Wim GE De Vos

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  • A 100M€ group of smarthome companies across Europe?

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    Interesting case of growthhacking.

    Bravas: 15 independent smart home design-build firms across the United States create a national footprint and will focus on professional integration “of electronic lifestyle technologies into custom-built intelligent spaces.”

    “Bravas, intelligent spaces” just landed a 75 million$ investment from a venture capital fund.

    If states in the US can be compared in many ways to EU countries  when it comes to market size, demographics, clients look for “local” smarthome companies,…
    The question to ask ourselves is then:

    Is there space for a Europe-wide unified group of smarthome companies ? Valued at say 100m€…

    20 established profitable integrators across Europe (10 capitals + 10 key cities)
    1 single client segment = luxury home owner
    1 single brand
    Gradually grow closer (no sudden merge – rather share/learn/adopt over time)
    – adopt best practices in business
    – same SW solutions
    – same design principles
    – same products/brands
    Each valued at 1 year turnover (or profit multiple) at a point in the future

     

    Bravas CEO Ryan Anderson says succinctly that the partners “are stronger together.”

    If they stay focussed I believe he is right. Why compete over 5% when 95% of the market potential is wide open if approached in the right way?

    Small companies with a BIG impact💥.

  • 3 Axes of B2B – Genesis Technologies

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    The growth of Genesis Technologies is a to a large extent the result of a clear channel strategy. In our opinion B2B is both a science and an art.

    For Genesis Technologies the 3 axes of B2B (channel strategy) are:

    Profit 💰

    Channel partners (installers of technology) are guaranteed to make more money by working with Genesis Technologies. Either by selling more or bigger systems, by being more efficient or by delivering higher quality systems.

    Higher profits are the fuel ⛽️ that drive our partnerships 🚀.

    Tribe 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

    Channel partners´ relationship with Genesis Technologies goes beyond a 1-to-1 simple service/supply mindset. Learning, service and caring happens between several nodes (true partners) in the network.

    Learning happens collectively 🤝 and is accumulated 📈 within the tribal network. The network gets stronger 💪🏻 with every project, problem solved, lesson learned.

    Respect 🙏🏻

    Respect for channel partners´ decisions, work, history and future is essential on Genesis Technologies approach to partnerships. No 2 companies are identical. Even if dreams, objectives, ambitions often are shared.

    Genesis Technologies´ story is about people 🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️. And partners are before anything that: people, people with dreams and a history.

     

    So now I have revealed Genesis Technologies strategy “3 axes of B2b”. Open for competitors to copy, for supply partners to amplify and others to share.

    Let´s make WOW the standard in whatever you do. Every time, every day.

  • Samsung The Wall 📺🤑💨 go-to-market strategy

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    Over a year ago Samsung asked to come up with a strategy on how to market their new “half a million USD TV” called “The Wall”. (Emoticons would describe the product concept at that stage as 📺 🤑 💨)

    Samsung admitted to have no clue re. luxury markets, did not understand the dynamics of the custom install industry and for sure did not share the importance of long-term channel partners and influencers, …

    The briefing I came up with was summarised to a large extent in the first pages of my report “The subtle art of entering the luxury yacht/home market as a technology company (In Europe)“. Download the report for free here.

    Then exactly 1 year ago in the midst of my holidays – Samsung flew me over to their “LED experience centre” in Frankfurt. The meeting with Samsungs management lasted about 1 hour. Until it became clear to me that there was no point…

    Why, you may ask? Well, the answer is higher up in the blog post 😉.

    In the mean time, my fellow technology architects: let´s make WOW 🍾😲 the standard together 🤝.

    Note: later meetings with other LED manufacturers (Barco, Hansen, Leyard, and now also Philips) have brought a series of challenges & opportunities to light that will positively impact large screen displays in the home.

     

  • sunk costs…🛶

    sunk costs…🛶

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    What you have done in the past does not – by itself – become a criterion for what you should do in the future.

    Investing your time and passion today and the next todays is about possible future outcomes. Not about what you did in the past.

    a simple example…: “I’ve already watched an hour of this horrible movie, I should probably just finish it”

    “Sunk costs” is not simply a financial concept, but a highly personal one too.

    #thefuturestartsnow

    w

  • Challenger sales – a key🔑 to success ?!

    The Challenger Sale is based on one of the largest sales studies ever conducted. One key finding was that 53% of customer loyalty is driven by the sales experience – not brand, price, service, or even the product. This experience is largely dictated by a customer’s interaction with the sales person and company overall.

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    According to this research, every B2B sales person falls into five different profiles that define the skills and behaviours they use when interacting with customers. These profiles describe a rep’s natural mode of interacting with a prospect, and are not mutually exclusive –

    • The Hard Worker
    • The Lone Wolf
    • The Relationship Builder
    • The Challenger
    • The Problem Solver

    what about success…? 🚀  Perfect for complex sales in a B2B environment

    40% of high sales performers primarily used a Challenger style – as opposed to one of the other four sales styles the book identified. • High performers were more than 2x likely to use a Challenger approach than any other approach. • More than 50% of all star performers fit the challenger profile in complex sales. • Only 7% of top performers took a relationshipbuilding approach – the worst performing profile.

    BUT: … not for everyone… Sales strategy needs a tailored approach.

    As sales complexity increases, so does the success rate of the challenger approach. However, this Challenger approach only worked better among high performers. Among average performers, all profiles were roughly as successful as one another. This is a disruptive finding, as most sales training and sales teams today are geared towards creating and encouraging the Relationship Builder, the least effective of the five profiles.

    Small changes in strategy that can create a huge impact…💥

    May the salesforce be with you.