What A Strange 6 Months!
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As the summer draws to a close, we thought we would let you know what Where Now Consulting has been up to in the first half of the year. It was certainly not the year any of us were expecting, but we consider ourselves fortunate as we have remained busy and most importantly healthy.
Like most businesses, the last 6 months was defined by the lockdown with both the type of support we were giving our clients and the way we delivered that support radically changing. Working from home, Zoom calls, WhatsApp, and the chat function on our website have replaced meetings and surprisingly also conventional and mobile telephone calls.
Our client support also reflects this change.
The first 3 months of the year
Our projects in the first 3 months were all focussed on growth and the future development of business and included;
The implementation of a Salesforce CRM system for a services business based in France. Our work included creating a detailed understanding of the existing sales and operational processes and working with the leadership team and the Saleforce team to create a system that supports the business whilst requiring minimal changes to the standard Saleforce system.
For the same business we also completed a sales deployment project. The aim of the project was to realign the sales activities of the business to the changing market resulting in redeployment of sales teams to focus on key sectors and account types and the creation of an “inside sales team” to improve the customer experience and to increase sales to both larger and smaller customers.
Commencing the development of a leadership and business succession plan for a UK based manufacturer.
Provision of a review and strategic paper on the future channel and sales structure for a manufacturer that was looking at the performance of its existing distributor model with a view to move to a blended online, direct and distributor multi-channel sales approach.
Developing a leadership succession plan for a subsidiary of a larger company.
Various export and market entry strategy assignments in the Nordic and Central European regions.
The second 3 months
And then it all changed!
We have been involved with and supported a number of business planning and finance raising exercises to support our clients as they started to plan for the impact of COVID-19. We have been involved in projects that have been supported by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the smaller bounce back scheme raising a total in excess of £1.5m in funding support.
Not all businesses have been affected in the same way during lockdown. One of our clients, an online furniture company based in Ayrshire, saw sales increase dramatically at the start of lockdown. This inevitably placed new requirements on the team and business systems. Where Now Consulting provided one of senior consultants to act as a General Manager through this period to support the owner to ensure that demand was satisfied, and the customer experience was maintained.
One of the features of this period has been the acceleration of the adoption of online sales channels. We have supported a number of companies deploy new online sales platforms or to develop alternative sales channels through existing third-party online platforms. Our support has included general advice on online sales channels through to the development of implementation plans and selection of platforms. One of our clients, saw sales through this new channel reach c20% of the sales in the same quarter in the prior year.
Our research team has been very active with the British Contract Furniture Association (the BCFA) carrying out surveys to understand the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on its membership.
Alongside these key projects we have provided support to our clients including; discussions on capacity and cashflow planning, sales opportunities and short-term pricing strategies, fund raising for a charitable organisation, the provision of webinars and training, and general business support and advice.
Finally, we had our first team get together for months in June and walked the hills behind the office. A great way to end the lockdown.
We would like to thank all our clients for their business over the last 6 months and to wish you all well for the future.
As we look to the next 6 months uncertainty and change is almost a given. We are already engaged on market assessments looking at the impact on certain sectors, and team and company restructuring is becoming an almost daily conversation for those companies that are seeing both increased and decreased demand.
Two things are certain. Online sales channels and sales automation will be key factors for success in the future and homeworking is here to stay for the foreseeable future. We ran a survey across our clients, partners, and contacts with more than 68% of those surveyed stating that online channels had become more important, or significantly more important, since the start of the crisis. They also reported that they expect at least 40% of their workforce to be working from home in 2021.
If you would like to know more about the above, or would like to discuss your business needs, please contact us at info@wherenowconsulting.com or connect via our online chat function.
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About Where Now Consulting Ltd: Where Now Consulting is a management consulting company that focuses on helping its clients to grow and compete. The company offers a range of consulting services, including business turnaround and performance improvement, formulating market entry strategies, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances, and sales and distribution strategy and management.
For more, please visit Our Services page.