2nd Wave 🌊 – being a start-up again…🚀

June 12, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

In the last couple of months many of us have been struggling for business survival. Now we are coming out of it we are at a crossroads.

Option 1: Back to the future.

Put all the bits and pieces into place just the way they were back in 2019. And hop back in the treadmill hoping that “this time my business will scale”. For the obvious reason that well,…that you picked things up where you left them middle of march.

“Along the journey we commonly forget its goal” F. Nietsche

But this is the low-probability-option to a scaleable business. Our businesses oftentimes had become an amalgam of different services and products trying to serve many different customers. And therein lies the reason for a very low Result/Work ratio…

Or Option 2: Hack value before you hack growth

This means going back to your customers and find out what they truly love 💙 about you, your company and what you have to offer. Find what it is they cherish and crave. And drop the rest. Listen, ask, interview. That is where the secret treasure is to be found 🏆.

Find your core, your focus, your true north through customer discovery.

This the focus 🎯 for your start-up. Cut the rest.

note: you have a number of asymmetrical advantages in your pocket already: existing customers that trust you, services and products you sold and got paid for, a team of knowledge people, sorted out the messy stuff of operating a company,… all things that allow you to spend all time and attention during the next few weeks on finding what it is people love about your company.

Hack Value before you hack growth…It is the starting point for success and scale as a start-up.

Now is the time to decide if you want to re-create the business you had or become the business you always wanted to be.

Choose wisely and embrace the consequences.

The dark horse

April 9, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

Every day we choose between 3 approaches for everything we do:

Custom, tailor-made, one-off
Personalised, configured, repeatable
One-size-fits-all, standard, commoditised

But when we make our choices are we consistent, smart, see them in context?

Ask which of the 3 approaches you choose in the following cases:

connecting with our customers
drafting and sending proposals
delivering control or audiovisual systems
hire and fire
remuneration
training
service
making cars, speakers, systems,…
…

I dare to think we all use far too much custom and standard approaches…

When the personalised, configured, repeatable approach is the dark horse* in the race for success.

Custom is overrated

One-size-fits-all is overused

Personalisation is the dark horse…

Asking ourself some simple questions may have a big impact 🤜🏻 💥

*Definition “dark horse”:
a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds

WOW & after-WOW

March 10, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

Extracts from “How Tech Makes an Experience Out of Everything”, WSJ.

Insights in how a company roles & relationships can evolve by using tech to focus on experiences.

“WSJ: Where are the biggest openings for experience to make a difference on the bottom line?

Technology is where the opportunity really is, and the melding of it with the old things. And in the technology space, we think of common things like virtual reality, augmented reality, automation, et cetera, which are important. But what I’m thinking of right now is, are there other facets that you don’t look at, but are about the experience?”

“WSJ: Can traditional, analog companies improve experience?

Do you like Muji [the seller of household items and clothes] products? The lead designer there once said that Muji’s philosophy is to not go after what he calls the wow effect, the first impression. He said at Muji we look for the after wow. The after wow is you buy it, bring it home, and after a month say, that’s good. You know? So the after wow is a deeper experience relationship.

Most of what we award is about “wow!” Which doesn’t realize a recurring revenue service. It’s a “Oh, you really marketed to me really well, I bought it, I kind of tired of it, it isn’t useful for me.” So I’m going to be looking for the after wow.”

“WSJ: So do you have to be patient?

Not patient. Logical. Because its only something you can measure in larger time steps. If you’re trying to measure in a quarter, it’s not possible in a product that you’re trying to get people to enjoy for a year or two years or three years.

We have to think of all products like subscription products. Technically everything is a kind of subscription product; if you go to the supermarket and buy apple they want you to come back and buy apples. Nowadays how there are very few one-time products you buy, even homes.”

Let´s make WOW the standard. Together.

Which ocean do you surf 🏄‍♂️? What planet are you on ?

January 18, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

Which Ocean do you surf 🏄‍♂️? *

What planet 🌏 are you on?

Planet Traditional: everyone is looking for the extraordinary deal.
What matters is: price – features – status.

