Having succeeded in word-of-mouth marketing for 17 years, working with a Be the Business advisory board helped Wonky Films founder Vicky Brophy to start building a new sales strategy.
We’ll be following her journey with The Productivity Programme for six months and will keep this page updated with her progress.
Vicky’s journey with Be the Business began when she sought mentoring for help with sales. She worked with her mentor for six months and heard from him about the advisory board opportunity.
“After the mentoring had proven such a positive experience I thought, ‘What an opportunity to take the support for my business to the next level!’ So, I got in touch early on and moved directly on from having a mentor to an advisory board,” Vicky explained.
The first stage of the process was two calls with specialists, who helped Vicky identify how her business could grow to match her with the right board members.
“Just having to write a brief was a really helpful process because it made me think, ‘What am I doing? What could I do to help? What is the really important stuff here?’ Running through the gaps and sharing these with others, helped me make sense of what it was I required exactly”, she recalled.
Starting work with the board
Vicky said the best part about working with her board so far is that “they’re all really actively rooting for you”:
“Even the notes they took were amazing, and they’d obviously spent time on them because they hadn’t just written down what we said, it was all structured. It was almost like they had taken everything in my head and strategically laid out in an optimal order for me!”
Vicky said she would recommend an advisory board to anyone who needs some focus on their business plans.
“If you’ve got a problem, Be the Business has got the problem solvers, and they will help you on your journey by making sure you stay focused on getting to the bottom of it,” she added.
A new sales strategy
Having gone to the board for sales advice originally, Vicky said she has come away with a plan to step up her efforts.
“I’m thinking differently about marketing and sales, and rather than asking ‘here’s what we do, do you want our services?’, it’s ‘here’s how I can answer your pain point’. When it comes to prospective clients, I now focus more on their perspective, telling them more specifically how we can make a difference in their particular case.”
Vicky’s board also helped her to see the power of referrals to reduce the time she needs to spend finding leads on LinkedIn.
“I’m now going to start actively, at the end of every client project, asking who their colleagues are, and whether there’s anyone else they might recommend we approach. Or if someone leaves a job, enquire who the new contact will be.”
In her first board meeting, the board recommended she prioritise updating the WONKY Films website. Vicky prepared some thoughts to present back to them.
“They’re really top-line, it doesn’t have to look great, but the meat is there to ask if I’m on the right track, if the content is in the right order, or if I’ve missed anything,” she explained.
Stepping up marketing efforts
Following her second board meeting, Vicky has been deliberately making time to focus on the business improvements she discussed with the advisory board. She has updated WONKY’s website and collected case studies from clients, which her Be the Business mentor has been helping with.
“She was a fantastic fresh pair of eyes and suggested I pull out one key ljne from each case study to clarify the difference WONKY made. Her background is in science was a bonus as she was able to look at things from a more general perspective, perceiving them as a new business prospect would. Being so close to animation myself, it’s all too easy to take some aspects for granted”, Vicky explained.
This insight from her mentor led Vicky to think more in depth about how she talks about the Wonky brand.
“I’ve come to realise that we need to talk more like an advertising agency than a studio, positioning ourselves and what we achieve against competitors to better explain how we are just what people are looking for. We’ve now put ‘established 2006’ in our branding to show our longevity and give a nod to being so well experienced,” she said.
Learning to prioritise
Vicky reflected that the biggest takeaway from the Productivity Programme so far has been learning to prioritise her time and focus on things that really matter to drive the business forward.
“I’ve realised that I need to follow up more on the success of our projects with clients. As soon as they’ve run, I now ensure I get results and testimonials while asking customers who else they might recommend us to,” she said.
The advisory board has also given both structure to Vicky’s business improvement plans, and the drive she needed to stick to them.
“I treat the board like clients because I respect their time and input. This drives me even more to follow up on their suggestions and benefit still further from all their feedback. I soon came to realise that the more I made use of the given time in each advisory board meetings, the more I would benefit from the experience,” she explained.
Putting expertise into practice
Having concluded working with the board, Vicky reflected that while new business progress would be a “slow burn”, she has put good practices in place on the board’s advice and was already starting to see results.
“I’ve been putting their suggestions into place by structuring my sales work more each week. I might spend one morning doing emails and a dedicated amount of time each day being active on LinkedIn. Turning planning into action, basically,” she explained.
Vicky also highlighted that since refining her processes, her team is more involved in decision-making. “There are enough of us now to sit down as a group and think strategically together, integrating everyone’s ideas into what we could be doing together,” she said.
Following the board’s advice, WONKY’s marketing push is well underway, too. “I’ve been speaking to new leads and developed new branding for the packs I send to clients that better explain what we do. This content is based on all the input from the discussions with the board,” Vicky said.
“Now I’ve got my case studies in place and I’m using Mailchimp which I wasn’t doing before. By reviewing the data on my newsletters I can figure out what’s working best and better optimise my time. I was kind of of scheduling myself anyway, but now it’s planned on paper instead of just in my head.”
New-found sales confidence
Vicky reflected that the most valuable input she got from the board was her newly perfected sales strategy.
“They really helped me to refine how I speak with potential leads, position the business and explain why we’re different. The programme confirmed for me that networking is the best way of doing business and that conducting market and competitor research is something that needs doing constantly, not just the once when you start up,” she explained.
“The input on how we talk about ourselves has been helpful across everything – in person, online and on social media. That additional new perspective from the advisory board can see what you can’t because you’re in it day to day.”
Becoming a mentor
Having concluded her time on the Productivity Programme, Vicky has signed up to be a mentor with Be the Business.
“The board was so brilliant, I thought I’d love to have a go and give back to the programme. I’ve been able to take what I learned as a mentee of the board and apply it to being a mentor, like being proactive with planning check-ins and giving them tasks to do in between. A lot of the information I’ve been sharing with my mentees is advice I got from the board. It’s great to be able to help someone in a similar position to the one I was in myself not so long ago.” she said.
Vicky concluded, “I’ve learned that you don’t need to be super experienced at everything to have something really valuable to share. It’s given me confidence that I have enough knowledge and experience to pass on. It’s such a great initiative, I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Do you think your business could benefit from a board? We can build you an advisory board of four experienced business professionals as part of a six-month programme of personalised support – find out more here.
