When I was Sales and Marketing Director of Stewart Milne Timber Systems, I wanted to uplift our customer service and uplift our sales revenue so I brought Jules in. The big thing with Jules that worked, was that we flushed out what the real issues were at the beginning and the ones that would make the difference.  We needed to build better teamwork and cross fertilise ideas between Key Account Sales and the Sales Teams who were scattered and everyone across the business who interacted with them, especially post sales and people out on site.  We needed our planning and monitoring to be more effective. Working with Jules, I was able to see much more clearly what we needed to do to get the results I wanted quickly and we set where we wanted to be within a timeframe.  We thought we were going to have to work 28 hours a day and we realised in conversation with Jules, that it wasn’t about working more and more but about working smarter.

The thing we did first, which was excellent, and the thing that Jules does so well is that she had one to one’s with my team and they told her things very quickly that they hadn’t said before. People were very open with her and we had all sorts of pleasant things come out of that.  We knew we wanted to improve our customer focus in order to create advocates, especially with our Key Accounts and we put together a programme of events (conference, workshops, coaching) and implementation which was tailored and targeted to achieve tangible results quickly. Jules’ programme created better teamwork and understanding between the Project Managers, Sales Team and After Sales. We looked at where we were vulnerable and improved our infrastructure and processes including the communication lines into and back from our customers.  Whilst the sales people had plans, they needed to be more detailed with conversion rates and lead times to achieve their budget.

We created team values, representing the company values and gave our teams communication and mindset skills so that they could improve their impact on each other and the customer and were better able to deal with objections. This was very motivating and created the engagement we needed for them to all work together with a renewed common purpose. The managers attended workshops to improve their leadership skills and ability to stay in control without micromanaging. The Key Account Managers built key accounts plans which were complex because our key accounts had several sites, several decision makers, influencers and product requirements. 

We needed a strategy for each key account including a review of the history, potential, competition, current framework agreements, the decision making processes and then they could make decisions on steps going forward.  We had some of this in place but Jules helped us to get in full control, create strategic plans and then detailed numbers for each funnel.  These key accounts not only involved the key account salesman but others across the business both internally and on site and Jules helped us to create formal processes for each of these relationships.   Each person involved in delivering on this key account (Project Manager, Site Manager) was brought on board from the start so that they understood their contribution in delivering an excellent service. 

For the first time in my career we had people who had always been at loggerheads or mis-communicating between departments now engaged and understanding what the other needed, all facing in the same direction. We used time constructively and I was able to think strategically and plan where the business needed to be going. The one-to-one’s I had with Jules were key in enabling me to see things clearly and act on the information I had.

In the time Jules worked with us, we achieved an average of 20% growth year on year which is phenomenal, especially as a house builder at the time in a recession. The individuals in the team developed as people and in their abilities to produce. They’re better able to communicate and see their value to the business.