Web-Epics
has a wide-ranging background in corporate communications for
many major global clients, with core expertise is in helping
companies to define and deliver their key messages. Web-Epics
are now perfectly positioned to bring the benefits of this experience
to new customers for whom video was, until now, too expensive
or simply too cumbersome to deliver.
Martin Shepherdley,
MD of Web-Epics commented;
'Bryan is
a rare breed; a sales and marketing Titan.... His Sales and
Marketing Healthcheck is an eye opening and grueling day that
I would recommend all businesses undertake.
He has a knack of quickly honing in on the main issues, provides
simple and effective advice that is quick to implement while
constantly being respectful of available budgets. Within the
first couple of days of engaging Bryan he had secured two appointments
for me with new prospects.
If you need help and support with your sales and marketing efforts,
contact Bryan.
For more information
about Web-Epics contact Martin Shepherdley on 01730 891390,
or visit
www.web-epics.co.uk
Recruitment
Juice
Recruitment Juice
is the brainchild of world-renowned recruitment trainer, Roy
Ripper, and serial recruitment industry entrepreneur, Matt Trott.
Their mission is to shake up the recruitment business by providing
innovative training DVDs that are versatile and easy to use,
engaging and fun to watch whilst delivering real business benefits.
Rather than just filming classroom training sessions, they wanted
to do something really different that would keep viewers’
attention and be truly memorable.
“We
have seen our sales increase by 66% in the five months since
Cognitive Sales became involved and this gives us a return on
investment of at least 240% so far.”
If you
want to benefit from learning opportunities from other businesses,
you could thrive by being part of Business Link's Peer
Group Learning.
It allows
business owners to interact, share knowledge and learn from
each others' business experiences. All business sectors are
welcome to encourage collaborative working and development of
consortia.
" In
the space of only 45 minutes, Bryan was able to convey the key
points from his Sales & Marketing Health-check in an interactive session
that gained considerable buy-in from the participants
and armed them with 6 practical steps to increase their
sales . I'm certain that when these techniques are put into
practice that sales are bound to improve".
The Centre helps both existing and former students by guiding
innovative ideas and developing skills in business start up,
self-employment, freelancing and consultancy. The Centre is
open to all students, regardless of their course and services
are free.
For those students who are serious about their business ideas
and set up companies the Centre provides enhanced support including
a Business Review Panel, which comprises of
independent experts in the fields of finance, law, operations,
strategy and sales and marketing. The Business Review Panel
meets regularly and provides advice and guidance to the students
to help then overcome specific challenges and make rapid progress.
Cognitive Sales Consulting, who help organisations
improve and maximise sales and marketing results, have been
providing the sales and marketing support to the Centre since
2005, by providing an expert for the Business Review Panel,
as well as sales and marketing training and seminars, as part
of the popular annual Enterprise
Challenge.
Cognitive Sales Consulting,who work with companies
in Hampshire, Berkshire and the Thames Valley help by. providing
very practical operational and strategic advice, sales coaching,
sales mentoring and interim services, based on many years success
in sales and sales management.
Richard Sant, Enterprise Lecturer for the Centre
commented;
“Bryan has been a great help to our students and
entrepreneurs. We really value working with our local business
sponsors and supporters, who offer us time and valuable resources”.
This client case study gives a client perspective on a recent
Sales and Marketing Health Check that they
had performed to help them fast track sales growth.
Russell Wiltshire, Director of Vivantio shares
his experience;
What challenges did Vivantio face ?
We knew that Vivantio had excellent products and services. We
also knew that Vivantio had little real experience in selling
and marketing. Plenty of experience in being sold to and marketed
at, so we knew what sort of message our potential customers
would respond to. But we didn't’t know how best to find
them and what sort of return we should expect from all the different
forms of sales and marketing activities that we could undertake.
What did you want from the Sales and Marketing Healthcheck
?
We wanted to know;
- how best to manage the sales process.
- if there were ways of marketing and selling that we used.
- how to use well known methods to make them more effective.
- how to get the best return on our limited marketing spend.
- what sort of return we could expect.
