Prophia’s Pandemic Pivot: Transforming Market Resistance into Digital Adoption

The worst time to launch a commercial real estate technology product? Probably March 2020, just as COVID-19 shuttered offices worldwide. Yet that’s exactly when Prophia found themselves, having just hired their first salesperson and launched their commercial product. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Cameron Steele shared how they transformed this potential disaster into unexpected opportunities.

When the Market Goes Dark

The initial impact was severe. As Cameron recalls, “Our customers literally went dark on us. Our prospective customers went dark on us really March of 2020, and we had just shipped our product a couple of months prior.” The timing couldn’t have been worse – they had just hired their first salesperson and were ready to scale.

The commercial real estate industry was particularly hard hit. Unlike many businesses that could adapt to remote work, commercial real estate faced existential questions about its future. But within this crisis, Prophia found unexpected opportunities for transformation.

Finding Silver Linings in Digital Adoption

While the pandemic disrupted traditional sales processes, it also accelerated digital transformation. Cameron notes two crucial shifts: “People got really comfortable by seeing product demos over the computer, so over Zoom and other tools, and they also got comfortable signing contracts electronically, which wasn’t necessarily the case prior to that.”

This shift broke down long-standing barriers to technology adoption in the industry. Virtual meetings and electronic contracts – previously seen as suboptimal alternatives – became accepted standard practice.

Adapting to the New Reality

Prophia’s end market was, as Cameron describes, “very old school in terms of how they do things. A lot of in person, a lot of direct engagement.” Rather than fighting this culture, they adapted their approach to blend old and new methods:

1. Virtual First, Personal Follow-up “We try and meet people, we try and get a personal relationship going with many of our important prospects,” Cameron explains. They could now initiate relationships virtually and follow up in person when appropriate.
2. Content-Driven Awareness They focused on building awareness around specific pain points through content. As Cameron describes: “We’re also building awareness about very specific pain points that our customers know about through building online awareness through content.”
3. Problem-Focused Marketing Instead of selling technology, they focused on addressing known industry challenges. For example, they highlighted how they could eliminate manual lease abstraction, which Cameron describes as “going through reading leases and essentially typing in summary information into a digital form.”

Navigating Ongoing Market Challenges

The challenges didn’t end with COVID. As Cameron explains, “In the last 18 months, the cost structure for commercial property owners has changed dramatically. Obviously, interest rates have gone up a lot… The cost of financing buildings has changed a lot.”

Rather than retreating, Prophia doubled down on helping customers navigate these challenges. Their platform now manages “about 270 million rentable square feet” – more than all of downtown Chicago.

Lessons for B2B Founders

Prophia’s experience offers valuable insights for founders facing market disruption:

1. Look for Hidden Opportunities Even severe market disruptions can accelerate positive changes. The key is identifying which changes will persist beyond the crisis.
2. Adapt Don’t Abandon Instead of abandoning traditional relationship-building, Prophia found ways to blend virtual and personal approaches.
3. Focus on Fundamental Problems During crisis periods, focus on solving fundamental problems rather than selling innovation.

As Cameron puts it: “Every day, if we do just make a little incremental progress every day that compounds.” This patient, adaptive approach has enabled them to continue growing despite multiple market challenges.

The key lesson? Sometimes market crises create unique opportunities to break down resistance to change. For B2B founders, the challenge is maintaining enough flexibility to capitalize on these opportunities while staying true to your core value proposition.