Executive Summary

A notable exit

Pure IP had built an outstanding business, but operational excellence alone was no longer enough to achieve the founders’ ambitions.

The CEO and founder, Gary Forrest, wanted to accelerate growth by winning larger multinational enterprise clients. To do that they needed more than great products and exceptional customer service. They needed a commercial Growth Platform capable of supporting the next stage of the business.

Working alongside Gary and leadership team, we helped redefine where Pure IP could compete, built a compelling enterprise proposition, strengthened the commercial engine and established the foundations for long-term growth.

The platform created during the engagement supported several years of accelerated growth before the business achieved a notable exit in 2023.

Pure IP wasn’t failing

Why Growth Had Stalled

Revenue was growing steadily and the business had built an enviable reputation among existing customers. Retention was strong, customers valued the company’s technical expertise and approach and referrals continued to generate new business.

The challenge was that the business had reached the point where operational excellence alone was no longer enough.

Gary wanted to move upmarket, shake off some of the smaller clients, compete for larger enterprise opportunities and accelerate growth, but the commercial platform required to do that had never been deliberately built.

We began with a Re:Map, ReStrategy’s commercial diagnostic designed to assess the foundations of a business and identify the priorities most likely to unlock growth.

The review revealed six recurring issues.

• No clearly defined ideal customer profile or priority sectors
• No compelling enterprise proposition to differentiate Pure IP from other providers
• No shared commercial strategy linked to the three-year growth ambition
• Limited routes to market beyond referrals and existing relationships
• An under-resourced marketing function focused on tactical delivery
• Little visibility of which commercial activity genuinely contributed to revenue

Pure IP didn’t have a marketing problem.  It had reached the point where it needed an intentional commercial Growth Platform.

It’s more than marketing, it’s a review of IP, services and business plan. It’s business development in the very broadest sense.

Gary Forrest, CEO, Pure IP

Building the Growth Platform

All successful Growth Strategies follow the same journey.

• Define where you will play and how you will win.
• Build the capability, systems and commercial engine to deliver consistent demand.
• Scale through leadership alignment, measurement and continual improvement.

DEFINE: Position and Competitive Strategy

The first question was simple.

Where could Pure IP genuinely outperform organisations many times its size?

We studied competitors, reviewed analyst reports, worked alongside the finance team to understand the numbers and spoke with specialist Teams experts at Microsoft.

Three key insights emerged and the first immediately stood out.

Although Pure IP was a relatively small privately owned business, it held licence agreements to supply telephone numbers in more countries than any other provider.  Nobody was talking about it. That single insight fundamentally changed the commercial story.

They started us on a journey. They decoupled the existing thinking and reframed the path the future.

Gary Forrest, CEO, Pure IP

Many of the enterprise organisations Pure IP wanted to target operated large construction projects, energy programmes and international operations where global voice services could be deployed quickly across multiple countries. Suddenly Pure IP had a genuine competitive advantage.

We also surfaced another important proof point.

Pure IP’s highly resilient secure private network gave enterprise buyers confidence that the business had the capability to support mission-critical communications.

The third point was their emerging voice for Microsoft Teams capability and expertise.

Rather than competing as another generic network provider, Pure IP could now authentically position itself as a specialist enterprise Unified Communications partner.  The conversation changed. So did the competitive landscape.

What we realised

The research highlighted something the leadership team hadn’t fully appreciated. Although Pure IP was a relatively unknown challenger brand, its global reach exceeded that of many household names. 

The capability already existed. The market simply didn’t know about it.

Customer interviews reinforced the opportunity.

Clients consistently told us how much they valued the direct access to specialists, engineer-led support, practical problem solving and a willingness to find the most effective solution rather than simply selling another product.  They liked ‘small’, they liked access.

Those qualities were highly valued but seldomly associated with larger providers. Together they became the foundation of a much stronger enterprise proposition.

We captured the thinking in one simple statement.

Pure IP – The Biggest Global Voice Provider You’ve Never Heard Of.

It perfectly reflected both the opportunity and the challenge.

We proposed packaging the core offering into a clearly defined solution that would make it easier to buy and easier to sell.  This would prove to be a consistent platform for sales conversations, marketing campaigns and partner engagement.

They helped to develop our thinking around the different revenue streams, overlaid with the position we could potentially own.

Gary Forrest, CEO, Pure IP

We now had a strong proposition to take to market and a clear ambition to be the challenger brand that enterprise would want to work with.

BUILD: Turning Strategy into Execution

A strategy only creates value when it is implemented.

With the leadership team fully aligned behind the new positioning and product, our attention shifted from planning to execution.

The first priority was strengthening internal capability.

Working with founder and CEO Gary Forrest, we recruited Marketing Director Ian Guest, who would lead the next phase of the commercial programme.

Together we translated the strategy into practical action.

We packaged the enterprise proposition into a clearly defined solution branded SeRVE, (Secure, Resilient Voice for Enterprise). The proposition was given its own identity and trademarked providing go to market offering that could be customised for different clients.

ReStrategy then wrote a detailed creative brief covering the market positioning, customer insight, ideal customer profile and commercial messaging before running a competitive agency selection process.

The objective was simple. Create a website and digital campaign capable of putting Pure IP on the radar of enterprise buyers around the world.

Building the Commercial Engine

Great businesses don’t generate demand by accident.

We introduced a simple commercial framework.Awareness. Belief. Conviction. First, get noticed. Then build credibility. Finally, create enough confidence for customers to choose you. That thinking shaped everything that followed.

The new website increased visibility and campaign landing pages became the focal point for converting leads from the awareness campaign.

We put together a set of materials and collateral to support the buyer journey and recruited new people into the team.  Sales and marketing began working from the same commercial playbook.

A new content strategy concentrated on case studies and thought leadership to evidence technical expertise and establish credibility.

Alongside the external activity, we worked with Ian to configure Salesforce and HubSpot so new enquiries could be captured, nurtured and prioritised through lead scoring, automated customer journeys and carefully timed sales engagement.

Alex helped us transition towards winning more multi-national, enterprise clients. I still look at the notes from the work we did three years ago – it’s genuinely useful.

Gary Forrest, CEO, Pure IP

The commercial engine was no longer dependent on referrals alone and we’d broken the total reliance on the CEO as the only person who could sell.

SCALE: Embedding Long-Term Growth

As the commercial platform matured, ReStrategy’s role evolved.

The focus shifted from building capability to helping the leadership team sustain momentum. Monthly dashboards provided greater commercial visibility. Quarterly strategic reviews ensured priorities remained aligned with the long-term ambition.

Regular catch-ups and mentoring sessions with Ian and Gary supported decision-making, challenged assumptions and helped maintain focus as the business continued to grow.

The objective was no longer to launch initiatives. It was to build a commercial system capable of improving continuously.

Outcome

The commercial Growth Platform was established just before the explosion of Microsoft Teams and enterprise Unified Communications.  Pure IP was exceptionally well positioned to capitalise on that shift.

With a compelling enterprise proposition, a stronger commercial engine and much greater visibility in the market, the business entered its next phase of growth with confidence.

In 2023, Pure IP was acquired in what was widely regarded as an exceptional transaction, demonstrating the value created by combining operational excellence with a deliberately constructed commercial Growth Platform.

What ReStrategy Delivered

Reflection for CEOs

There comes a point where founders have to stop relying solely on instinct and operational excellence. Sustainable growth comes from building capability around you. Be brave enough to step back, recruit exceptional people, give them autonomy, and trust them to deliver.

We really needed to accelerate and ReStrategy showed us where to focus.

Gary Forrest, CEO, Pure IP