We like to think that Vivantio people are fairly smart, sensible
people with keen business minds. So we liked the idea of getting
advice and taking it forward ourselves, rather than employing
someone to do it all for us.
What was it like ?
The Cognitive Sales Consulting Sales and Marketing Health Check
process made a lot of sense to us. We felt we received good
advice with sufficient detail that we could act on it. We liked
the fact that our background and long-term aspirations were
fully explored, and that this was taken full account of in the
recommendations and Action Plan.
Going through the Action Plan in detail and being able to discuss
the recommendations was also very useful. We had an open mind
and were willing to give most of the suggestions a try. In short,
we were fully convinced that Cognitive Sales Consulting knew
much more about this than we did and we appreciated the coaching
and follow-up support helping us to work our way through some
difficult decisions.
What have you done differently as a result of the Sales
and Marketing Healthcheck ?
We’ve been a lot more systematic. Vivantio sales and marketing
has now become a planned process rather than a case-by-case
make-it-up-as-we-go-along affair. We’ve taken a more holistic
approach to our sales and marketing efforts and can now compare
different methods to assess where best return is. We now have
much better data about what we do and can analyse results to
continually drive more sales.
We completely refocused the web site and brochures for Vivantio,
based on the benefits of our products and services rather than
the features. We’ve found that focusing on the benefits
is useful in setting the scene for potential new customers –
before they get onto the detailed list of features. We started
a whole new advertising campaign and we could immediately see
the benefits from it.
What results have you achieved ?
Well, its difficult to say anything like “we doubled our
sales figures” because we had so little information to
go on before and we were still ramping up. But we knew, even
from the short time that we had been doing things, that we weren't’t
going to get very far without help.
So really, the main result, is that without any real in-house
sales and marketing experience, Vivantio have been able to put
in place a pretty good process. We can now see the effects of
the improvements we make. This saves money in itself and we
can see what happens when we change anything. Before the Cognitive
Sales Consulting Sales and Marketing Health Check we would have
had to guess.
We have already won more business as a direct result
of a new advertising campaign recommended in the Action Plan
on a very cost effective basis.
We’re a lot more confident and motivated
because we can see patterns starting to emerge. We know what
our win rate is today, so we can be more confident in planning
ahead because we can tell what’s going to happen based
on the current number of prospects coming through.
What Return on Investment have you achieved ?
I can definitely say that this is a high value service.
Even a company with a modest potential market and turnover should
be able to achieve a positive return on investment from the
health-check within a reasonable time.
I have no hesitation in saying that the Cognitive Sales Consulting
Health Check was worthwhile. Our sales are higher and our marketing
spend is reduced as a direct result. In just three months we
recouped the investment and estimate that we will see a return
on investment of at least 300% in the first year alone.
Vivantio
was formed in 2001 and provides fresh and innovative web-based
software solutions as well as business and technology consulting
services. Their team of experienced business consultants, creative
designers and highly skilled developers combine to provide a
range of high quality products and services to clients such
as DHL Global Mail, West Wiltshire Housing and Bard Health Care.
Vivantio’s products and services include:
Best Value Review – a comprehensive analysis of how an
organisation uses information and communications technology.
Software Design and Development – including web site design,
intranets and custom-built software.
Vivantio Surveys – a web-based service for online data
collection such as customer satisfaction surveys.
Vivantio Helpdesk – a complete software solution for customer
service and support teams.
"Thank
you for a great workshop on Negotiation. You are able to explain
issues in a very clear and pragmatic way, ways that you can
get out there and save yourself money. An excellent
insight into how to get a better deal for you
and your business.
Thanks,
much appreciated."
Mark
Fineman, Director Concentia Consulting
concentia
consulting delivers Learning and Development
Solutions, Management Consultancy and Coaching expertise to
many organisations, companies and people.
"A
true giver and a real professional - I saw him in action this
week running a really interactive workshop on negotiation. If
you've got a sales team that needs to sell or a staff that need
motivation, I couldn't recommend a nicer fellow"
Tom Evans,
Director shere Solutions
Our
solutions empower businesses to take full advantage of new technology.
We de-mystify the jargon and make things happen for our clients.
Our solutions enable you to work smarter.
