Marketing for growth – LeaseEagle case study
LeaseEagle was co-founded by Lee Trevena, who, after spending over a decade in corporate and retail real estate, recognised a growing need for a solution to help tenants manage their portfolios and compete effectively with landlords when it came to lease commitments and negotiating lease deals.
What began as a side project soon became Lee’s full-time focus as he sought to create a business software solution in the early days of internet-based technology. With a solid product and initial investors on board, Lee knew that scaling the business would require expertise beyond his own – specifically, in sales and marketing.
SNAPSHOT:
The challenge
In the early stages, marketing efforts were sporadic at best. Lee recalls the frustration of handling everything himself: “It was very haphazard and ad hoc with no real strategy. One night, I asked myself, why am I doing this? This is ridiculous.” This realisation sparked a shift. Lee recognised the need to bring sales and marketing expertise to scale effectively.
Recognising the need for external help, Lee considered outsourcing to access more expertise and workforce at a lower investment cost.
Through conversations with align.me, it became clear that LeaseEagle needed not just an outsourced marketing manager but a strategic partner who could help chart a path for long-term growth.
The strategy
The partnership with align.me began with Funnel Camp™, a multi-day workshop that gathers key stakeholders together to undertake a significant strategic review of their sales and marketing process, resourcing, strategy, objectives, and more to align them around a single plan.
At first, Lee and his team weren’t sold on Funnel Camp™, thinking they’d be simply rehashing what they’d already gone through. However, it ended up being one of the most valuable exercises of the partnership. “While we were circumspect in the beginning, it actually became a significant moment in the business”, says Lee. “It effectively laid out the strategy for us over five years, which we then executed almost to perfection”.
The work
The execution of the new strategy yielded early successes and align.me’s expertise saw tactics that previously hadn’t worked start to bring in legitimate leads for the business. Early success included:
The result
Across the five-year partnership, LeaseEagle and align.me were able to achieve significant and quantifiable growth and sales outcomes both in Australia and the newly entered South African market. This enabled Lee to not only achieve his primary goal of creating an exit event (acquisition) for himself and his shareholders but also to secure a high sale price.
Overall, align.me was able to help LeaseEagle achieve:
Across the five-year partnership, LeaseEagle and align.me were able to achieve significant and quantifiable growth and sales outcomes both in Australia and the newly entered South African market. This enabled Lee to not only achieve his primary goal of creating an exit event (acquisition) for himself and his shareholders but also to secure a high sale price.
Overall, align.me was able to help LeaseEagle achieve:
“The ultimate goal was to create an exit event for myself and the shareholders. Once we executed on the final exit, we were talking a number four times what it had been prior to the align.me engagement and that strategic period of five years.” – Lee Trevena, Co-Founder, LeaseEagle
Entering new markets
After achieving consistent success across marketing, sales, and implementation in Australia, LeaseEagle set its sights on international growth, identifying South Africa as a promising new market. With its similarities to Australia and an underdeveloped software sector, it seemed like a natural next step. Initially, the team planned to replicate their Australian strategy, but align.me, acting as strategic advisors, recommended a tailored approach. They emphasized that South Africa’s less mature market required different messaging and tactics to resonate with potential clients.
This guidance proved crucial. The South African experience highlighted the importance of market-specific strategies, particularly in identifying and engaging early adopters.
