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Sales & Growth
Article
We invested in after sales support to create a sustainable business
Car repair marketplace whocanfixmycar.com faced the challenge of building a sustainable business in an industry with a high customer churn rate.
Maximise effectiveness of your salesforce
Sales & Growth
Article
We identified a target audience and found a global market to tackle seasonality
Cocofina found it challenging to maintain consistent sales throughout the year because of its issues with seasonality – sales suffered in the winter.
Identify target markets
Planning
Article
The senior team had to learn to do less to build a growth strategy
Beezee Bodies had a problem – ensure senior team members had the capacity to focus on business growth, without compromising on quality or staff experience.
Change your mindset around future planning
Sales & Growth
Article
We invested in customer experience to beat the competition
Using customer experience to set your business apart can help you compete with much bigger, more established brands. Here’s how one jewellery company took on Tiffany’s.
Invest in your customer experience
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Why we marketed our core values before we marketed our product
How do you find customers for a product you haven't quite finished yet? You inspire them with your vision and your brand values of course, like Origin Workspace did.
Ensure clients understand your values
People & Team
Article
We proved culture beats budget to hold on to our staff
Futrli found it challenging to retain staff as a young SME in the tech market. It had to compete with larger budgets for wages and training at bigger firms.
Provide development opportunities
People & Team
Article
Diversifying our incentives helped keep staff motivation high
Consultancy firm 383 faced a battle to keep staff motivation high and see important projects through as they gravitated towards comfort zones.
Provide staff with recognition, and experiment with non-financial rewards
Digital Readiness
Article
Using a spreadsheet to manage stock was not working anymore
Cheeky Chompers relied on Excel to manage stock, manufacturing and customer orders. This made for a complex supply chain and was hard to keep on top of.
Digitise your supply chain
Sales & Growth
Article
We used customer feedback to prioritise our marketing spend
With so many marketing channels available, it’s hard to know where to invest. Bury-based security firm Expert Security let customer feedback guide them.
Set a customer feedback strategy
Leadership & Strategy
Article
I broke with tradition to keep our family business alive
How do you make changes to a 300-year old family business? Carefully. This is how cider company Aspall brought in a fresh perspective.
Challenge the status quo
Digital Readiness
Article
We used IoT technology to manage our changing occupancy levels
When Sensor City started looking at ways to utilise IoT technology, they found a way to manage systems based on changing occupancy levels.
Invest in IoT capabilities
Sales & Growth
Article
Global competitors with deep pockets? Do the simple things brilliantly
If you’re going up against global companies with bigger budgets, make sure your basics are spot on. OTTY Sleep did exactly this to compete.
Respond to competition
People & Team
Article
We stopped trying to shoehorn people into a role needing filled
Rattan Direct had been guilty of shoehorning someone into an in-house role they don’t really want or settling for a new hire who lacked the right skills.
Recruit to succeed
Digital Readiness
Article
We upgraded our software capabilities to gain real-time insights
With outdated software slowing processes and stifling growth, Blends tracked down a new solution.
Find software that supplies real-time data
Digital Readiness
Article
We beat bigger budgets by focusing on our independent niche
How do you compete with some of the biggest brands in the world? Best of British Beer started by embracing its independence.
Identify potential areas for growth
Sales & Growth
Article
A focus on brand consistency guided us through a risky expansion
The ideal growth rate is steady and manageable, but how would you cope with an unexpected opportunity for expansion? Restaurant chain The Coconut Tree tackled it with a brand-first focus.
Keep your brand consistent
People & Team
Article
Measuring staff performance kept us consistent through change
Putting a structure in place to measure staff performance and give consistent performance reviews to its growing number of employees was key for mmadigital.
Measure staff performance using a defined process
Planning
Article
We turned down cheaper alternatives to stick to our sustainable values
How do you stay true to a sustainable manufacturing vision and grow an effective business? Smart textiles company KYMIRA looked carefully at when to compromise and when to refuse.
Stick to long-term goals
Leadership & Strategy
Article
We had to build machine learning capabilities without sector expertise
Streetbees believed machine learning could unlock the value of the market research it was doing for clients, but didn’t have the sector expertise needed.
Establish R&D budget and strategy
Sales & Growth
Article
Our sales team chased corporate customers, then succeeded in a niche
When PracticeWeb's sales team realised they were spending time on pitches they couldn't win, they went back to the drawing board to define their key client personas.
Train your sales force
Leadership & Strategy
Article
We rolled out a profit share scheme to reward staff commitment
MI Supplies wanted to find a way to reward staff commitment and help them place long-term relaionships over short-term profit. It settled on a profit share.
Reward commitment to vision and values
Digital Readiness
Article
To attract customers to our online brand, we added trust-building features
How do you get customers to leave a lifelong brand and try something new? Subscription brand Waldo found the answer.
Encourage trust online
Article
We overhauled how we handled staff requests to fight innovation inertia
Fast Web Media needed to re-engage employees in innovation process after frustration had set in and staff had become fed up with the rate of progress.
People & Team
Article
Our appraisal process left us struggling to compare employee performance
Preston-based firm Suresite realised that its staff review process was too vague to provide any real insights on company-wide performance.
Define 'good' performance using clear performance metrics