"We had a serious
challenge on our hands - to move from a fully government funded
organisation to one which our members were happy to pay for.
Cognitive Sales Consulting helped us tremendously in that
transition by working with us to quickly define a Sales and
Marketing strategy, design and execute a rapid customer survey,
help define the services to be offered and
develop promotional material such as case studies to help
launch the new services.
I am certain that we will see a significantly more
successful campaign and a higher level of member subscriptions
as direct a result of Cognitive Sales Consulting's expert input
and are very happy that this was a great investment for us.
"
Sarah Britten-Jones
- Manager Wired Berkshire.
Wired Berkshire is the premier network for sourcing suppliers
of new media and information communication technology services
across Berkshire.
It aims to support
these suppliers and enable them to gain more business by facilitating
interworking, bringing organisations together to collaborate,
share services and best practice and collectively bear the cost
of learning and business development. Wired Berkshire Cluster
members bring local economic growth by stimulating e-enabled
services in all businesses.
Following
a guest speaker appearance on the marketing module of the A
level Business Studies course, Anja Harwood, Senior Tutor remarked;
"Thank
you so much for taking the time to come to the college and present
to our students. It was very much appreciated. It was a valuable
learning experience for the students and clearly demonstrated
the importance of understanding your target market segment.
In the
post presentation feedback the students had clearly grasped
the material. It was exactly what I had hoped for."
“Cognitive
Sales Consulting were very effective in helping us uncover and
then develop some specific areas for improvement to help us
increase sales more quickly. I would have no hesitation in recommending
them to anyone who wants see a step change increase in sales.“
David Morris, Managing
Director, Comtrol Europe
Comtrol Europe is
a leading supplier of specialist communications solutions which
are used across many applications and industries. In 2003 Managing
Director David Morris, initiated a review of sales operations
which commenced with a Sales Health-check conducted by Cognitive
Sales Consulting . This analysis all key sales activities and
identified several areas where improvements could be made. A
series of interactive workshops and coaching sessions were conducted
to develop them, including a strategic shift from a product
to a solution sales approach, as well as more effective approaches
to generating new business and negotiation strategies for larger
deals. Comtrol is now a regular client with periodic checkpoints
to ensure that everything stays on track.
"Cognitive Sales
Consulting helped us analyse our current situation and then
provided valuable, effective, high quality training and coaching
to help us understand the new area of the market that we are
targeting, as well as mapping out the steps that we now need
to take to implement the plan successfully."
Rod Taylor is the European Client Services Manager for Aquitec,
a leading Supply Chain Management software company.The critical
issue for Aquitec was that they had started development of a
significant new product capability due to a customer request
but this took them into a new sector of the software market
where they had little prior experience, presenting them with
significant risks.
They needed to very quickly gain an understanding of this new
market sector, determine the business opportunity and put together
a development and marketing strategy to leverage it into increased
sales whilst minimising costs and risk.
Cognitive Sales Consulting
ran a workshop which educated and coached the management team
through a review of the new market, mapping out the options
to be considered before reaching a decision on the way forward,
resulting in a clear development and marketing plan.
Rod commented that
"we have been provided with some very knowledgeable training
and coaching that will help us drive the company forward much
more effectively in this market"
"
Very few people in sales can demonstrate a consistently successful
track record and fewer still one that spans across many vertical
industries, whilst selling both products and services.
Bryan
is one of these rare people and this is a direct result of his
ability to quickly analyse both the business and sales dynamics
of a situation, focus on the critical factors, then formulate
and professionally drive a plan to achieve the desired results.
I would also add that his proposal writing skills are exemplary.
At
TIBCO he demonstrated this with significant business generated
in finance, manufacturing, travel and Government, which was
particularly impressive as all of these were new verticals for
TIBCO UK.
When combined with his extensive Sales Management experience
in building and developing sales teams, this equips Bryan with
a unique blend of skills which can be quickly deployed to great
effect in any sales organisation to help it rapidly maximise
business."
We work with businesses in Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and London, including Basingstoke, Reading, Newbury, Guildford, Alton, Farnham,Bracknell, Camberley,Banbury, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Woking, Swindon
