It’s starting to crystalize and I’m reminded once again that nothing exists in a vacuum and that all business ecosystems are constantly evolving and a rigid approach will kill you. In a growing market segment, like electric vehicle infrastructure, new market participants enter all the time and how you adapt to them dictates your success or failure in a dynamic market.
At Xeal, we’re in the electric vehicle charging station business. Specifically we focus on producing the hardware and software necessary to facilitate a full EV charging experience. While the hardware is rather commoditized across the industry, our software is our greatest differentiator and effectuates our value proposition around reliability. At Xeal we own two key relationships; we own the relationship with the property owner who houses our charging stations, and we own the relationship with the consumer, the driver, the user – the most important relationship.
In order to grow and expand our business, it starts with our purchasing customer, the property owner. To launch the business we had to leverage our deep relationships and network of real estate owners to be their partner in the EV charging space. We had to consult with them, navigate their challenges and be their turnkey partner to solve this new problem – how to create an effective and reliable charging experience for their tenants and residents. These direct relationships were our most important relationships, and they remain so today. As the business grew however, it became clear that the arena was changing and the spheres of influence in the ear of our customers are far too great for Xeal to be the only voice in the room with the property owner.
The service businesses that touch the value chain of electric vehicle charging are numerous. Energy services companies (ESCOs), consultants, contractors, electricians, architects and more are the local armies and militias having lunch with our end customer, in their local commerce associations and providing services to our clients on a daily basis. They are the ones with the decades of experience who our clients lean on for other solutions as well such as solar, LED retrofits, low voltage and more. This long list of local and national partners are seen as the truly trusted partners to our customers. While our customers are receptive to hear about new technology and Xeal’s unique offering directly, our reach just is not wide enough on our own, no matter how hard we push or how loud we were. What we’ve learned is that we need to “arm the rebels” and give these trusted partners the tools and the solutions to solve their (and our) customers’ problems. So in this realization, Xeal began phase two – partnerships and channels.
As Xeal continues to expand it’s footprint into every major US market and continue its expansion as the dedicated electric vehicle charging partner for large real estate groups, we will also be focused on growing our national partnerships and reseller relationships with the stakeholders and consultants that the real estate community relies on to make the right decisions. These will now become relationships that we put a lot of our energy and effort behind to support their growth and touch points with their clients. By identifying the most trusted value-added resellers and consultants, Xeal can grow it’s footprint as well and truly create the change we want to see in this world.
We want to thank our earliest and first partners so far who we’re excited to partner alongside to bring reliable EV charging to their regional and national relationships: Blue Whale EV, SiteLogiq, HomeBase, REVs, Coil Electric and more. If you’re interested in reselling, distributing or partnering with Xeal, please reach out to myself, Chris Moreno or Mike Murray to talk about what a partnership can look like.