In the software business, economies of scale are incredibly important. If you stay small, your position is weakened. If you don’t grow steadily, the market might be saturated by the time you’re gaining real traction. “That’s why it’s so important for us to monitor our competitive landscape.” Teamleader CEO Jeroen De Wit talks about how the scaleup uses DataScouts to stay ahead of the competition.
“From lead to potential customer to invoice, as efficiently as possible.” As a software specialised for SMEs, Teamleader aims to make the lives of their customers easier by making their work more efficient so they can focus on their core business. The tool consists out of 4 modules: CRM, invoicing, project management and support ticketing.
Teamleader was founded in 2012 and has known a steady growth ever since. Today the company is active in 6 countries and has over 180 employees." As CEO, Jeroen De Wit spends his days with a variety of tasks, from general management, PR and being the go-to person for stakeholders to translating the company strategy into the product and much more.
SOFTWARE DEMOCRATISED, TAILORED TO SMES
So why do small to medium enterprises choose Teamleader over any other software? Jeroen explains. “There were lots of similar tools already, but they were all built for large enterprises, with a corresponding price tag. We developed Teamleader for SMEs. We translated their way of working into our features, and offer our software at a lower price. We basically ‘democratised’ it. The local aspect plays a big part as well: we offer support in our customer’s language and provide integrations with local tools.”
"Our current customers are mainly service providers with 0 to 20 employees.” Think agencies and consultancy businesses, but also building industry enterprises, ranging from plumbers to installation companies. “We want to help as many SMEs as possible. That’s our purpose, it’s the reason Teamleader was founded.”
OUTDATED DATA ON A COMPLEX MARKET
"We came up with a hundred different ways to collect insights, but before we knew it, the data we were collecting manually was outdated and practically useless."
"But the software market is a fast-changing environment with new competitors popping up every day. We have to anticipate situations and avoid having certain competitors that we didn't notice or only noticed too late. Therefore, it is incredibly important for us to keep an eye on our competitive landscape. But we did not have the right tools. We had to choose between doing a huge amount of manual work or not having a clear overview of the situation at all. We came up with a hundred different ways to gather insights, but before we knew it, the data we were collecting manually was outdated and practically useless."
"Add to that the fact that Teamleader offers multiple functionalities," he says. "There are hundreds of CRM tools on the market, hundreds of invoicing tools, even more tools that combine CRM and invoicing, ... So basically any company that offers any of our functions can be considered a competitor, resulting in a very complex competitive landscape."
THE SOLUTION? REAL-TIME AND EASILY ACCESSIBLE
To overcome these challenges, and to stay ahead of the competition. Teamleader turned to DataScouts. “I realised I needed to monitor the competition, so I started building a similar software on my own. But making it work would have been way too time-consuming, so that’s when DataScouts came into play. Now we use it to actively monitor the competitive landscape in real-time. DataScouts allows us to discover and follow companies that offer something similar, even though our products are not 100% the same. The data on our competitors is now easily accessible and always up-to-date.” DataScouts allows us to discover and follow companies that offer something similar, even though our products are not 100% the same.”
COMPLEX MARKET ARRANGED INTO CLEAR PORTFOLIOS
“What we use most is the portfolio feature with which we segment our competitors. For example, we have a portfolio with all the CRM tools, one with CRM + invoicing tools, one with purely invoicing tools, … We also have portfolios of all the competitors in a certain geographical region. We use them to fine-tune the visualisation of our position compared to these competitors, based on different dimensions such as business growth and marketing efforts."
”As a nice extra, we have a Slack integration that notifies us when DataScouts spots a new competitor or a significant change in the landscape. That way it ensures that we’re always looking at the right competitors. Otherwise, we might miss out on crucial information or only notice changes when it’s too late."
”DataScouts ensures that we’re always looking at the right competitors. Otherwise, we might miss out on crucial information or only notice changes when it’s too late.”
UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS AND SET UP THE TOOL ACCORDINGLY
“In the beginning, DataScouts tried really hard to understand our business and set up the tool accordingly. I appreciate the fact that they are incredibly responsive whenever we have a question or a problem. And the speed with which the platform is being developed is remarkable; it’s almost as if every time I log in, there is something new to be discovered. To me, it says a lot about DataScouts as a company.”
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