Articles
December 8, 2022Diversifying our client base and growing Intelcom’s market share, with Jean-Daniel Gervais
As we approach the end of the year, this four-part series recaps Intelcom’s successes and challenges of 2022 from different perspectives. It’s a brief moment to stop and catch our breath, so we can move forward into 2023 with the past year’s learnings in our toolbox.
The series kicks off with a conversation with Jean-Daniel Gervais, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, as he elaborates on growing Intelcom’s client base and preparing for possible challenges in the market.
Jean-Daniel Gervais, VP Sales & Marketing
Share this article
What were your priorities for 2022?
I joined Intelcom with the goal of growing our client base and accelerating the diversification of our portfolio. The priorities for 2022 were along the same lines: continue our prospecting and bring on board clients whose needs are a good fit with what we already do. That enabled us to start peak season in a stronger position than last year.
What achievements are you especially proud of?
The new clients we’ve brought in. Growing your client base by 50% in one year is a significant accomplishment. We can see how our hard work paid off. We welcomed some really interesting and diversified clients like Browns and WIPTEC, and had our first full year with HBC and Dynamite. They’ve shared positive feedback with us, which is really great to hear from two major players.
How do you think Intelcom has evolved during the year?
We’re on the way up. We’re not quite where we want to be, but our work methods, our client integration, our in-house communication and the tools we’re perfecting all the time are all ahead of where we were in 2021. This will continue to develop and mature in 2023, but the work has been done.
What were 2022’s biggest challenges?
In sales, the goal is always to increase our client base and market share, and that’s what our focus has been all year long. That said, while we do that, we need to maintain levels of care, quality and dedication that match the standards of the clients we already have on board.
What were the year’s key takeaways and what are we bringing into 2023?
Our work methods, our business reflexes and a stronger connection with operations. We’re focused on our processes, how we integrate our clients, and discipline, which we’ve started building. During 2022, we added communications and marketing to the Sales department. The exciting thing in 2023 will be to embed a holistic approach to link our business and brand objectives.
Yes, there is the concern of an impending recession, but with the growth in our national coverage, the opportunities are there for new types of clients.
Lastly, we’re taking something that we’re very proud of into 2023: our no-label, no-box Returns product for customers at home. It was developed exclusively with one client to start with, and we’re now ready to roll it out to our full portfolio, and we know there’s an appetite for it.