Bunes & Ferenczi

At Bunes & Ferenczi we believe in today’s uncertain and ever-changing environment there is a smarter and faster way for B2B Tech companies to acquire new customers than only by increasing sales capacity​.

We work with early-stage companies, companies looking to geographically expand, or someone looking to expand their solution portfolio to:
* Co-create their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) in which their value creation is the highest
* Build a Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) which is prioritized order of all the ICPs
* Audit and recommend data/analytics tools for sales and marketing to support the acquisition of customers
* Provide interim CMO/CRO support for expansion

| Co-founder |  B2B Tech Growth Strategist | 

GrowthMentor

I am grateful for the opportunity to support NEXT GEN entrepreneurs with some of my experience through specific conversations about their challenges. The best part of this? I learn so much myself every time,

Growth Mentor

GlobalGrowth Consulting (GG Consulting AB)

Experienced hands-on business executive with strong focus on teamwork and managing multi-cultural teams thrives at driving global or local growth or profitability-focused change initiatives

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
* Development and advice on Sales and Marking programmes, Business Strategy and Planning
* Design and implementation of organisational change including providing interim management  
* Deep industrial knowledge of IT and telecoms, both B2B and B2C
* Set up and management of new international businesses including creation of company structures

| Principal Consultant | Business Owner |

Bisnode

Advising Bisnode B2B Marketing Steering council with GTM plans for new offers.

B2B Sales and Marketing GTM Advisor

Vendemore

Enabling global companies to implement Account Based Marketing as a part of their marketing mix.

Developing internal sales and marketing strategies at Vendemore.

Global Account Director

GlobalGrowth Consulting & Investment LLC

Vision: 
Grow local small businesses to International medium-sized businesses

We are: 
Senior practicioners with experience from both small businesses to  Fortune 20, including experience in sales, marketing, business development, business management, and Management Consulting.  Proven track record of developing international businesses

Our approach: 
Focus on technology firms (Internet, SW, and HW) with base in Scandinavia looking for international expansion or businesses looking to expand to Scandinavia. We look for 1-4 year exclusive partnerships focusing on profitable new business. Our model can be tailored to each engagement. In some cases, we may make a significant investment in the business. However, we exclusively engage in businesses with a buy-out plan

Founder, Majority Partner, and Chairman

Libendo Education

Member of Board for holding company in Luxemburg (Avaros SA)

Member of Board

Managing the Libendo Group business across all markets

Managing Director

Member of Board Libendo Norway AS

Member of Board Libendo UK&I Ltd (Dormant)

Member of Board Libendo Sweden AB

Driving the expansion of Libendo from Sweden to UK and Norway.  In charge of all expansion work in addition to hosting the management structure, business planning, and overall sales results for the business

Global Sales Director

SPConsulting

Consultant in Change Management Practise at SPConsulting: Boutique global consulting firm based in Stockholm, Sweden

Consultant

Build HP's Direct Online sales in EMEA; employee number 1

Our team took an existing business from $35m to $105m over two years.

Consumer Online Business Development Manager EMEA

Managed a product line E2E, turning around $5m loss to $3m in profit in two years and order book grew by 30%.

Member of management board, and numerous project steering committee chairman roles as well as sponsor.

Business Line Manager EMEA

Provided country representation to EMEA based organisation for support experience and delivery models. Included business development of support services (fee based). Also included deployment of retail channel support programmes.

Consumer Support Country Manager Nordics

European Product Manager for the HP ScanJet line of products. Core focus on all 4 Ps

Product Manager EMEA

Provided final level support for WW contact centres for HP ScanJet products. Would drive current engineering for updates of current products and ensure fixes were transferred to the development of next generation products.

Escalation Manager

I help B2B Tech companies to grow by focusing on the right customers.

I am passionate about B2B tech, but more passionate about the customer value deriving from deploying the right technology. 

It’s always about the customer, and it’s always about the value they get from technology.

The rest are just means to an end.

