Standing out from competitors and outpacing them often remains the key to success in a market. This energy that we put into competing in ingenuity was well highlighted by Denys Chalumeau, co-founder of Promovacances and Seloger, who had already advised at a previous entrepreneur fair. Zoom in on this advice that is still valid today.
Establish a clear market assessment
In the case of his last site, sefaireaider.com, and particular personal services, there were scattered specialists. His idea? To group them because there was no vertical market, and no brand existed. In his case, there were competitors like “pages jaunes” which is not a specialist in-home service and which remained above all a reference directory. The latter does everything but in digital there is a virtue in being a specialist.
Show the most ads
The goal with “se faire aider” was above all to be useful. “Se faire aider.com” had opened with 600,000 online service providers. To stand out from the competition, Denys Chalumeau finds it essential to display the greatest number of ads. This is also how Google got ahead of Yahoo when it arrived with 1 billion references while Yahoo only had 500,000!
Digital innovation, the revolution of the 3rd millennium
“sefaireaider.com” offered tools to help with the digitalization of VSEs and SMEs, those who are forgotten and who are not in the movement of the revolution of the 3rd millennium. Seloger has thus revolutionized the real estate agency market by changing their way of working. Now, all agencies have an e-mail, know how to answer e-mails, and show apartments virtually. The market has therefore evolved: no more answering the phone, especially on Friday evenings when the newspaper comes out to place ads!
We must adapt to new trends. Thus, the economy was the keyword while abundance or selection took precedence.
Personal services, their digital revolution
Denys Chalumeau believed that ads should no longer be posted in the PQR or used door-to-door to hand out business cards. Other means such as Facebook allowed for achieving a superior result and in particular to expand their reach and save considerable time. According to him, it was no longer the time to distribute flyers on windshields. And there are 3 million service providers who are nose to the grindstone and who use methods from another time.
Based on this observation, innovation means bringing best practices to these 3 million service providers through simple things, for example:
- have a digital business card
- generate an audience with social media
- have tools to relaunch customers
- know how to send a promo…
Tools that don’t cost much, that allow you to work.
Mistakes to avoid according to Denys Chalumeau
- The brand name: You have to choose a brand name that speaks to the customer. Finding accommodation, getting help, it’s explicit. The visual is also very important, so the choice of the logo must also be explicit.
- Human resources: What costs the most is bad choices on a human level: they cause damage to the company, to people, and colleagues. Leaving a person in the wrong place is a mistake because you are not doing a person a favor by asking them to do something they do not know how to do. On the contrary, it creates stress and is incredibly violent. Similarly, putting someone who does not know how to manage and who is made the manager of a team can quickly become a nightmare for the company. Remember that in management, you often have to have made these mistakes to stop making them.
- Attitude towards business angels: When you raise funds and you are a young entrepreneur, Denys Chalumeau underlines the fact that the entrepreneur is often very grateful to business angels and financiers and gives them power, an aura. We listen to them, we want to be the good student. We want to please them because they opened their wallet.
But
- Stick to your guns: Just because business angels brought you money doesn’t mean they have the entrepreneurial spirit. Too many startups have failed because they listened to the advice of financiers who had no entrepreneurial DNA.
- The user journey remains a key to success on the web
- Be perfect: for the internet portal. You will have to strive to be perfect in terms of the user journey. Your goal should be to reduce the bounce rate. If one person out of two leaves your site, it is a penalty for the quality of it and your communication. Do not hesitate to call on a competent external company and the result of this type of benchmark will lead you to have super quality and a lot of useful lessons. Hiring specialists is, according to Denys Chalumeau, essential.