CPD Article

Issue date: 30^th March 2015

Surveying firm reaps benefits of external business development

One of the UK’s specialist engineering and surveying consultancies is reporting a notable increase in repeat business orders, and is on course to achieve its growth plans after investing in strategic business development from ROM Consultancy. 

Smithers Purslow provide nationwide engineering and surveying services on insurance claims and bespoke private sector projects and has enjoyed consistent organic growth since becoming established in 1977. Like any company that has experienced organic growth, Smithers Purslow needed to go from being a business with an informal structure to one with a heightened infrastructure in order to sustain growth. The company wanted to align the vision of its management team, identify potential new market opportunities, and implement a strategy to ensure a consistent stream of repeat business from existing clients. 

In order to ensure that the business was agreed on a clear vision for future growth, ROM worked alongside the board of directors firstly at an individual level, to ascertain their personal visons, and later collectively, to create a unified business vision, of which the entire board of directors, and wider business, held a vested interest in its success.

Smithers Purslow Director, Andrew Bussey says: “Working individually with ROM, directors were able to really focus on what we wanted the business to do for us and also our staff and clients. As with any business that grows organically, often the internal infrastructure is forced to evolve without structure. This brings issues later on when projecting future growth, as each department has its own individual visions and goals, so it can be difficult to create a holistic growth strategy. Having ROM’s external assistance helped us step away from the business and implement an effective growth strategy together.” 

Alongside a strategic business vision, ROM also worked with Smithers Purslow to help develop the company’s five year business plan, incorporating a number of practical steps to help the company implement its vision and achieve its long-term growth plans. There were two elements to this; it was important for Smithers Purslow to strengthen existing business relationships to create and sustain repeat business, while also identifying and maximising new market opportunities. 

A SWOT analysis was key to supporting new market entry. Often a practice adopted by start-ups, it is important for businesses to continually review their SWOT analysis in order to continually expand. ROM’s work demonstrated that while Smithers Purslow already worked directly with a number of clients in the insurance sector, by forming new strategic relationships with intermediary companies the company was then able to tap into an already established referral network, which in turn facilitates future growth for the business. 

Andrew Bussey continues: “From outlining the five year strategic business plan with ROM we have been able to identify a number of new potential avenues of opportunity for the company, and this has allowed us to earmark a number of manageable tasks in order to capitalise on these opportunities. It is a challenging process but very rewarding.”  

Identifying new opportunities enabled the company to also strategically align new areas of business development with the shared company vision. Together ROM and Smithers Purslow were able to identify potential target markets, identify senior decision makers and opportunities, build credibility and secure quality appointments within these key markets.

As a result of this strategic approach, Smithers Purslow has secured a notable increase of repeat businesses orders within key industry sectors, and the company is also on target to achieve its ambitions. 

Andrew Bussey, says: “As a result of implementing a number of strategic processes agreed with ROM we have been able to identify our key skills and clients that need our services. We have been able to use this information and tailor our business development to these targets. As a direct result we are attracting repeat business as well as new business, and turnover is growing.”  

ROM Consultancy continues to work alongside Smithers Purslow, strategically helping the company with a number of business functions, including, business planning, new business development, and senior management development and succession.