data says, here's what a Q3/Q4 strategy engagement would look like. The pilot either proves we're useful — in which case the brand strategy engagement is a natural next step — or it doesn't, and she cancels. No risk for her. --- ## The Internal Sell (What She Tells Her CRO and CEO) She needs to articulate this. We should arm her with the language: **To her CRO:** "I brought in a small external team to build our ICP messaging framework. They're monitoring the market for us and producing segment-specific sales tools. Fixed cost, less than a junior hire, first output in two weeks." **To her CEO (Andreas):** "I'm piloting a partnership that gives us market intelligence and messaging support without adding headcount. They use AI to scale research and production, so we get agency-quality thinking at a fraction of the cost. If it works, they'll help us build the brand strategy in Q3." **To her new brand person:** "Here's your messaging framework. Here's what the market is saying this week. Here's how competitors are positioning. You don't have to start from zero." --- ## Risk Assessment | Risk | Likelihood | Mitigation | |---|---|---| | Her Apr 15 brief is thin/late | High | Send her a structured questionnaire by Apr 7 | | She can't share the 150-slide deck (NDA/internal) | Medium | Ask for a summary or key slides, work from public info | | Budget approval takes longer than expected | Low (she has autonomy) | Keep entry price friction-free | | She goes with a different vendor | Low | Nobody else is offering this specific combination | | Pilot doesn't produce visible value in month 1 | Medium | Front-load deliverables — message architecture in week 2 | | She doesn't have time for weekly calls | Medium | Make them optional, async delivery works too | | The ops manager (data person) needs convincing | Medium | Technical demo of signal monitoring system | --- ## Immediate Next Steps 1. **By Apr 7:** Send Christina a structured brief template (not a questionnaire — a template she fills in with her team) 2. **Apr 7-14:** Build a proof-of-concept signal report using public Cropster data — show her what week 1 would look like before she's even a client 3. **Apr 15:** She sends her summary. We respond within 48 hours with the pilot proposal (cleaned up version of this) 4. **Apr 17-18:** Follow-up call to walk through proposal, agree on scope 5. **May 1:** Pilot starts --- ## The Bigger Picture (For Us) This is CE's first real B2B SaaS pilot. If it works: - It proves the market intelligence + messaging model (not just creative production) - It gives us a replicable playbook for mid-market B2B companies - Christina becomes a reference (she's already talking about "test pilot") - The Q3/Q4 rebrand is a €15-25K engagement - Cropster has 4 products × multiple regions = years of work if we prove value Don't undercharge. Don't overdeliver for free. Make the pilot tight, prove value fast, and let the relationship compound.