The opening of the system now requires a commercial force closer to customers, according to the sales director at Engie Brasil Energia (EBE). The new moment in the market demanded adaptation from large players of the energy market to deal with smaller commercial consumers.
“The client wants to sit down, they want to talk, they want to understand who the partner they are associating with is,” says Gabriel Mann.
According to the executive, this is because often a contract considered small for an energy company, used to dealing with large transactions, can be a big deal for the consumer.
Continues after advertising
“Sometimes it’s a small client, but it’s a three, four, five year contract that gives a bill of R$500,000 to R$300,000. He doesn’t sign a contract at that price every day,” he says.
EBE is controlled by Engie, of French origin, and has a history of operating in sales markets in Europe and the United States. The company has been in the Brazilian free market for 25 years. In Brazil, the company also operates in the generation and transmission of electrical energy.
Continues after advertising
“The free market is the focus for the group here in Brazil and abroad”, says Mann.
In the free market, the consumer negotiates directly with the generator or with a supplier to purchase the energy they consume. In 2024, this option became available to all consumers on medium and high voltage networks in Brazil. As a result, there was a large entry of medium-sized companies into this segment.
Continues after advertising
According to Mann, EBE’s preparation to meet this opening began in 2018, with the structuring of new sales channels.
The company initially expected that new migrations would occur through digital channels. Soon after opening, however, he realized that the majority of new customers preferred to close the deal through direct commercial negotiations.
According to Mann, it did not make sense for EBE to have its own strength operating in this smaller customer segment. Therefore, the group structured a team of partner companies trained by EBE to capture these new customers.
Continues after advertising
The partners are smaller companies that operate in segments such as insurance brokers, service providers for the telephone market and electrical maintenance service providers for industries.
Read more:
“These are partners who already operate in some way in a segment somewhat related to the energy sector, but above all who operate in the B2B segment, close to industry, commerce, and who already have a portfolio of customers”, he explains.
Today, 95% of new sales occur through these partners.
In parallel, the company continued with its commitment to digitalization, but more focused on migration, in order to facilitate the transition process. The digital sales channel has also been used by older customers in the free contracting environment, who know the segment better.
“Today, this e-commerce has worked very well for large customers who were already on the free market, but who sometimes need to buy small volumes”, he explains.
The expectation is that the next wave of market opening, with the entry of low voltage customers into the free market, will also give new impetus to negotiations in the digital environment. The rules for opening the free environment to low voltage consumers are still under discussion in the government.
Read more:
Today, large consumers still account for 90% of EBE’s revenues in the sales market, but smaller companies already make up the majority of the customer portfolio.
According to Mann, larger clients demand more customized contracts. For new entrants to the free market, the company has created three standardized contract options, as part of efforts to speed up and simplify the process.
One of these options is a guaranteed percentage savings in relation to the distributor’s tariff, with less exposure of the end customer to short-term negotiations.
“This guaranteed discount product has a lot of appeal, because it clearly brings a gain, an economic advantage for the customer, without necessarily bringing more risk”, he says.
Free market makes new generation projects viable
According to EBE’s commercialization director, the constant renewal of contracts on the free market is now enough to enable the implementation of the group’s new energy generation projects.
On average, EBE commercialization contracts last between four and five years.
“We have the ability to roll this portfolio [de clientes] and renew these contracts over time”, he says.
According to Mann, this also provides greater flexibility in negotiations, as the company can negotiate different products according to generation availability.
“This commercial dynamic and the lack of need to rely solely on long contracts, whether regulated or free, allows us to have more flexibility from a commercial point of view”, he states.
Opening of the market for low voltage
Regarding the expansion of the free market for low voltage customers, including residential consumers, Mann highlights that it will be important for the rules to help simplify the journey of consumers who choose to leave the regulated market.
Read more:
“There are barriers that distributors often continue to put up, because they also operate in the commercialization segment and use some barriers, sometimes, to make it difficult for competitors to operate”, he says.
The executive defends the need to reevaluate the rule that requires measurement adequacy for a consumer to migrate to the free market, for example.
To increase security in the market, Mann believes that it is necessary to establish margin contribution rules, which require traders to prove their ability to honor the volumes traded.
“The contribution of margin is a way to take a step as big as your leg. So, you operate at your size. We are not against competition in any way. We want to have competition, liquidity is important for the market, and this can only be achieved by having several players, having competitors, but we cannot be subject to a hiccup from any player in the market at every moment”, he states.
Mann also states that it is important to review the large volume of subsidies in the electricity sector in Brazil today, in order to make competition in the market in general fairer.
“Subsidies are really killing the sector,” he says.
Ricardo Bellino from Ensina
How to negotiate and persuade
Learn the art of persuasion from an elite negotiator; learn how to influence and convince people with the strategies of Ricardo Bellino, one of the biggest dealmakers in Brazil.
