CASE STUDY: Gekko Systems
Observing the expense and difficulty inherent in the gravity separation processing sector of the mining equipment industry, founder of Gekko Systems Sandy Gray thought he could develop a more affordable, more robust machine to do the work. After securing research funding, Gray invented a device that hit those marks—but found it took more than a great product to succeed.
“We had some really excellent research results but the mining companies, understandably, were reticent about buying equipment from what was effectively a mum and dad operation,” says Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, CEO and managing director of Gekko Systems.
So the two-person operation became more professional in their approach, attending international conferences—which Lewis-Gray says “bring better business” than trade shows—and coming to realise that a great product was only part of the business.
“The product is probably 10 or 15 percent of what it needs to make it work, the rest is about relationship management, about training,” she explains. “It’s a much bigger offering you need to make to be successful.”
And sales did not necessarily mean success. Lewis-Gray says if she had her time again she’d pay more attention to selling to the right people rather than just racking up revenue. “As a small company you’re desperate to keep the cash flow going so if someone wants one, you sell it to them. What happens is the application’s not right and the gear doesn’t work and then it becomes a burden on your brand,” she notes.
Gekko have since taken a targeted approach to finding customers. Their equipment is best suited to hard rock mining rather than alluvial mining, and they’ve also identified customers with whom they’re best matched.
“We were primarily focused in the gold market so we had to see where production was,” says Lewis-Gray. “Since then we’ve segmented our market in a really detailed way; we’re better off selling to mid-tier companies rather than big companies because we don’t have the capacity to service them.”
Their first export was to Spain and now they sell to 45 countries in key areas such as Africa, South America and Asia, though they’re yet to crack the Chinese market. “That’s flagged for the future,” she says.
Lessons from Lewis-Gray:
- Exporting is networking. “Apart from Austmine, which we’ve used as a marketing and connections tool, we’ve used Austrade and conferences as our key way to meet people.”
- Find out how your customers make buying decisions. “The biggest issue is selling the product to one person and having someone else run it. You might sell it to the technical manager but the operations manager has to run it; because they didn’t make the decision there’s no incentive for them to get it to work. That’s always a barrier, getting buy-in, commitment.”
- Travel. “You have to spend time face-to-face with people. Get on a plane, meet people and go and do it.”
- Run an overseas office. “We find having our own offices close to markets makes exporting easier.”
