Software for ports and terminals
The product was ahead of the market.
The selling had to catch up.
Portomundi builds software that lets terminals offer their services online to the truckers who load and unload there. It runs at PSA Antwerp, Antwerp Gateway and Halifax. Every customer came in through the founders’ network. A strong channel, but one with a ceiling.
Strong product, small team, and every customer came through word of mouth.
Portomundi is a team of six with a clear idea: terminals offering their operational services online, payment included, for users all over the world. The references were already there, at terminals in Europe and North America that rank among the most demanding in their market. In Antwerp they were already working with the largest terminal operators.
What wasn’t there, and wasn’t needed yet: a full-time commercial leader. What was needed: the step from “the right people in the industry know us” to sales that bring in new terminals every quarter, without a founder having to sit at every table.
Three walls this kind of selling runs into.
A lot of people can say no.
Every deal touches operations, IT, finance and often a parent group. Each of them can stop it. A demo and a price don’t survive the second meeting.
Integrations that scare procurement off.
The product connects to the systems a terminal already runs on. For operations that is exactly the point. For procurement and IT security it is the hurdle. The story has to carry both, without watering the product down.
A world where everyone knows everyone.
Ports are a village. A clumsy cold email costs you reputation the next day. But waiting for the phone to ring only fills the best-known founder’s diary, not the company’s pipeline.
The house first, volume after that.
The work followed the order it always follows: build the commercial house first, then turn up the intake. In practice:
- A story that survives the buying round. The product story sharpened for the three people at the table, operations, IT and finance, without diluting it. PSA Antwerp, Antwerp Gateway and Halifax became the spine of the evidence.
- The right next terminals. Which terminals resemble the customers that are already there, on size, region, technical environment and the way they buy. Not every terminal is the right next customer.
- Outbound on signals, not on lists. A new CEO, a new IT decision maker, an expansion, a public tender, an investment in capacity. Every signal became a reason to write, with a message that fits that signal. Not the same message to everyone.
- A sales process that can carry a long cycle. Who else decides, when the technical validation comes, when procurement comes, which document proves the payback. The CRM is built around the steps that actually predict the deal.
- Coaching, not closing. The Portomundi team stays the owner of every customer relationship. My work sits in the system and the steering, so the team gets better every cycle. Not more dependent on me.
What stands there now.
The work is still running, and concrete pipeline figures stay between Portomundi and me. What I can show:
- One repeatable sales process. From first contact to signed contract there is now one process, instead of every deal being improvised again.
- Outbound the industry tolerates. Targeted, by name, on signals. The reputation stays intact, while conversations open with terminals that didn’t know Portomundi yesterday.
- One story in every stage. The buying committee hears the same positioning on the first slide, in the fifth demo and in the security review.
- Senior sparring without a senior salary. The founders have a commercial sounding board every week, without adding a full time wage.
Concrete pipeline and revenue figures I show in a conversation, under NDA.
Prefer a reference to a quote? Ask me, and I’ll put you in touch with someone at Portomundi directly.
What this has to do with your company.
If you sell software or technology into a traditional industry (ports, energy, manufacturing, construction or care), you probably know the same wall:
- You sell into a world that runs on trust, references and relationships.
- There are many people at the buying table, and one of them can stop everything.
- Your product connects to existing systems, so procurement and IT security have a say.
- A full-time commercial leader with sector experience is unaffordable or impossible to find.
The work at Portomundi is what I do for companies in that situation: build the commercial system the team can scale on its own. What stays after that is the monthly steering, not the dependency.
Recognise that wall?
One call, thirty minutes. You tell me where you think things are stuck, I tell you what I see. No pitch, no pressure. And if I’m not the right fit, I’ll tell you who is.
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