Persanalytix Success Stories: Case Studies

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Arjuna Solutions helps More Than Wheels Revitalize its Growth Strategy & Measure Success ®

More Than Wheels is a nonprofit that helps individuals with poor credit histories acquire affordable financing when purchasing a car. More Than Wheels focuses on teaching program participants financial management skills through seminars, counseling, and weekly check-ins. Despite its success helping individuals lower default rates and acquire affordable auto loans, More Than Wheels has struggled to attract more program participants. The organization could not “make sense of [its] client data”, impairing its ability to formulate an effective growth strategy and identify performance issues sooner. Terri Steingrebe, CEO of More Than Wheels, turned to Arjuna Solutions ® in August. She asked Persanalytix® to help More Than Wheels achieve the following goals: Identify the best metrics to use as early predictors of their business model’s ability to scale in size Identify its “Best Participants” Understand how to more effectively reach its “Best Participants”

Hear from Terri herself about the success More Than Wheels has already experienced working with Arjuna Solutions ®

August 8, 2013 Adam Treiser Chief Executive Officer Arjuna Solutions I want you and your team to really appreciate what working with you can mean to More Than Wheels - it is so powerful that I am beyond being able to try and put it into words, but I will try. I have struggled now for more than five years to make sense of our client data. In our discussion all I did was let you know the details of our funnel for new and reapply clients, and you so quickly grasped that and came up with the indicator of the percentage of clients who [schedule and] show up for an initial consultation as a key indicator that we can track and measure in terms of seeing if we are making progress! I have over the past year significantly changed the direction of our marketing efforts, and I am constantly questioning my own decisions as to whether or not they are correct, or even in the right direction.   To have you tell me that the content that we are working on is a key to improving our results, and offering suggestions on the number of times to effectively blog, as well as the number of words for a blog post, is so helpful to me.  I have always wondered why we have not been able to generate a high volume in a specific geography.  Our competitors try to grow by opening "offices" in more and more locations - a model that is not financially sustainable.  Our funders, our board, and our management team have all felt that we must be doing something wrong, or to turn it around, that we just haven't found the "right" way to develop volume in a geographic location.  To start to be able to understand that this may simply be a factor of the population we serve gives me a way to explain what we've seen to others, and help us look at the ways to scale that are going to achieve volume.   You have no idea how difficult it has been to have this sense of "failure" that we just haven't been smart enough or savvy enough to solve this problem.  There have been times that I have thought about giving up because I have run out of things to try.  This work gives me such a renewed sense of hope.   I have made some gut level decisions over the past year or so: moving away from all brick and mortar, moving to a client acquisition strategy that focuses on internet based marketing, and a service model that provides services using technology, including the development of a client portal, stinger investments in internet based application processes, and hiring some smart young marketing people who can help us develop strong content.  I've done this over the objections of several of my management team which resulted in some significant turnover in my staff, and causes me to question if I am doing the right things.  People seem to think that we shouldn't have any trouble reaching people and growing our volumes, but I have found this to be the most complex business problem I have encountered in my business career.  I know our services are very valuable for those people who want to change the way they manage their finances, and where transportation can make a real difference in their success - I left my for profit job because I really believe in finding a way to make those services available to anyone who needs them across the country - and now for the first time I really am feeling that the business problem can actually be solved.  I only hope I have enough runway to be able to pull this off!   Thank you and your team for giving me hope.  By working with Persanalytix we will continue to discover over time how to both bring the program to the people who most need it and in a way that is self-sustaining.  I am so grateful. Terri Steingrebe CEO More Than Wheels