EVS is recognized globally for its live video technology for broadcast and new media productions. Spanning the entire production process, EVS solutions are trusted by production teams worldwide to deliver the most gripping live sports images, buzzing entertainment shows and breaking news to billions of viewers every day, and in real-time. EVS has more than 800 employees and offices spanning EMEA, North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
The challenge: growing without complexity
By 2019, EVS found itself at a strategic crossroads. Their core market was saturated, technology was shifting to IP-based systems, and customers were expecting faster production and distribution. EVS needed to reinvent itself. The company wanted to expand beyond sports into new verticals like corporate, government, and news, while scaling without adding complexity. To do this, EVS also needed to broaden its portfolio, and transform from a collection of products into customer-centric solutions.
Yet commercial reality lagged behind strategy:
- Product-driven sales: Sales teams, highly technical, remained focused on product features rather than customer value.
- No scalable sales system: Conversations lacked consistency across regions and onboarding new hires was slow.
- Limited collaboration: Teams worked in silos, with little orchestration across functions.
- Weak data foundation: A CRM was in place but mostly used for reporting instead of helping to guide decisions.
The fact that we were presenting ourselves as very product-centric was a mismatch with our DNA. EVS has always been solution-driven, but we weren’t reflecting that in how we sold.
recalls Nicolas Bourdon, Chief Commercial Officer at EVS
The solution: from strategy to scalable commercial system
The company needed a commercial system that could scale. Together with Perpetos, EVS launched two transformation tracks:
- Play Forward: Building the foundation consisted of aligning leadership around a bold growth ambition (€350M revenue by 2030), defining EVS’s DNA, and moving from a product collection to an ecosystem of solutions.
- Upbeat: Strategy was translated into commercial practice: introducing Buyer Aligned Selling, embedding the Buying Clock® into daily operations, and installing a data-driven approach to opportunity and pipeline management.
The main idea was to shift sales from pushing products to aligning their actions with the customer’s actual readiness to buy. The Buying Clock ®, a clear framework for matching sales behavior with the buyer’s stage, soon became a shared language across teams and regions.
At the same time, collaboration was no longer left to chance but organized as a system: product managers, R&D, finance, and solution architects were brought in at the right moment, ensuring that every opportunity was supported by the right expertise.
Finally, EVS embraced a more data-driven way of steering. CRM was no longer seen as a reporting obligation but evolved into a practical tool for forecasting and coaching. Through scenario-based planning, sales leaders could anticipate outcomes more effectively and make better-informed decisions, increasing both confidence and consistency across the organization.
The results: growth and collaboration
The impact of EVS’s new sales approach has been profound:
- Sustained growth: EVS has realized five consecutive years of profitable growth, going from €100M in 2019 to nearly €200M in 2024.
- From value to system: Customer intimacy, an important EVS value, has become a repeatable system embedded in daily sales practice.
- Collaboration as second nature: Salespeople no longer work in isolation but orchestrate stakeholders across the business.
- Better forecasting & decisions: Forecast conversations now focus on verifiable buying behavior rather than gut feeling. CRM-based insights and scenario planning have improved predictability.
- Sharper deal execution: Offers are created later and with more intent, while sales teams manage more deals in parallel, focusing resources where buyer readiness is strongest.
- Collective awareness: Sales is no longer driven by hope or internal pressure, but by the reality of buyer readiness. That mindset has become firmly embedded in the way teams work.
Nicolas Bourdon highlights the biggest change:
The most noticeable difference is collaboration. The sales team fully embraces the opportunity to onboard more teams to collaborate on commercial wins and customer successes, while the entire company is fully engaged in this approach. They now involve the right people at the right time, depending on where the customer is on the Buying Clock ®.
Collaboration with Perpetos
Perpetos did not act as external trainers but as co-pilots, adapting their methods to the team’s maturity, embedding practices, and making them stick.
The strength of Perpetos is their pragmatism. They don’t come with theory. Everything is practical, easy to implement, and directly useful for sales.
says Nicolas Bourdon
Rather than imposing rigid processes, the Perpetos team embedded themselves in EVS’s reality, working side by side, as sparring partners.
Perpetos works as if they’re part of the team. They embed, adapt, and step back only when we’re ready.
says Nicolas Bourdon
This hands-on approach made the change sustainable. Initiatives didn’t fade but evolved into embedded programs. Teams adopted Buyer Aligned Selling at their own pace, with room for local nuance, but still following a shared logic. New hires were trained on the Buying Clock ® from day one, ensuring continuity. As a result, sales practices became part of daily work, not just short-term projects.
Looking ahead
EVS is now scaling into new verticals with confidence. The company’s growth ambition is to reach €350M revenue, while keeping complexity in check. Buyer Aligned Selling provides the foundation: a living system that evolves with every new market, product, and team member.
And Perpetos remains on the journey, not as permanent consultants, but as trusted co-pilots who step in at the right moment. As Nicolas Bourdon puts it:
Perpetos is a sparring partner I can rely on when we face tough discussions or need to unlock situations. They help us move forward together.
