My Story
Before I started my own business my first ever sales job (apart from selling promotional pens to car dealerships in Australia at 18), was selling fleet management GPS Satellite tracking systems as part of a 20 strong telesales team in a room on Cardigan Road, Leeds in 1999.
At Minorplanet Systems we didn’t have computers or even our own CRM. What we did have was a phone each, 192 directory enquiries, the yellow pages and I had the foresight to write down the names and numbers of every passing delivery and trade vehicle whilst sat on my lunch break by Kirkstall Road.
I knew that the company owners would love to know where their vehicles were and after lunch, I regularly rang up the receptionists of these companies and asked to speak to the fleet managers. This was long before Linkedin and any kind of bulk data and there was an art to asking who they were and explaining why you needed to talk to them. The reason was to help them save money.
I regularly used the example of paying two builders £10 each for overtime twice a week when they were not on site and the van was actually parked outside the local pub. £10 x 2 x 2 = £40 a week. One van with a tracker on it was £7.55 a week. It was a no brainer. The field sales team apparently loved going on my appointments. They didn’t have to sell anything when they arrived because the client was already convinced.
With the people who were not available we would write notes and a callback date down on a piece of paper and a call back date. This was passed to either Amber or Sharon and they would pass it to be entered into an excel spreadsheet. Every day we would receive a bit of paper with our call backs.
I set up my first successful business in 2004 creating 360-degree virtual tours, before Google took over! We sold these as a CD-ROM postcard product or PanoPostcard® to cathedrals and visitor attractions and worked closely with English Heritage. From there we sold them into hotels the hospitality and the property industry.
It soon became clear that we also needed to create websites for the tours to be displayed on, and as we were also at the infancy of Adwords and SEO we began supplying the whole marketing package including hotel booking systems.
For example, we delivered a comprehensive marketing campaign for a chain of London hotels, increasing room occupancy by 38% over two months through website redesigns, virtual tours, a reservation system, AdWords, and SEO.
From there on in I went onto selling 3D animation and 3D digital screens with retail measurement facial detection software. By doing this I secured a project from NG Bailey and managed the account by orchestrating a complex 3D animation to showcase an innovative construction solution, aiding in winning a £13,000,000 tender with Network Rail for the Birmingham New Street Station project.
In 2017 I was honoured with the Award for the Most Innovative Use of Technology at the Digital Entrepreneur Awards, recognising my significant contributions to innovation in the digital landscape.
Having a great product is all well and good but its about how you articulate that product to potential customers after defining who they are and whether they have a need. This is where the detective work comes in.
Using these tactics I have become an accomplished executive with a proven track record of leveraging strategic business development and innovative technology sales to drive market expansion and solidify industry leadership for other companies.
It’s not about me it’s about YOU and Your Business.
