The Brief...
Great. You plucked up the courage. Made the call. Had the informal chat. Decided you liked the sound of it. And now you’re coming to meet the team. Make sure you read through our little briefing below, just so we can answer as many of your questions now and spend as much of our time with you learning about you and what you want from your new career.
Fun
Want to know what the first thing people mention is when they come into see us? The atmosphere! Fun, lively, friendly. But then it’s easy to enjoy yourself when you’re successful and you’re selling a world-leading product to clients who are hungry for it. We believe strongly that the workplace environment should bring the best out of people and cultivate their positive energy. Our teams form strong bonds and compete with each other hard, but not too hard. At the end of the day we all support each other, and that way everyone learns more and achieves more.
The Market
Try and think of a company that does not need an increase in its internet sales. Thought of one yet? Practically every one of the two million companies listed at Companies House would welcome a boost in their online traffic and we have the best tools and the best track record in the industry for helping our clients achieve that.
But we’re in a recession aren’t we? Yes. But not that you’d know it where we are. We just reported our financial results for the year showing a 300% increase in profits and a doubling in turnover from the same month twelve months ago. What’s the point? It’s a heck of a lot easier swimming with the tide than against it. If you’re in a market now that is struggling, even the good companies will struggle and that hurts your commission and your growth and development prospects. It’s as simple as that. Internet Marketing is something everyone is switching in to, because it’s so measurable, so instant and such good value.
What’s the biggest influence on how much commission you’ll earn this year? Firstly being in the right market, secondly which company you work for, and thirdly how hard you work. In that order, think about it.
The WebMarketing Group
Trading securely for nine years, the company is now experiencing unprecedented growth and needs only the very best people to become the managers and directors of the future. With a fourth office opening in Leeds – this is just a stepping stone on to offices around the world. And many of the people we recruit now will be our Parachute Regiment in those territories.
Our products help companies improve the performance of their websites. Type Internet Marketing into Google and there we are with one of our key sites webeventseurope.com. So that’s Google recommending us to help companies with their internet marketing. How hard a sell do you think it is when we are talking about getting top rankings in Google, when we have proven we can do it for ourselves and Google themselves rank us at number one.
The future? Well it goes like this. Leeds, London, New York, Sydney. Predictably and understandably a lot of the office chat is about who wants to go where. We do have aggressive plans, which so far have come to fruition. We’re talking plans, not dreams. Fancy some time abroad?
Experience
This is a fast growing new market. And inevitably we cannot advertise for new staff with Internet Marketing experience. Because such people don’t exist. Our people used to be recruiters, insurance sales people, everything you can imagine. So don’t worry that you don’t know much about the subject right now. We promise that in a few months you’ll be boring your friends and family with how much you know about websites. More importantly you’ll be impressing your customers and adding value to their operations.
Progression
Business is about working hard, getting results and being noticed. But it’s not enough just to be noticed, we all want to be rewarded. We pride ourselves on promoting from within. Often very quickly. Nearly all of the senior roles are filled by people who have been with us less than a couple of years. The record is two weeks! So if you think you’re going to get noticed you’re coming to the right place. Stand out for the right reasons and you’ll be propelled into new challenges faster than you can blink. Support and training are of course key to successful progression and we don’t stint there either. Think you can take the pace?
Money
Oh yes, did we forget money? Of course not. It makes the world go round. High basics, uncapped commission of course. But there’s more to it than that. Companies don’t just randomly decide what they will pay staff. The pay what they can afford and that’s dictated by market forces, competition and margins. Sad truth is, if you’re market is tanking and there’s loads of competition, that squeezes your margins, in some cases painfully hard and that limits what you can pay your staff. Touch-wood we don’t have that so we can reward people accordingly, especially if they rise up the organisation.
But money doesn’t bring happiness. What brings happiness is seeing your name in lights on the plasma screens being beamed around the country. Knowing that amongst the best, you are the very best. Job satisfaction comes in many shapes and forms. We pay very well sure, but there are less tangible rewards which are probably more valuable.
Intellectual Property (IP), Barriers to Entry etc
You’ll have seen Dragons Den where these phrases come up. The thing is we don’t resell anything for anyone else. We’re not a middle man, buying things in, adding a markup and selling them on at a margin. We invent, design and produce all our own stuff right here in the UK with our own research and development team. That means we are masters of our own destiny. It means our margins are big, very big. That means we can pay well. And it makes it very difficult for other companies to come into our territory.
Training
Training is really crucial. But it’s got to be the right training at the right time. And that’s what we focus on right from the start. We know that people will come in often with little more knowledge than how their Facebook works. And that’s fine because with an open mind in a few months you’ll be an internet wizard. The training has to continue throughout and we’re great believers in constant on the job training so that people get the most out of their work and feel supported.
Support
For every one sales person there is one back office person in support. That’s really unusual. Mostly you would expect 2 to 1 or even 10 to 1 in for instance recruitment or a call centre. It’s just another example of the high regard we hold our business people in and it shows much we are prepared to invest in their ongoing success.
Tools
Some of things we’ve designed and built are completely unique in the industry. Even if you have worked for another Internet Marketing company (there is one?) you still won’t have come across the tools and systems that we have built to make it easier for the sales teams.
Competition
It’s not that we’re arrogant but pretty much we disregard the competition. Respect them yes, but we don’t take them too seriously. We don’t ever lose deals to competition, we lose them to a momentary loss of self conviction. You see in this business it’s all about trust. When your deliver a service the client wants to hear passion, enthusiasm and sincerity. Lose that and they’ll go looking elsewhere. Actually this is such a specialised high technology business that there are very few competitors and with two million companies to go at it’s not something we think about. And it’s certainly not something that affects our margins in the same way that it does for other businesses.
Time for Action
Managed to put you off yet? Today is the first day of the rest of your life and all that. So pick up the phone now and let’s talk about how we can work together. Yes? Here you go.... 01423 529300 (Harrogate head office, ask for Taryn. She’s a girl!)
See you soon.