Guide for Fostering Technical Advancement and Commercial Triumph in the Realm of Deep Tech in Business Development
Jaehee Sweeney, the CBDO at next-gen battery tech company BEI, has a stem background, specializing in business development for technical industries. She's witnessed numerous brilliant innovations face marketing challenges, particularly in deep tech where translating complex solutions into clear value propositions embraces essential success.
Finding Your Market Launchpad
Selecting the ideal market entry point is critical to technical innovation commercial success. Jaehee has observed companies targeting less viable markets over overly obvious ones. In deep tech, niche applications, like high-performance drones, could often offer quicker market validation and revenue generations rather than aiming for a mass market.
Focusing on the market's sweet spot, where a technical advantage creates the most immediate value, is key for initial success. Jaehee suggests temporarily sacrificing ambitious applications in favor of projects that can generate revenue and validation faster.
Cultivating Technological Market Credibility
Credibility is the currency of deep tech. Technical stakeholders are naturally skeptical of new solutions. To build market credibility, Jaehee recommends a three-phase approach:
- Obtain validation partnerships to verify performance.
- Foster industry relationships and government partnerships.
- Secure strategic commercial collaborations showcasing real applications.
Scaling Beyond Early Success
Scaling is a deep tech industry challenge, but with a focus on throwing off reliance on founder involvement, creating clear metrics, and investing in scalable support systems, businesses can move from custom solutions to standardized offerings without diluting their technical advantage.
Crafting Effective Technical Sales Stories
By tailoring the sales message to specific stakeholder needs, Jaehee has seen success with advanced battery technologies. For drone manufacturers, the focus is performance-to-weight ratio, while for procurement teams, it's supply chain reliability, and for C-suite executives, strategic advantages.
Jaehee's framework for technical sales narratives includes:
- Emphasizing performance metrics and integration requirements for technical stakeholders.
- Highlighting business impact and total cost of ownership for business stakeholders.
- Emphasizing practical benefits and easy adoption for end users.
Navigating Market Evolution
Markets never remain static in deep tech. To remain competitive, Jaehee recommends establishing flexibility in product development, building partner intelligence units, and creating evolution-ready business models.
Towards the Future
Successful deep tech companies see business development as both a strategic function and a sales channel. To remain agile, the energy storage sector should:
- Form partnerships that cover current and future technology scenarios.
- Adopt flexible commercial models that evolve with technology changes.
- Develop value propositions that tackle present needs and long-term strategic goals.
The key to navigating technical business development is to maintain technological flexibility while building lasting market relationships. Business development leaders should look beyond current technology sale challenges to future solutions and partnerships.
- Regardless of her technical background, Jaehee Sweeney, the CBDO at BEI, has seen lithium-based battery innovations struggle with marketing challenges, especially in the deep tech sector.
- To build technological market credibility, Jaehee recommends companies in the deep tech industry secure strategic commercial collaborations that showcase real lithium-based application examples, besides partnering with validators and fostering industry relationships.
- Translating the complexities of lithium-based batteries into clear value propositions can help companies like BEI find market entry points more favorable for commercial success, such as niche applications like high-performance drones, despite the allure of a mass market.
