Case study
Start-up to successful Scale-up
Period 1
The customer, organisation and market
The customer is active in mobility. This client has built the public eBike infrastructure in thirteen cities. Every day, thousands of residents use eBikes to get around. Since 2018, extensive experience has been gained with the operation of public eBikes.
Blue Marloc had been indirectly involved with this organisation for a few years, but had not yet carried out any direct work for it.
In September, Blue Marloc launched; the first activity was an introduction. This customer had already achieved considerable success and was ready to grow in various markets such as Belgium and the Netherlands. However, the client organisation was still small and the available competencies and resources were limited.
This is a common situation. Companies specialise in their current activities, and therefore lack the competencies needed to grow significantly. Financing 'lags' behind success as well; to grow, capital is needed. Raising capital is only possible when a certain critical mass has been reached.
In this gap, Blue MarLoc can be of great help.
Blue Marloc's co-investment & down to earth approach fitted the companies which decided to embrace Blue Marloc's Business In a Blue Box approach.
Business in a Blue Box
Normally, suppliers work with specific assignments; that must be discussed, thought out, and decided upon. However, as a company, you often need an approach that covers several things. In the Business in a Blue Box approach, this has been turned into a product.
In a six-week timebox, several disciplines work together; IT (CRM, Projects), Marketing (presentations, products, brochures), Sales (quotations, Goto Market), Finance (Business Case, Business Plan) and eCommerce (B2B and B2C website and webshop).
Commercial level
A lot of coordination takes place (daily and weekly) and so a complete professional company was quickly established.
Enabling and sustaining a sales campaign
Blue Marloc's Business in a Box was created to make sales campaigns a success. A successful campaign means each prospect must be given great sales materials and the sales team internal processing must be in perfect order. (A one-off or make-do is not sustainable.) The activities must be well supported with CRM AND resources. This creates an efficient (and affordable) sales process with a faster closing rate. And a quality process that can continuously be sustained. (Supported by Blue Marloc)
Financial level - the business plan
Numerous activities take place at the financial level:
- Business case models were elaborated.
- With the operation, direct sales and leasing details.
- Various market segments were identified and calculated.
- Products were calculated into the models.
An extensive business plan was developed by Blue Marloc and the Company.
Creating a solid business plan can be time-consuming and requires several competencies. Often organisations do not have the time nor competencies to develop this level of detail. While Blue Marloc detailed the plan, the entrepreneurs were able to focus on contacting investors and enhancing the supply chain and the products gained further recognition within the market as partnerships were set in place.
Enabling funding
Blue Marloc's Business in a Box is created to make funding a success. This means that the business case and the data must be correct. The cash flow and financing needs, but also the correct representation of the sales process, the market and the lead times. Blue Marloc brought all the data together (cost office, staffing, products, sales process) to build a realistic picture.
Growing ambitions and opportunities
It is common that initially, entrepreneurs have a limited plan based on their possibilities. By discovering the success of working with Blue Marloc, they discover much bigger ambitions. Blue Marloc takes care of some of the growth problems (resources) and opens doors to international commerce. The business plan developed into a "growth and expansion" model that is both realistic and achievable.
Delivery
The Business in a Box period ended with the delivery:
- B2B site, hosted and operational, in two languages
- Lightspeed B2C webshop, hosted and operational, in two languages
- Marketing materials, such as a corporate brochure, product brochure, and sales brochure, in two languages
- Marketing materials, such as photos
- Products drawn and rendered in 3D, modern and professional
- Sales materials such as location research and quotation templates
- Sales systems such as Hubspot CRM and Youtrack
- Financials such as the business case, business plan (draft), best case and worst case
- IT like email, office, shared drive etc.
- And a Blue Marloc team supporting the business processes
The Business in a Blue Box is a fixed price fixed period approach with flexible payment rules.
Business in a Blue Box - completed - a professional company - it doesn't hurt to impress
Period 2
Tryout and pilots
The second period focused on concrete sales campaigns and financing. Once the sales cycle is validated, the plan is scalable and investable.
Leads and Prospects - manual operation
Initially, leads are provided by the organisation. Blue Marloc investigates the exploitation and earning potential for those prospects and creates various types of sales material for those opportunities.
Location research as sales material
In a location survey, Blue Marloc's BI department takes a close look at all factors that influence the exploitation of mobility at a location. This results in a justification for the expected exploitation figures.
