Clients and Projects

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got”

Deborah Searle, MBE

Partnering with my clients, I encourage them to step outside of their comfort zone to try new approaches, overcome hurdles, and really drive their businesses forward. The result is that the sphere of their comfort zone expands significantly over time.

Below is a list of clients I’ve worked with to-date. This is followed by a series of case studies, highlighting the type of projects I’ve supported individual clients with. To see what clients have to say about my services, visit my Testimonials page.

Staff Balance

Staff Balance, based in the IFSC in Dublin, has developed a cloud-based Corporate Performance Management software solution to assist companies in managing their workforce optimisation, sales team optimisation, and cost and profitability management. I engaged with the company from September 2009 to August 2011 to act as their Business Development Director, creating and delivering on a comprehensive sales and marketing plan. The main focus was on generating early stage revenue. During my time with Staff Balance, I won a significant contract with Bord Gais Energy, which determined their cost of acquiring, serving, and retaining their customers. Other contract wins, which resulted in revenue increases of more than 100% in 2010, included the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, CPM, and Aegon Insurance.

While at Staff Balance, I also organised and implemented a Robert Kaplan executive conference, which was attended by 130 ofIreland’s most senior executives, at CEO and FD level. This event, held in October 2010, was a hugely successful business development and PR activity. Articles about the event were published by The Irish Times, Accountancy Ireland, Irish Director, and the Sales Institute of Ireland, while radio interviews were aired on  Newstalk, and RTE’s ‘The Business’ show.

10CMS

10CMS is a cloud-based Commerce Content Management platform that provides retailers with the power to take control of the rich interactive content on their e-commerce websites.  This allows retailers to drive increased sales and return on investment from their online sales channel.

10CMS has grown rapidly over the last 2 years and has offices inCorkandLondon. They needed to implement a sales process and customise their Salesforce CRM system to reflect this process and manage their opportunity pipeline. I stepped in to support the team and maximise their selling time, by providing a model to determine the opportunities that were most likely to result in a sale.

Together we implemented both a standardised opportunity pipeline process and a formal sales process, which are now used by the 10CMS sales team. Results included optimisation of the sales team, reduction in admin time, better forecasting of sales results, a focus on genuine opportunities, and most importantly, an increase in sales’ conversion rates. 10CMS is successfully selling to clients in theUS,UK, andAustralia, including international brands such as Halfords, LK Bennett, and Jimmy Choo.

Share Navigator

Based in the Trinity College Technology and Enterprise Centre, Share Navigator offers professional stock market education and support to self-directed investors.  Share Navigator provides clients with an ethical and comprehensive educational programme, teaching how to buy and sell shares in the stock market.The brief I worked on for this company, included:

• Creating a sales and marketing strategy for inclusion in their business plan
• Developing a customer value proposition statement
• Reviewing and updating their competitor analysis
• Enhancing their target market and buyer profile
• Making recommendations on their sales channels and resource requirements
• Providing advice on the business plan and sales and marketing activities for the company launch

Invest Northern Ireland’s Propel Programme

The Propel programme offers entrepreneurs inNorthern Ireland a unique opportunity to turn innovative ideas into high growth, export focused businesses. Part of the Propel programme focuses on ‘Fast Track Revenue’ and aims to assist participating companies accelerate their Go2Market plans and achieve early stage revenue – at home and abroad.

Participants attend workshops and receive valuable guidance and advice in terms of building their business. This is then followed up with one-to-one sessions with an experienced sales management professional, working on behalf of an organisation called Xcell Partners who assumes the role of VP for Sales and guides each participant in the development and execution of their Go2Market plans. Participants are encouraged to take the advice that was given to them during the workshops on board, and use the one-to-ones to determine how to tailor it to meet the specific needs of their business.

I was one of the professionals who engaged with Xcell Partners on this. I worked with 4 of the participating companies on the 2010 Propel programme on a one-to-one coaching basis, covering the following areas: 

• Sales prospecting and networking: How to access the target market and specific prospects
• Sales skills: Identifying buyers, preparing for and executing effective sales call and meetings
• Qualification process: Setting up a CRM system, building and managing an opportunity pipeline
• Account management: How to build trust and develop long-term relationships from the start

For the last number of years, I have also been a service delivery partner for the Genesis Enterprise Programme, which is run by the Rubicon Centre, based on the campus ofCork’sInstituteofTechnology. My involvement with Genesis includes training delivery and 1-to-1 mentoring, covering similar sales-related material.

Coole Swan

Coole Swan offers a tasty Irish cream liqueur, created from the highest quality, all-natural ingredients which are carefully balanced to create a taste that is seriously delicious. I helped Coole Swan by developing and implementing a CRM system to build a database of their Irish and UK-based trade outlets. This provided the sales team with a cloud-based solution to optimise their selling time by managing their appointments and meeting updates using a single integrated tool. It also enabled senior management to generate real-time updates on the level of sales and account management activities. Last but not least, it offered the team at Coole Swan the ability to track the success of in-store tastings and promotional events.

TSM Controls

TSM Controls are specialists in materials blending and control systems. Since 1978, they have been providing cost-effective profit-enhancing process solutions for plastics’ producers. I developed and delivered sales training to the team, tailoring the content to meet their unique requirements. Although based inDundalk,Ireland, TSM Controls has established a global presence and recently expanded its sales team to cover international markets in theU.S., Europe, andAsia. In certain countries around the world, there are agents working on TSM Control's behalf, while the company recently opened its own dedicated office in the city ofTaipeiinTaiwan.

A-Frame

A-Frame isIreland’s leading provider of energy efficient timber-framed homes, specialising in one-off domestic builds for the self-build market. I developed a sales process to maximise the activities of the internal A-Frame sales team. This included the implementation of a process for managing the opportunity process. I also supported with the creation of sales management reports and dashboards to increase visibility, and implemented a Salesforce CRM system to provide the managing director with transparency on all sales opportunities in real-time.