For Schneider Electric the road to customers goes through several indirect units: distributor, dealer and end user. The market is complex, and knowledge and trust play a vital role in choosing a partner.

Schneider Electric is a global company that, among other things, runs complex data centers for a wide range of large Danish companies. Schneider Electric Denmark inculdes Lauritz Knudsen, which is Denmark’s leading company within electrical material and solutions for data and communication.

The challenge

To strengthen the decision-making basis for future investments and strategies, Schneider Electric contacted ag analytics. The partnership obtained significant strategic influence by designing Schneider Electric’s Customer Value Proposition (CVP) and customer strategy, including prioritization of initiatives and resources.

The central questions included, for example:

• How large is our market share?
• What is the potential of the customer base and how do we most effectively realize it?
• What makes Schneider Electric unique seen with the customers’ eyes?
• Which focus areas are the most important to achieve increased differentiation?

The approach

To ensure a deeper understanding of value creation as well as obtain the nuances in the understanding of the market, customers and competitors, ag analytics carried out a set of in-depth interviews. First we interviewed internal employees and then 20 selected customers. The in-depth interviews were instrumental in ensuring relevance and precision in the two larger quantitative analyses that afterwards were carried out with dealers and end users respectively.

The result

With the analysis in hand, it is clear what makes Schneider Electric unique and where the large opportunities for market consolidation and growth are. The analysis includes a road map to a winning value proposition, and it uncovered market share and growth potential on both the segment and customer level.

It is clear that Schneider Electric’s large customers not only represent the largest profits, but also a very large unexploited potential. Due to the complexity of its solutions, the company’s knowledge, service and counseling are of significant importance to customers. Personal and strategic sales is more important and defining than price.

According to customers, Schneider Electric already has some of the market’s best products, which also is reflected in its premium prices.

The analysis shows that service and counseling are crucial parameters of competition, and Schneider Electric has the potential to sharpen both. It is therefore obvious to increase the investment in strategic account management aimed at large customers. Schneider Electric can profitably increase its investments in obtaining and maintaining a position as “best in class” when it comes to service and counseling. There is great willingness to pay premium for best-in-class service and counseling due to the complexity of products and solutions.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy optimization and –steering in more than 100 countries. The company helps people and organizations get the most out of their energy.

Schneider Electric is, among other things, leading within energy and infrastructure, industry and production, building atomization, data centers, and networks as well as solutions for private residences.

Schneider Electric employs 150,000 people and has an annual turnover of 24 billion Euros.

Schneider Electric Denmark A/S employs 1,000 people divided in sales offices in Ballerup, Herlev, Aarhus and Odense as well as development centers in Birkerød and Ballerup, a factory in Ringsted, and an IT development center in Kolding.