An explain article

Does classical communication still have a place?

Already during my school years, I developed a great interest in the topics of presentation and communication. At that time, however, it was not clear to me what a central role these topics would play in the corporate context and that they would become even more important in the course of digitalization.

Because communication is the central link between companies and customers, and it influences brand perception and ultimately, the customers' purchase decision.

I would like to give you a small insight into how these topics have accompanied me in my career path and in the various phases of my founded companies and how I was able to use them entrepreneurially profitably.

One of the first presentations that was supposed to advance me professionally was the final presentation of a seminar as part of my studies in industrial engineering at KIT. It was about developing new business models and presenting them vividly. Representatives from the business community were also present at the final presentation. The subsequent exchange and further intensive discussions led to me completing my internship in the CyberForum network in the field of corporate development and also gaining further experience as a working student. The support of aspiring founders through mentoring or coaching and their networking with suitable investors gave me a wide range of insights. I realized how important a good company presentation is for a company at this stage.

Especially among founder teams with a technical background, it was relatively common for the founders to have problems clearly and unmistakably communicating the added value despite an innovative product. Many technical terms were used, and it was sometimes difficult to follow the words, and so financing rarely occurred in these cases. I realized that the best product is of no use if even investors, let alone partners or customers, cannot be convinced of the added value. It's not about demonstrating your expertise with as many technical terms and complex communication as possible.

The art lies in explaining complex relationships or products in simple words, so that even small children can understand them, despite having sound technical knowledge.

As part of organizing the CyberChampion Awards, I was able to take away a lot of good content from the pitch training offered and later incorporate it into founding the business idea competition GROW of the student group PionierGarage. The aim of this student competition was and is to validate a business idea within eleven weeks and take the first steps in the market.

In addition to valuable feedback from mentors and investors, this framework is also a very good opportunity to find suitable team colleagues. And so our founding team of Campusjäger GmbH came together. We developed an automated staffing service for students and graduates.

Already during the competition, we were able to acquire our first customers and ultimately win the competition. We also held our own in numerous other competitions and were finally recognized as one of Germany's fastest-growing start-ups. But it wasn't the presentations at competitions that made our success; it was the strong focus on fast and targeted execution of our business idea.

It's important to adapt the communication strategy to the respective phase of the company.

For us, it was a good step to shift the focus of communication away from competitions and awards and towards acquiring new customers and employees. Especially at the beginning, as a student founding team, you experience a lot of headwinds and skepticism. But we were able to use our student background to our advantage. Customers were quickly convinced of our marketplace for placing student employees and entry-level professionals. Because we were so close to the target group ourselves, we knew exactly how to best communicate with them.

For good communication, it's important from whom it comes.

In this way, numerous customer testimonials and student reviews also gave us the necessary boost to assert ourselves in the market.

With a steadily growing customer base, the challenges that arise in cooperation with customers also grew. And it was often the case that the customers who required the most communication effort were also those with the lowest sales. In cases where we couldn't get any further even with good communication and a lot of patience, the method of cutting and growing proved successful for us.

Sometimes you have to part with a (possibly large) customer in order to grow faster thanks to the freed-up capacities.

Campusjäger was an exciting first start-up for me, and I was able to learn a lot and also further develop personally. Nevertheless, after almost five years, I decided to move on to tackle a new challenge and decided to start a new company in the climbing industry. I thought a lot about the best approach for a fresh start in a new market. I decided to first build a climbing community through an Instagram channel to get to know the market better. Through numerous chats, surveys, posts, giveaways, and collaborations, I gained a lot of experience and was able to build a community of now over 65,000 followers. This was only possible because, as a climber, I knew very well what the target group wanted. And through regular exchange, I was able to continually improve the communication. This foundation contributed significantly to the fact that the launch of my first own product - an innovative key holder for climbers - was a success and was already sold in 27 countries worldwide shortly after launch.

Especially in social media, there are countless accounts trying to build large accounts in niches through hacks and bots to make quick money. But users are becoming more and more sensitive and can now quickly see through inauthentic communication.

Those who communicate authentically and honestly and prioritize the added value for the target group over their own interests have a chance to build a loyal community of promoters.

I also noticed this when one of my product videos was published on another channel without my knowledge and without a link to my account. In the comments, people often asked where they could buy the key holders. When I became aware of the post, some users had already responded to the inquiries and referred to my account.

Good branding is when unknowns publicly stand up for a brand without benefiting from it and advocate for it.

It's a misconception that good branding is achieved through perfectly staged commercials and meticulously coordinated communication. It is precisely the processes behind the scenes, the imperfect moments, and the people in companies that make brands interesting today.

It remains exciting to see how these topics will evolve with digitization and which companies will manage to remain in the market through timely communication. Would it have been helpful to understand the relevance of presentation and communication in a business context already in school? Yes, definitely! But what I have learned in the past few years cannot be taught at school anyway. You only learn that through startup spirit.

Matthias Geis