I am your international businessman of mystery! 

I have lived and worked in Norway, US, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden.

I am like the business equivalent of the Swiss Army knife, a utility you can use to solve many a challenge. 

I have done sales, marketing, financial management, management consulting, P&L ownership, product management, customer support/operations, escalation management, Account Based Marketing, EdTech, AdTech, MarTech, B2B, B2C, B2B2C. You name it, I have done it!

I have worked for myself, in an organization with four people, in an organization with +300,000 employees and anything in between.

Hans Bunes

David Brock

Partners In EXCELLENCE

Partners In EXCELLENCE helps its clients OutPerform and OutSell their competitors.  We are a global consulting company focused on business strategy development, M&A integration, strategic partnering, turnarounds, and sales excellence.  Our clients represent global 500 technology, industrial, telecom, professional services leaders; as well as high growth technology start-ups.

Founder/CEO

DecisionLink

DecisionLink  is a powerful tool to help sales people develop and communicate differentiated value through all phases of the Customer Buying Process.  It enables sales people to engage the customer in provocative, data based conversations in their very first call.  It engages the customer in building the value delivery model, collaboratively through the sales process.  www.decisionlink.com

Member of the Advisory Board

Akoonu

Board Of Directors

Accompany

Member Of The Board Of Advisors

Future Selling Institute

Future Selling Institute is a community focused on the personal, professional, and career development of Sales Leaders.

www.futuresellinginstitute.com provides a range of learning resources, webcasts, interviews, white papers, tools, expert and peer discussions critical to anyone invovled in leading the sales function in their organization.

Co-Founder

Pertinence

AI based analytics focused on manufacturing process improvement and predictive maintenance.

Founding Team, COO

Keithley

Vice President

Tektronix

Director

We help organizations and individuals achieve profound improvements in their ability to achieve their goals.  Focusing on the customer facing side of the organization, we work with sales and marketing organizations to effectively and efficiently reach their customers---OutPerforming and OutSelling their competition.

We are recognized experts in sales productivity/effectiveness, channel development, strategic alliances/partnering, value proposition development, leadership and business strategy.

We have a global consulting practice, supporting clients and individuals in every continent.  Our experience spans many industries, including technology industries (IT hardware, software, services, telecom, semiconductor, electronic components, scientific instrumentation, data acquisition, process control), industrial products, basic materials, financial and professional services, consumer products, retail, not for profit and other sectors.

We work with Global 50 through early stage companies, around the world.

We provide coaching and mentoring to individuals ranging from CEO through individual contributors.

Our work is published in many magazines and blogs.  We speak widely in conferences and with individual companies.

Specialties: Maximizing the productivity, impact and effectiveness of sales professionals.
Strategy development and execution on Routes To Market/Channels.
Development and implementation of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances.
Developing and communicating differentiated value propositions.
New product introductions and launches.
Development and execution of high impact business strategies.
Leadership development, coaching and mentoring.
Market strategy, segmentation and research.

Author of the Sales Manager Survival Guide.  Called "THE Go-To resource for sales managers."


Author "Sales Manager Survival Guide,"​ CEO at Partners In EXCELLENCE, Ruthless Pragmatist

The deck was never the point......

I was struck by a LinkedIn post with the opening line: "Microsoft just made QBR prep obsolete. And CSMs everywhere should be celebrating." The rest of the article talked about how Microsoft has integrated AI into it's products, eliminating all the work needed to prepare a QBR.

There is post after post, outlining the same principles. We no longer have to do pre-call research and prep, there are AI tools that do all of it for us, presenting us the call plan a few minutes before we make the call. Or after the call, we no longer have to think about what happened and what we do next. AI analyzes it.

I could go on, we are leveraging AI in everything to do the work---and our thinking for us.

Using the QBR example, we forget the real value of the QBR is the thinking, analysis, creativity required to develop the slides. It requires us to dive deep into anomalies, re-check our assumptions. It requires us to think, "Why is this happening? Are we missing something? What should we change? How do we move forward?" It requires us to make judgments. To do these well, we have to have a deep understanding of the business.