Planet NEO (New Economic Order): people need to feel a connection with what they buy. It needs to represent who they are.
What matters is: design – how things work – authenticity – who you buy from – uniqueness – discovery.

Facts to bear in mind…

On planet NEO the tendency is towards smaller, personal companies.

93% of the world´s big spenders across industries live on planet NEO.

During the economic downturn of 2008-2012 NEO´s became more NEO and spent actually more on what really mattered to them.

Entrepreneur, friend, surfer, boarder Ryan Gustafson shared the following explainer video with me. Check it out and decide which planet you are on… VIDEO

*I am a big fan of Blue Ocean Strategy: learn more here

Genesis: our customer segments 🍰

January 8, 2020 by Wim GE De Vos Leave a Comment

The Strategyzer model we use defines customer segments as follows:

Customer Segments are the different groups of people or organizations your enterprise aims to reach and serve. This includes users who might not generate revenues, but which are necessary for the business model to work
(e.g. users of Google’s free search engine are essential to their advertising-based business model, or doctors are usually an essential, but non revenue-generating part of a pharmaceutical company’s business model).

Questions to ask

For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers, clients, or users?

Genesis customer segments:

Installers of Technology = IoT´s:

Our delivery channel partners. Specialised engineering companies dedicated to selling, designing, installing, delivering and servicing home technology to premium homes.
We see divide these into 2 groups and call them “Home Technology Architects”:

Apprentice IoT – on route to build a successful business
Mature IoT – established successful business

Premium Home Building Professionals:

Our specification channel partners. Professionals, already convinced about the need to include technology in premium homes of today and tomorrow. They are looking to learn how to integrate more technology in a simpler and more beautiful way into premium homes.
Note the niche we are looking to serve… only those focussed on premium homes & are looking to learn…focus.

Visionary architects – looking to learn how technology can serve their vision of the homes they design
Home builder – looking for technology that adds value to the homes they sell
Interior design contract division – looking for technology that serves the design of spaces they create

Map your customer segments with your value proposition and you start unraveling the mystery of your business…see image on the top for a first step (courtesy Strategyzer).

Next step then is to answer the following questions:

What change are you trying create?
Who are you trying to change?
(for more on the importance of this last question turn to the wizards Seth Godin and Steve Blank – obvious next question then becomes “What change do you want to create?”…)

Short questions with BIG answers…

extra context re. home building professionals – below an email sent to our supply partners a while back…

Dear Willie Wonka,

I would like to ask for some extra attention and time to deal with our request below. It concerns our future and success…

As our strategic partner I wanted to ask you for some input and help. Help in growing our business together. The second stage of our rocket 🚀… The so-called “specification channel” stage: ✏️

The “delivery channel”: ✅is established and organically grown further

This we have – about 300 established partners across France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

These are our current “installation partners”, “dealers”, “integrators”, “installers of technology”.

(The people and companies you see at ISE who sell and install technology products)

Status: We have the trust and the ear of this channel. Based on this channel alone we are able to grow 30-50% under the current favourable market conditions. Our focus is on serving them by making their life simple and work on a project basis when and where we can.

The “specification channel”: ✏️

This is what we need to develop. There are thousands of these.

These are mainly “architects”, “contract divisions of design and build brands” and “technical design offices”.

They are hard to reach as this is one of the most over-marketed groups in the building industry.

Interesting read on how to reach this group here: How to market to architects. Some lighting companies and building component manufacturers do this quite well. Our industry however does not (yet)…

Status: We are reaching out to architects via trade shows ( eg: http://www.architectatwork.com/), Builder Program (https://www.builder-program.eu/) and via some of our installers. We offer to help architects to include (specify) technology in their high-end projects.

Request:

What architect-facing marketing materials do you have?
Do you have experience in marketing towards architects? If so, could you share best practices?
Are there any specific online activities you use to reach architects?
How do you handle architects requests for info? Can you elaborate?
Do you have a plan or strategy to market to architects?

In our opinion this “second stage of the rocket 🚀” is what is needed to keep growing and empower installers to sell premium systems. So we invite you to work with us to make this happen.

Thanks in advance and always happy to discuss over the phone or in person to take a deep dive on this.

Wim