SME–Corporate Partnership Coaching: Case Studies
Turning an EIC‑funded pilot into a lasting SME–corporate deal: a coaching journey
Client: European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator
Beneficiary: Founders of a startup selling water sensors. TRL6
Challenge: Move from EU‑funded experiment to win reference client support. Turn pilots into real business with corporates.
Assignment: This SME–corporate partnership coaching included coaching on segmentation & positioning, on value proposition building and testing, active listening, Ideal Client Persona (ICP), corporate communication & personalisation, optimising marketing process, systems, and monitoring the ABM practice to align the SME's commercial readiness with corporate expectations.
Impact: An optimised go-to-market strategy, Letters Of Interest (LOIs) from 3 reference industrial clients.
Services: ABM training and coaching
Format: 24 hours within 1 year, 100% remote
#EIASME #businessinnovationcoaching #waterinnovation
Let's build a demand generation machine!
Sponsor: European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator
Beneficiary: Founders of a fast growing Norwegian SME with a big Data Integration Platform (Domain specific iPaaS) purpose built for utilities to empower their Smart Grid, Smart City and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Challenge: Accelerate “time to revenue” to meet the ambitious Board growth requirements.
Assignment: This business innovation coaching for cleantech SMEs started by analysing and reflecting with the CEO and the executive team on the current go-to-market strategy, its execution and mapping the journey of transition towards an optimised strategy to win large international deals, faster. I then helped the team understand the Account Based Marketing (ABM) methodology, associated processes, systems (CRM, content authoring, chatbot) and resources required to practice and accompanying the team throughout the set up and transition. Coaching to ensure that the ABM practice was acquired.
Impact: Redesigned the entire ABM Process, team and systems. Put ABM personalisation in place at scale. Named global accounts & engaged with +20 reference accounts within 12 months. Improved sales and marketing collaboration around winning large deals.
Service: Business Innovation Coaching
Format: 24 hours, 1,5 year. 40% Face-to-face / 60% remote. A few hours of training.
#ABM #upscaling #Organisation
How can I stimulate my team innovation culture?
Sponsor: A prominent French industrial company
Beneficiary: Supply Chain Director
Challenge: The team is hesitant to step outside their comfort zone to discover innovative ideas and processes. Members need to take more initiative, propose, and adopt innovative ideas.
Assignment: This SME–corporate partnership coaching engagement included optimising the communication of innovation objectives, the idea collection process using the metaphore techniques, future-focused role play, SME–corporate partnership coaching looking at supply chain partnerships.
Impact: The leader shares his innovation vision & clarifies the objectives. As a result, his team members attend more external events within 3 months and systematically come back with innovative suggestions. Team meetings logs progress around the adoption of innovation and progress is finally felt by all the team members and their leader.
Service: Business Innovation Coaching
Format: 7 sessions.. 100% remote.
#innovationmindset #teamleadership
How to ideate 8 netzero heat partnerships in 1 week?
Sponsor: Innovate UK
Beneficiaries: 30 SMEs Founders and corporates Directors from banks, energy and industrial companies
Challenge: 23% of total UK emissions coming from heating.
Assignment: Innovate UK launched a competition to reduce CO2 from heating. The goals was to ideate 8 netzero heat partnerships in 1 week behind closed doors, project proposals and relationships that would not be achieved under normal competition processes. A closed door "innovation lab" or "Sandpit" called "Design Engineering Innovation Lab" was held to create innovative, collaborative, research and development project ideas for Innovate UK to identify 8 candidates to potentially invest in.
Impact: 10 project candidates were identified and 8 were selected. I helped with my coaching skills those that were particularly stuck in the process, lacking confidence or needing encouragement.
Service: Part of the Carbon Limiting Technologies team of facilitators. As a Business Innovation Coach working on water, energy and cleantech transition projects, I was also able to coach various SMEs founders and corporate leaders that were present in the room.
Format: 1 week, closed doors. 100% face-to-face.
#innovation #netzero #commercialheat
Find ways to finance my blue-growth assets
Sponsor: BlueInvest programme financed by the European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fund.
Beneficiary: The Founder of a startup with a tidal energy solution.
Challenge: Find ways to co-finance a large project partially financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Engage in negotiations with investors better suited to the company growth ambitions.
Assignment: During this SME–corporate partnership coaching engagement, the Chief Marketing Officer profiled the ideal impact investors - angels and venture capital firms - and found ways to reach them at scale to launch a crowdfunding campaign in November 2020. The pitch deck was redesigned, and practice was improved. The SMO set up external marketing support to efficiently promote the investment opportunity.
Impact: The crowdfunding campaign raised more than £500K within 3 months and was repeated as it was very successful. Term sheets were negotiated with one investor within 6 months.
Service: Access to Finance Coaching
Format: 4 months. 100% remote.
#funding #investmentreadiness #organisationaldevelopment #energytransition
Improve our water Customer Experience (CX) culture
Sponsor: Chief Marketing Officer of the water division of one of the largest Engineering Consultancies
Beneficiary: Directors and suppliers, experts in assessing risks and supporting end-clients with water usage and management. An expert team in 90 countries collaborating across 50 technical and advisory disciplines.
Goal / Challenge: Improve B2B Customer Experience (CX) and embed it into the company culture.
Assignment: This corporate assignment started by exploring the Customer Experience current practices across all aspects of the water practice, developing CX skills - personas, customer journey, value proposition, KPIs - and encouraging project leaders and their teams to practice through corporate leadership coaching.
Impact: CX practices were adopted by 30 employees across the practice's various functions as well as the value chain.
Service: Business Coaching & Consulting.
Format: 6 months. Executive & clients interviews. 2 business coaches/consultants. 1 team productivity mobile app. 60% face-to-face, 40% remote. 1/2 day training X 2.
#CX #valueproposition #digitaltransformation
Supporting leaders in times of crisis
Client: European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator
Beneficiaries: 30 SME Executives / Founders
Challenge: Keep the EIC Accelerator beneficiaries' founders' resilience upbeat during the COVID-19 crisis.
Assignment: We used the metaphor of sports championship, sports coaching, and the experience of elite athletes. We built bridges with the world of SME leaders in order to re-motivate and equip them with resilient leadership tools and techniques to resist any crisis.
Impact: 30 SME founders developed their resilience skills, mindsets, grounding techniques.
Service: Leadership Training
Format: 1/2 day interactive and virtual workshop July 2020. 30 CEOs and executives. Live participation of an in-line Hockey elite athlete.
#teamleadership #sportscoaching #crisismanagement