Sometimes we learn a lot in the effort to find and validate the data. We learn a lot in looking at the data, scratching our heads, trying to figure out what it means. Or going further, thinking about what caused it. And then, thinking about what do do about it.

We get information about changes in our customers, their markets, new opportunities or problems. But the data, information, even AI generated recommendations don't help in understanding what it means--to us, to our customers. It's reflecting on this, leveraging curiosity/creativity, that's important.

Through all of this, we are making judgments. These are not based on just the charts and data presented, but the understanding that underlies these. The understanding we develop in creating the QBR presentation. What we have learned, what ideas we have developed, what ideas we have discarded, to determine what is critical and how to use it.

Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."

What do we lose when we let AI do all our thinking and preparation? While AI can prepare a fantastic deck, what's really important is what's not on the slides. It can't provide the context the data can never capture. It can't help us understand what's really happening and why.

But there is a deeper danger in how we use AI. If it does as good or better than we can do, then it exposes what we aren't doing. It show how through If all we have been doing is going through the same motions AI can do--only better, faster, and cheaper, then what role do we play? Are we even needed?

In the sense of the QBR, the deck is never the point. The thinking that underlies the creation of the deck is.
https://lnkd.in/g25wumQc

The secret to your competitive advantage.....

A colleague shared an observation from a CRO. The CRO had discovered the secret to his team’s competitive advantage.

Drum roll……..

The secret to your competitive advantage has nothing to do with your products, your pricing, even your company and it’s reputation.

The secret to your competitive advantage is “Mediocrity!”

Not yours, but your competitors!

We live in a world of increasing sameness, at least in selling and our GTM strategies.

Everyone does the same things in the same way. We use the same playbooks. We have the same sequences, leveraging the same tools. We measure the same KPIs. 

We are using AI in the same way.

Our products/solutions aren’t that different. We aren’t that different.

One way to stand out used to be “doing more.” More outreach, more calls, more social engagement. Just through the high levels of activity, we could start to stand out. But everyone is on equal footing today.

It used to be that bringing some level of enthusiasm and excitement into a discussion helped us engage others. 

But today, we stick to our scripts, read the questions knowing that our AI tools will record the answers so we don’t really have to pay attention. We just wait for the customer to stop talking then ask our next question.

At one time, we sought to be differentiated. Today, we seem to be on a path, perhaps unwittingly, to sameness, to mediocrity.

But, there is hope.

If we can be different, in just a small way, all of a sudden we stand out. 

We are differentiated and it’s this differentiation that creates our competitive advantage.

It’s not that difficult.

Perhaps, it’s caring a little more. And through that simple, act, standing out to the people you engage. 

Perhaps it’s listening for what’s being said, rather than what we want to hear (Part of me thinks, maybe listening is enough of a differentiator). 

Maybe it’s engaging the customer in the things that are important to them, not just focusing on what’s important to us. 

Maybe it’s the ability to hold up our end of a collaborative conversation. 

Maybe it’s as simple as meeting our commitments, or being prepared.

It’s amazing how little it takes to stand out from mediocrity.

We don’t need tools or technology to do this. We don’t need to leverage AI to give us an advantage. We don’t have to do more than anyone else.

It comes down to four things: Preparation, attention, relevance, and caring.

And it’s probably a safe guess that your competitors won’t notice, afterall, they are committed to mediocrity. So even if they did notice, they wouldn’t do anything.

If you’ve gotten this far, here’s the challenge.

I’m desperately hoping people pile on and say, “Dave you are absolutely wrong and off base!”

I desperately hope I’m wrong—more in error than I’ve ever been before.

Sadly, I don’t think I am……….
https://lnkd.in/gznYDawZ

taplio

The Battle

Hans Bunes

David Brock

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taplio

The Battle

Hans Bunes

David Brock

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}David Brock's LinkedIn Performance

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