beMatrix: the European Award-Winning Company Reveals Its Formula for Success

The internet makes it easier for businesses to reach more people. Because of the increased competition it also makes it harder to stand out in the crowd. Learn how an award-winning company from Belgium slayed the competition by gaining respect for their company and products.

Today, a person living in small-town USA can order a product from practically any online business anywhere in the world. For business owners this is good news . . . and bad. Good because you can reach customers beyond your local area (if you have that kind of business). Bad because there is more visible competition in the marketplace for your customers to choose from.

Thus, a big challenge for most businesses today is HOW TO STAND OUT IN THE CROWD.

There is an infinity of ways to stand out. Your sales team can wear bright red-and-pink hats. You can run Facebook ads with adorable kids and pets. You can have humorous billboards, killer store displays, or make outrageous claims about your products.

Perhaps some of the above are valid, but there is something else you can do to stand out that is more basic and soulful. It’s what beMatrix does, and it’s paying off.

beMatrix is a Belgian-based company that creates innovative business displays for events and conventions. In 2018 they won the Business of the Year Award at the European Business Awards competition.¹

beMatrix sprang from Belgium a little over a decade ago with 5 employees. Today they have 140 and their products are sold in over 50 countries worldwide. What makes their business growth so impressive is that they are in a highly competitive space with lots of players fighting for the same customers.

Stand out in the crowd—it’s something beMatrix has done to succeed. The question is how?

In an article L. Ron Hubbard wrote on September 10, 1982, entitled “THE FOUR CONDITIONS OF EXCHANGE,” he describes the different methods by which a person or company can do business with people. The fourth and highest condition is called “Exchange in Abundance.” This is what Mr. Hubbard says about it:

“Here one does not give two for one or free service but gives something more valuable than money was received for. Example: The group has diamonds for sale; an average diamond is ordered; the group delivers a blue-white diamond above average. Also, it delivers it promptly and with courtesy.”

The question any business owner or executive may want to ask is, “How can we deliver a ‘blue-white diamond’ promptly and with courtesy?”

According to the cofounder and CEO of beMatrix, Edwin Van der Vennet, his company has found a way to do just that, although he puts it in different terms. Here is Edwin’s advice:

“Be Valuable: We are improving our service on a daily basis. Service is becoming as important as the product itself (if not more so). Our partners should expect the unknown service level of tomorrow.”

“Be the Best: We are working on our quality on a daily basis. If we deliver real quality and so respect our product, our partners will benefit from that and our product will become more popular.”¹

Standing Out in the Crowd

Service and quality. The words can seem hackneyed because they’ve been tossed around like copper pennies for eons. It’s a mistake to think of them that way, however. Nothing will have your business standing out in a crowd more than delivering a “blue-white diamond” (quality) promptly and with courtesy (service.)

Of course, just saying you have superior quality and service is not enough. A company really must deliver.

Technology is the engine that drives beMatrix. It’s the superior technology of their products that gives them that blue-diamond/quality appeal. They utilize beMatrix aluminum frames combined with both panels and textiles, which they claim is the strongest, most lightweight system on the market and the only one that does not require tools to put together. Their displays are easy and fast to assemble, and they’re 100 percent recyclable to boot.²

beMatrix delivers great service by having their staff work closely with each account to create a custom design to specifically fit each customer’s needs. It’s a team effort between client and company consultant where beMatrix is involved for the long haul, which might just add up to service beyond what is normally expected.³

Van der Vennet says quality and service is what beMatrix is all about. Perhaps that’s why, though they are headquartered in Belgium, their business expansion and reach has landed them on the Inc. 5000 top U.S. companies two years in a row, a feat accomplished by only one in three companies.

In his acceptance speech at this year’s European Business Awards, Van der Vennet spoke about how their attention to quality and service also results in “respect.” Van der Vennet considers respect to be the backbone of everything they do. It is why they see their suppliers and customers as “partners,” why their employees are “beManiacs,” and in particular, why beMatrix is constantly pushing forward with innovations, making their stand building systems eco-friendly and thoughtfully designed.⁴

Service and quality garner respect. They can also create phenomenal word-of-mouth advertising because people buy from companies they respect.

At the end of the day, pink-and-red hats might get attention, and videos with adorable children may make people smile; but if the foundation of your business is not built on “Exchange in Abundance,” which boils down to service and quality, then all the other means of standing out in a crowd will have shallow, short-term results at best.

L. Ron Hubbard puts it this way:

“Produce in abundance and try to give better than expected quality. Deliver and get paid for it, for sure, but deliver better than was ordered and more. Always try to write a better story than was expected, always try to deliver a better job than was ordered. Always try to—and deliver—a better result than was hoped for.

“This fourth principle above is almost unknown in business or the arts. Yet it is the key to howling success and expansion.”

 Never underestimate the value of service and quality. It can do wonders to help your business stand out in today’s overcrowded marketplace. Competent marketing actions are a necessity for sure, but they will only be effective to the degree that they rest on an “Exchange in Abundance” foundation.