Commercial sales presentation
The Marketing Department provides 'commercial' presentations. Presentations that are used by the account managers to inform the future customer. Simplicity and sales belong together, if a customer has to puzzle over decisions it takes too long and everything becomes too expensive.
Easily explainable ranking system
Blue Marloc develops a simple ranking system so that both the account managers and the end customer can understand the quotations quickly and easily.
Business case and calculation
Blue Marloc adds business cases to paint the best possible picture of the opportunity under different conditions.
Quotations
Then Blue Marloc writes the more complicated documents for the quotations so that everything is in place and professional.
As one simple product
Blue Marloc ensures that this activity "Research, Presentation making, Business cases, Quotations" is repeatable and scalable. Therefore it can be used as a standard product in business plans and reality.
Financial
Meanwhile, the business plan was further developed. New products were attracted from the supply chain and new market segments were discovered. The plan changed a few times with B2B and B2C choices and several pilots were done to discover the optimal go-to-market strategy.
Financing growth
With commercial support, the organisation can carry out more sales activities. Blue Marloc's lead generation can provide several account managers with various leads from different segments. Because the account managers are relieved of the burden of producing commercial material and can always be in contact with a prospect with top-quality material, the number of sales contacts can accelerate.
Success - selected by Birdhouse investors
With the help of the business cases, plans, presentations and marketing materials, the entrepreneurs went in search of funding. This was found and won; the organisation was selected from dozens of candidates in a select group of companies seen as having 'great potential for the future'.
To be selected means amongst others that a bank enters the equity, an extended network of relations and credibility of the company.
Success - Contract won in three countries
With the Blue Marloc location surveys, the organisation approached several potential clients in try-out. This resulted in the signing of an important contract at the last minute for the operation of several locations in three countries.
Commercial and financial success
Period 3
Lead generation and market development
Campaign preparation
With these first successes in the pocket, campaign preparations are in full swing. In 2022 various sales campaigns including various target groups were started. Blue Marloc is responsible for the lead generation, email campaigns, creation of sales materials, location surveys, the Hubspot CRM and the daily consultation with the account managers to achieve maximum results.
Lead generation and sources
Blue Marloc uses various data sources to develop leads. Nowadays a lot of data is available online, but this data is fragmented and incomplete. If your organisation has to select leads, the first few are quickly found (cherry-picking). However, an organisation does not gain much from an occasional good sale.
Sales engine
With Blue Marloc, the organisation gets a sales engine that keeps providing the account managers with leads week after week. In consultation, campaign materials are constantly being developed and campaigns are prepared to generate leads as soon as a particular channel "dries up".
Periode 4
Expansion and the future
With every lead won, the organisation grows. In a planned way, the own organisation will soon take over tasks from Blue Marloc.
Stronger together
Blue Marloc is part of a group of companies whose aim is to accelerate the growth of enterprises. Blue Marloc falls under BDInvestments along with an IT and Software company, an eCommerce and Online company, and an eMobility company. Blue Marloc is active in the Netherlands and Belgium.
With these relationships helping to both expand and accelerate a client's operations, there is a network of professionals who can take organisations to the next level.
Scaling up and expanding
The organisation has entered the next phase; four investors have joined the company, the board of directors is in place and the organisation is growing. The Belgium market has been covered and new campaigns are being planned.
The next steps involve developing the UK market, Benelux and France. A new release of the Blue Marloc platforms is supporting the French lead generation and prospecting. With a growing team to provide the optimal services.
Key driver in success: Blue Marloc's Direct Sales Intelligence Platform
Blue Marloc's integrated commercial business system brings the best functionalities to commercial organisations.
Developed in the last decade, the BlueMarloc system offers what any ERP and CRM offers, contacts, companies and product management.
One familiar place - where all work gets done - increase sales - increases profitability
The Blue Marloc system is designed from the ground up as a means for the organisation to continuously increase sales.
It comes with an integrated database of 1.4 million organisations, data which is enriched with financial information. This drives continuous lead generation and new addressable markets. It comes with integrated direct sales management. Actual lead list to process by direct sales and outbound call centres. Where a competent Blue Marloc back office handles complextities and workforce. It comes with extensive delivery, onboarding and exploitation support. With tools specific to the organisations trade. Users of the system enjoy the "There is one place where all things come together" in an easy-to-use interface.