South Staffordshire Council

“Jed has worked with South Staffordshire Council as a consultant, however the relationship quickly developed into a true partnership approach, Jed has supported, coached and mentored members of our service teams to deliver on our commercial agenda. This has included running individual sessions and 90-day workshops with a training element included e.g. copy writing techniques. Jed has also mentored our Business Development Team Manager as a direct result of Jed’s work with the Council we have achieved and surpassed our new income generation target for 2018/19 of £100k and the work has led to a shift in the culture within the organisation of adopting a more commercialised approach to our service offers.

I have benefited personally from working with Jed and we have had healthy debates which have influenced me in my role as Corporate Director Commercial and would have no hesitation in recommending Jed.”

Jackie Smith, Corporate Director Commercial

Who is South Staffordshire Council (SSC)?

This council is responsible for numerous civic authority services sustained by £42 million annual turnover. By 2020 all centralised government income will be stopped, and the council will need to be entirely self-funding. Therefore, SSC was looking to generate new income streams and optimise existing ones in order to bridge the gap in funding shortfall year on year.

How our relationship began

I tendered for and won a 12-month consultancy contract (which was extended to 18 months) to spearhead the identification and implementation of new revenue-generating services as well as optimising existing services. I was directly involved with over eight key service areas including; Leisure Services, Bereavement Services, Waste & Recycling, the Business Hub, and more.

A snippet of my contribution

In the 18 months I worked with SSC we covered a lot of ground ranging from strategic through training and down to operational day-to-day marketing. It was diverse, creative and rewarding. Here's a little taster of what I covered:

Directly helped them achieve and exceed £100,000 target revenue for combined commercial areas over a 12-month period.

Identified pricing restructure for Waste and Recycling that would generate additional low-£X0,000 in gross profit.

Regularly contributed to business case development in respect of new service opportunities, optimisation of existing services and software procurement.

Ran multiple one-to-one sessions and workshops for staff and directors on developing a marketing mindset including how to use deliberate experimental failure and advanced split-testing.

Identified multiple commercial opportunities for Training, HR, advertising, Public & Environmental Services and other service areas.

Used business tools, analytics and models to support commercial activity.

Implemented 90-Day Strategy Meetings which brought together all commercial service areas comprising; group meetings where service areas would ‘air and share’ supporting continuous learning and development, marketing training, technical and marketing support provided on the spot, action-oriented behaviours, training on commercial analysis, data and metrics.

Helped structure and wrote marketing and branding plans for each area.

Through intensive analysis, assessment and evaluation identified service areas with significant revenue generation capabilities.

Launched the Good Life Energy brand using ‘escape and arrival’ email marketing.

Developed the action plan to launch the Community Lottery which sold hundreds of tickets

Devised a new leisure membership retention programme that will recoup up to mid-£X00,000 annually.

Developed advanced email marketing system which wins back elapsed memberships netting mid-£0,000 each month.

What they think about my work

£100,000 Increase In Revenue

“As a direct result of Jed’s work with the Council we have achieved and surpassed our new income generation target of £100k.”

Jackie Smith, Corporate Director Commercial

Items used from the Marketing Toolbox

Overcoming Sales Objections

Convert prospects who failed to buy using sales handling techniques

Omnipresence Marketing

Have your brand appear everywhere simultaneously in your prospect’s digisphere

Offline/Online Relationships

Use offline marketing techniques to generate online traffic

Offer Stacking

Multiply your perceived value with your prospect in order to help close the deal

Marketing Metrics

Define and implement the critical metrics you need before beginning any marketing

Marketing Goal Setting

Construct solid, sustainable and achievable, marketing goals using commercial metrics

Lead Generation Tactics

Use multiple techniques to effortlessly bring prospects to your business using lead magnets and Irresistible Intrigue Offers

High-Low Service Profiling

Organise your offering with the most expensive service first and then selling downstream

Hand-to-Hand Selling

Learn the basic selling techniques to sell which don't pressurise or manipulate your prospect

Facebook Advertising

Take advantage of this cheap and hyper-targeted advertising platform

Email Marketing

Use email marketing to build long-lasting relationships

Cross-Connecting Channels

Create connections between marketing channels to funnel your prospect towards your intended goal

Copy Writing

Write compelling copy that magnetically attracts 'ready-to-buy' customers

Continuity Back-End Sequencing

Sell a back-end of services using automated email marketing techniques

Website Analytics

Understand and apply the data within Google Analytics to increase website conversion

“To drive forward the Council’s income generating activities and identify new opportunities for income generation, the Council partnered with Jed for an 18-month period. During this time our aim was to strengthen our marketing activities and upskill our workforce with new marketing tools and techniques. Jed brought a new way of thinking and commercial approach to our activities by using data intelligence we had never used before; we were able to identify prosperous target markets and new opportunities for income generation. As a result, the Council exceeded its £100k income target and our employees have developed their marketing knowledge and skill set to build on what has been a fantastic 18 months.”

Niki Taylor, Business Development Team Manager

“It has been a complete pleasure to work with Jed over the past 18 months. He provided Leisure with invaluable advice and support which has really helped to develop and drive our service forward. His work has helped us to maximise our income and increase member retention with the introduction of Active Campaign, the development of the new website and ongoing sales training with our centre teams. I cannot thank him enough for his inspiring ideas and creating so many different opportunities for Leisure!”

Sam Osbourne, Marketing and Promotion Officer Leisure/Facilities