The SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (PIC) at Edge Hill University delivers impact through an intensive fully-funded programme that helps established SMEs, with the vision and potential for growth, build a coherent business model strategy to scale-up as part of the LCR High Growth Programme. Read how Wirral based Pali Ltd. benefitted from their support.
The challenges
Nick Small, Technical Director of conveyancing search providers Pali Ltd. entered the Innovation Sprint Programme to formulate a market penetration strategy for growth. Through participation, the company concluded the need to take an insight-driven approach to maximise their business development performance and to improve business process efficiencies through a new customer qualification system aligned to both new and existing customers. Another major priority for Nick was to raise the profile of Pali and the benefits they can bring to their customers, with newly clarified marketing messages and a clear outbound sales process.
The Opportunity
Embedding a new customer qualification tool has allowed Pali to identify the scale of opportunities with both existing and new customers. The objective for developing the tool was to clearly understand the total potential order volume for each customer and to use internal data such as the number of searches and the number of active users to set targets for annual spend per customer. Through the programme, Nick was able to map a new customer qualification process to ensure Pali’s service delivery fitted the customer’s pain points in addition to improving process efficiencies. By analysing their customer account performance, Pali also introduced a prioritisation framework for existing customers to highlight where missed opportunities for increased spend may be. Addressing this has allowed Pali to increase their revenue and profitability.
The Key Changes
Achieving scalability for Pali started with addressing internal processes through customer onboarding processes, account management, and continued user engagement. This included developing FAQs, video tutorials and user forums for the search software Pali customers use. The measurable impacts Pali have delivered for clients will be embedded into Pali’s marketing strategy. Edge Hill’s SME Growth Experts facilitated Pali to think about specific high-value customers and the impact their service solutions had delivered for the customers, such as time and cost savings. These quantifiable benefits will be used in marketing messages to attract more new UK customers, as well as encourage existing customers to use Pali for all their searches. Improved account management and communication performance will increase Pali’s profitability by maximising the volume of searches from their customers.
The Plan and Outcomes
During the latter stages of the programme Nick worked to embed Pali’s Growth Action Plan into the business. The programme has allowed Pali to clarify the departmental roles of the sales and marketing team. Embedding the customer qualification process at the front end of the customer journey has allowed Pali to help improve upon their efficiencies, whilst also providing insights required to effectively segment customers for account management activities. A workforce development review highlighted a need for more upskilling opportunities, underpinned by improved communication between departments. The online fully-funded Innovation Sprint Programme has provided Pali with an impactful delivery business plan and strategic goals to allow them to successfully scale-up the business.
Nick Small, Technical Director, Pali Ltd. said:
“We were delighted to take part in the Innovation Sprint Programme at Edge Hill University. It allowed us to carry out a forensic analysis of our company facilitated by the brilliant team at Edge Hill. The results have been invaluable, so much so that we started implementing them during the programme and the benefits were quickly apparent. Our newly implemented systems and processes have massively contributed to the growth of our business.”