More than a 40% increase in sales 12 months after completing the Storming Growth Programme

30 November 2016

More than a 40% increase in sales 12 months after completing the Storming Growth Programme

As a business which had pioneered online reglazing for prescription glasses, ciliaryblue had grown dramatically in its early years. With the market place becoming increasingly competitive, Managing Director Phil Bartram and his fellow director, wife Hannah, realized growth had stalled and things needed to change.

The business was in good shape but sales had reached a peak

“Within the business we had capacity to do more, and I felt our offer remained better than many of the competitors. However, the challenge we faced was how can we change things? As an ophthalmic optician, I had a flair for marketing and sales, but I was no expert. When exploring who or what was out there, or who could help us with sales and marketing, most organisations seemed to be much the same. Focusing on the tactics (or really just what they wanted to sell us) was how it felt, but they didn’t inspire us or give us confidence.”

Someone recommended ‘Get Inside Your Buyers Head’

“This free workshop explained the bits I knew about marketing, but it also explained how and why they worked. It made sense, because it essentially explained how people think when making a purchase. The workshop was focused on how a business could only really grow if it had a process to manage marketing and sales systematically.”

The Storming Growth Programme provided the ideal route to develop our growth strategy

“The programme was delivered through five half-day workshops which challenged us. Working through a structured process, we reviewed our businesses through the eyes of a customer. It enabled us to assess our competition objectively. This helped us identify all the things we did which were important to customers. It enabled us to highlight these ‘important things’ through different marketing tactics and tools within the sales process. Making it easy for us to show and explain why our proposition was better, in detail. It gave us the strategy to grow the business and break through the sales ceiling we’d been experiencing.”

Since the growth programme we’ve significantly grown sales

“The growth programme gave us structure to grow sales through a joined-up approach to sales and marketing. Because everything is process driven, we know our numbers and can spot if sales are starting to drop off – so we can take action and do something to prevent it.”