McKinsey & Company

Built TCO Sales Tool to Accelerate US Robot Placements

A private equity-backed robotics portfolio company had strong sales momentum in Europe but was struggling to gain traction in the US market, putting its Q2 2026 robot placement targets at risk. The PE firm engaged McKinsey to diagnose why deals were stalling in the US and to build a go-to-market plan that could get the sales pipeline back on track. As part of this workstream, I investigated the root cause of stalled deals and found that while the robot's key competitive advantage was its price point, sales reps struggled to translate that into a compelling, quantifiable business case for prospective customers. To solve this, I designed and built an economic calculator that laid out the total cost of ownership for our client's robot versus competitor products at a line-by-line level. I grounded the tool in rigorous data collection, combining desk research with expert interviews, and validated the model's assumptions and outputs directly with sales reps to ensure it reflected real-world customer conversations. Once rolled out, sales reps began using the calculator across client pitches within the first quarter, giving them a consistent, reliable tool to make the value proposition tangible during sales conversations. This directly contributed to shorter sales cycles and helped close new deals, putting the company on a stronger path toward hitting its Q2 2026 US placement targets.