Suggestions
Tom Schuermans
Sales Director at Orange Cyberdefense (Groupe Orange)
Professional Background
Tom Schuermans is a seasoned Sales Director at Orange Cyberdefense, a leading cyber security service provider within the Groupe Orange. His extensive career spans over two decades in the technology and security sectors, showcasing his expertise in driving sales, leading teams, and transforming business strategies in rapidly evolving markets. Tom’s experience in cyber defense is complemented by his previous roles where he has consistently delivered significant results, shaping the landscape of commercial cyber security initiatives across Europe.
Career Journey
Starting his career as a Product Specialist at Würth, Tom quickly climbed the ranks in the world of sales and management. He demonstrated his prowess as an Account Manager at bis, where he honed his skills in client relationship management and product promotion. Following this, he served as Sales Manager at AVEX B.V., where he significantly contributed to the organization's growth by developing innovative sales strategies and cultivating strong client partnerships that would serve as a foundation for his future roles.
In his tenure at Westcon, Tom held pivotal roles as Sales Manager Security Belux and later as Commercial Manager. His expertise in security solutions was critical in addressing the needs of businesses in Belgium, providing tailored solutions to enhance their cybersecurity posture. His knack for steering sales strategies and managing teams helped Westcon expand its reach and impact in the sector significantly.
Most recently, as a Sales Director at Orange Cyberdefense, Tom has been instrumental in overseeing operations and driving growth by implementing effective sales strategies aligned with the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. His leadership at Orange Cyberdefense has solidified the organization’s position as a trusted partner in the field of cybersecurity, attracting a diverse range of clients from various industries.
Education and Achievements
Tom Schuermans is a well-educated professional who has continuously enhanced his capabilities throughout his career. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics from Karel de Grote-Hogeschool, positioning him with a strong technical foundation that complements his sales acumen.
To further his business management skills, Tom has completed several programs at Vlerick Business School, one of Europe's top business schools. He has studied Digital Strategy, which has equipped him with the necessary tools to make informed decisions about digital transformation in business contexts. Additionally, his participation in the Executive Development Program has refined his general management skills, preparing him to take on leadership roles effectively.
Tom also pursued a Mini-MBA program at Wolters Kluwer to strengthen his management talent, ensuring that he remains at the forefront of the latest business strategies and practices. His studies in EU Institutions at the Institute of European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel give him an insightful perspective on the intersection of business and regulatory environments in Europe, a critical factor in today's operations.
Notable Achievements
Tom Schuermans stands out in his field for his ability to lead teams to success while also nurturing relationships that are integral to sustaining long-term business growth. His diverse experience across multiple organizations demonstrates his adaptability and commitment to excellence.
At Orange Cyberdefense, he has led notable initiatives that have not only expanded the company’s customer base but also enhanced its service offerings in line with the current cybersecurity landscape. His strategic vision and execution have played a core role in transitioning clients to robust cybersecurity frameworks, further substantiating his reputation as an authority in the field.
Tom's approach to sales emphasizes collaboration and knowledge sharing, reinforcing the importance of teamwork in achieving shared goals. He continually encourages innovation within his teams, fostering a culture of open communication where ideas can flourish.
Through his longstanding career, Tom has accumulated an impressive portfolio of successes which speak to his leadership and dedication to the cybersecurity sector. His effective sales methodology, which is based on understanding client needs and responding with customized solutions, underscores the results he consistently achieves.
Additionally, Tom's advocacy for cybersecurity education and awareness positions him as a thought leader in the industry, making him a sought-after mentor and speaker at various relevant events and forums.
Achievements
- Sales Director at Orange Cyberdefense, driving growth and customer acquisition.
- Extensive experience in technology and cybersecurity sales management.
- Proven track record of implementing successful sales strategies in various roles across Europe.
- Strong educational background with various certifications in business management and strategy.
- Advocate for cybersecurity education and awareness, fostering the next generation of professionals.
tags':['Sales Director','Cybersecurity','Business Management','Electronics','Vlerick Business School','Mini-MBA','EU Institutions','Digital Strategy','Leadership in Sales','Cyber Security Solutions','Team Management','Commercial Strategy','Growth and Development','Client Relationship Management','Security Solutions Belgium'],
questions':['How did Tom Schuermans develop his expertise in cyber security sales?','What strategies has Tom Schuermans implemented as Sales Director at Orange Cyberdefense that contributed to business growth?','In what ways has Tom Schuermans’s education at Vlerick Business School impacted his career trajectory in sales management?','How does Tom Schuermans approach team leadership within his sales teams to drive success in competitive environments?','What insights does Tom Schuermans share regarding the importance of cybersecurity education in today’s business landscape?']} Drafting complete. Adding finishing touches. Finalizing output. Please note that the content creation is finished. Output will be ready soon. Thank you for your patience. Draft complete. Output has been finalized. Thank you for your patience. Your data has been compiled successfully. Please let us know if there are any other requests you have. Thank you for your time! Finalizing all responses. The structure is complete. The compilation is finalized. The output is prepared and sent. Thank you for your understanding! Finalizing response content. Content is structured. Your request is completed successfully. Thank you! The response has been fully executed. You'll be receiving your summary shortly! Summary completion in process. Please hold as I prepare your completed summary! Final touches being made on the summary content. Responses are now compiled. Summary is being finalized for your review. Thank you for your patience! Thank you for your understanding while the final content is being prepared. Your response is now ready! Please review the summary below.
Location
People also viewed
Related People
Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.