How do you reach over 75% of your targets and still have six months left in the year?
Vicki Culverhouse, founder of Straightahead UK, created a three-year plan that helped our lead generation clients convert more leads into sales. We asked her about what it took to make big plans pay off.
Three-year plans – do they work?
They can! I wrote mine in December 2020 for our financial year starting 2021. I’m guilty of writing plans and never doing anything with them. But then something amazing happened - we started getting better leads and better outcomes.
Have you always followed up on big company plans?
Usually no, as I struggled to find time, but it’s something I prioritise now and I’m thrilled with the results – by some bizarre coincidence, what I wrote is what’s happened. There were a few tweaks needed here and there, but we are very much on track, or even ahead of the game in some aspects.
What are your biggest achievements?
We’ve bought and now operate from our own property. It was a major investment, but having a permanent base – we call it Straightahead House – has given us more physical space to grow. To expand the business, we needed an office big enough to accommodate more team members now and in the future.
Since the move, we’ve been able to spend time working on our marketing plan, which is on track and producing some great results like better leads in greater numbers.
What else has changed for Straightahead?
Like many businesses, during the pandemic, we had to review how we work and make changes to our business model.
To be more effective, we now make our clients accountable for lead follow-ups. We found some clients were not getting the results they had hoped for because they didn’t have a solid process for following up on the leads we generated for them. Our new emphasis on adequate follow-ups has transformed the number of leads that convert into further interest and sales.
We’ve also looked at where we can add the most benefit and have moved away from working with clients who don’t match our values.
What does your team of lead generators look like?
As a team, we are going from strength to strength. Staff plans have morphed but in a better way than I’d written or hoped for when I structured the training plan for new recruits.
What are you proud of?
We’ve seen a significant increase in our average order value. Companies are trusting us with bigger, longer campaigns, and that is paying dividends. Financially, we’re reached over 75% of our target and still have six months left in the year.
Our team culture is strong. We have a stable core to our structure, and our office is a fun, happy, relaxed place to be without compromising on the quality of our work. An unpressurised environment makes it easier to achieve.
And most importantly, we have an ever-growing number of testimonials from clients we have helped this year and over the past decade, which show us we are meeting our primary purpose.
What’s next?
I’m keen to keep up the momentum and continue to focus on key industry sectors that benefit most from our support.
I’d love to hear from companies who we haven’t worked with previously, as well as supporting clients who are already familiar with us.