A business network in your pocket 

The LOSC business club brings together hundreds of companies from the Lille region. Around ten events per season, partners who above all want to meet each other, and a question that returns as soon as a network grows: how do you make sure they actually find each other? 

Building loyalty differently 

For LOSC, a business club is more than a list of member companies. As Romain Duchan, commercial director at LOSC, explains: 

"The LOSC business club is above all about bringing all these companies together, with the ambition of building loyalty. Not only through results on the pitch, but through the business network they are able to build." 

That ambition rests on a position the club fully embraces. "In Lille, we are genuinely at the crossroads of Europe," says Alexandre Platel, Sales Manager at LOSC. "What matters is being present in your region and being strong in your region." 

That presence is not limited to matchdays. The club builds around ten events per season, and that is often where the relationship really takes shape. Jérôme Jean, member of the business club, sees the concrete value of his membership there: "LOSC is somewhere you exchange with others. It is a lot of good moments shared with friends. All the invitations to padel tournaments, football tournaments, visiting the cellars of a champagne partner, for example: I really enjoy that." 

That is exactly what companies are looking for, Romain continues: "On matchday, some companies are very focused on their own clients. But when they join a club, it is also to be part of the life of the club." 

Connecting those who never cross paths 

The larger a network becomes, the harder it is to make it function as a network. Large groups and smaller businesses share the same stands without necessarily speaking to each other. This is where the club has a role to play: 

"The challenge is being able to connect them to each other, because sometimes smaller companies simply do not have the opportunity to reach large groups." 

One obstacle remained, one every club knows well: dispersion. Emails, text messages, phone calls, follow-ups. Every additional channel adds noise, and noise eventually drowns out everything. Jérôme puts it plainly: "The problem with emails is that we receive so many every day that we no longer read them." 

Everything in one environment 

The first effect is clarity. "It means we avoid communication by email, by text, by phone and so on. Everything is centralised in one environment," confirms Alexandre. 

But the club sees a less expected effect as well. Where a communication tool usually limits itself to informing people, this tool sets things in motion. As Alexandre puts it: "I think it can be a trigger, even an accelerator of business relationships, compared with what you would have without this application." 

Results and impact 

The club's figures show what has taken hold. Eight in ten companies use the application regularly, amounting to 32,000 interactions per year and 370 qualified leads generated for a company within the network. "It is a genuinely dynamic application," says Alexandre. "It gives you a sense of the ROI and, in fact, of the business platform it has become today." 

A business club that becomes measurable changes the nature of the conversation with partners. It is no longer only about visibility and hospitality seats, but about concrete return. 

The club does keep one thing in mind. "What they want most of all is to experience their passion," explains Romain. The application replaces neither the stadium, nor the padel tournament, nor the visit to the champagne partner. It holds the thread between one occasion and the next. 

From "another one" to indispensable 

Adoption is never a given, and Jérôme is the first to admit it: "Honestly, the first time I thought: another one! We already have plenty of them on our phones." What made the difference was not the functionality, but the actual use. 

"It is the exchanges we build that make this application almost indispensable today," says Jérôme. "I spend my time on my phone checking whether there is news, whether there is an update. I use it very regularly, and it is a good thing it is there." 

Adoption is not decided at launch, it is built through use. At LOSC, the reason to come back already existed: companies that want to meet each other, a club that brings them together, a shared passion. All that was left was to bring it together in one environment. 

Do you want to bring your own partner network together in one environment?