Another solid performance from the sales team in February. We had several new clients start this month and even the most veteran business development professional gets a buzz from setting that first great meeting for their new client.

Having so many new clients come on board can make life complicated so I’m glad to report the sales team have risen admirably to the challenge.

The other challenge we faced in February was a five-a-side football match against another new business agency. As the pre match hype reached fever pitch the significance of this game grew to unbelievable proportions so it was with considerable apprehension that we learned the other team was comprised of one business development guy and 4 ringers. Worse still, this five-some was actually a regular five-a-side team that play in a league every week.

I knew my guys talked a good game. As a company we punch well above our weight when it comes to knowing football trivia and I’d been treated to several beer fuelled accounts of people’s glory days on the pitch when they were younger but I was convinced a team used to playing together would soundly thrash us.

This didn’t stop us buying football kit for everyone in the company and a very gaudy trophy to be presented to the winning team.

As kick-off approached the mood among our fans was, I felt, unreasonably hopeful. This possibly owed much to the fact that the ban on drinking spirits common in the professional leagues was not being observed. Among the players on the pitch the sense of impending humiliation was palpable. But then something strange happened. As we kicked the ball around during the warm-up it became clear that there was some real talent in the team, but would we have the stamina or organisation to win a competitive match?

Actually we won convincingly. As one of the star players, the leading goal scorer, main creative force and the defensive rock from which our victory was chiselled it’s probably fairer I let someone else write the match report. What I will say is that the way we gelled together so quickly and went about our task of dismantling the opposition was phenomenal.

I’m also happy to report that the crowd were impeccably behaved despite the presence of known troublemakers. And that this Corinthian spirit continued in the pub afterwards where both teams gathered. We became more gracious in victory the more we drank….A rematch has been demanded by the opposition and we shall oblige but first we have the Alchemis Sponsored Run for Sport Relief in March.

Having been bowled over by our performance in the football match I’ll not be surprised now if this motley crew don’t churn out 4-minute miles one after the other.

Another strong month for the sales team. The two most remarkable things in January were the unprecedented number of rearrangements we had to manage due to global cooling at the beginning of the month and the significant increase in access we achieved when targeting marketing agencies for our own new business effort.

I’m happy to report that most of the meetings postponed at the beginning of the month have now gone back into the diary. Rearranging meetings is the bane of any Business Development Consultant’s life as there is always the chance that the meeting will not slot smoothly back in and occasionally such meetings can slip into a limbo-like state for months on end. We do everything we can to minimise the impact this has on delivering to clients, including;

• Regular contact with our clients to ensure we have the most up to date knowledge of their availability for meetings
• Setting high quality meetings in the first place, with a qualified decision maker and establishing a clear agenda for both prospect and client
• Ensuring the proven process for confirming meetings is carried out
• Factoring in a cancellation rate; we set more meetings than we need to because at the end of the day and despite everything we do, some meets will always drop out

The first couple of weeks in January posed an unprecedented challenge however. Some of our clients were literally snowed in and some prospects were inaccessible on the day the meeting had been set for. Fortunately the measures we took ensured no clients made a wasted journey and the majority of the meetings we had to move in the first week or so have now either happened or will do so shortly.

The increase in decision maker access we achieved when talking to marketing agencies is harder to explain. We were 50% more likely to speak to an agency owner in January than the historical average (which really doesn’t fluctuate much). One can only assume that marketing agencies are looking positively at 2010 when planning their proactive new business efforts, which is great news for people like us. This assumption is supported by the net increase in our client base we have experienced so far this year.

I’d like to report that we found it so much easer to get through to Marketing Directors in January but this was not the case. It seems there is no substitute for hard graft when it comes to winning a telephone audience with a Marketing Director. Fortunately the uplift in successful outcomes once we have got one on the phone, which began in June 2009, now seems entrenched so we enter the year optimistically, hoping to build on a very positive second half of 2009.

Our clients attended more quality meetings in November than any other month in 2009. Although the sales team didn’t quite match the heights achieved in October in terms of new meetings set we still exceeded targets across the board. Some of the meetings we set in November will happen in January, as will most of the meetings set in December so we have entered the New Year with a record breaking number of meetings in the diary.

Setting meetings is only stage one of what can be a long journey for our clients before they win business but it’s the stage that our New Business Managers can most influence – creating opportunities for our clients to meet with prospects is the foundation upon which everything else we do to help clients is based – which is why we get so excited when we thrash our targets.

The sense of optimism and activity across UK businesses that we first picked up on in June 2009 (after a moribund 9 months) feels stronger than ever as we enter the New Year (and decade). It’s a sense based on collectively speaking with about 2000 senior marketing people every month but has been backed up since November by the fact that 2 marketing agencies we first worked with 2 years ago have recently re-signed with us to help them exploit a market that was emerging from hibernation.

It’s always a relief when the Christmas party passes without serious injury or incident but 2009’s was one of the best we’ve had. Shy retiring types are thin on the ground at Alchemis so the banter and party games began early with a champagne breakfast and Mystery Santa in the office followed by a prodigious lunch in a private room at one of London’s finest restaurants and then drinks in Soho.

The first few days of January have been very busy for the sales team. We do our end of month reports at the beginning of the following month so it was always going to be busy – but the weather has thrown some logistical challenges our way. So far London remains relatively unaffected so we’ve all been able to get into work but not all of our clients have been able to get to their meetings. By speaking to our clients everyday we’ve been able to deal promptly with any meetings that must be rescheduled. We have also focussed our fresh calling on areas of the UK not yet in the grip of permafrost but by Thursday 8 January this was pretty much London and the Scilly Isles….even so, by giving the North West, Scotland and Western Home Counties a wide berth we’ve avoided any drop off in productivity at a time when the Federation of Small Businesses have estimated the cost of the current weather to be £600m per day to the UK economy.

The sales team has been growing since early summer and we welcomed our latest colleague in November. A personal friend of one of our stalwart New Business Managers it soon became obvious to the rest of us what Pete and Richard had in common; a suspicious physical resemblance and unfounded belief in their own dancing ability meant they were quickly christened Petard.