January 2022. The third time Facets rebranded. The third website.
Two and half years into the business and it’s here, I can see it.
I couldn’t have done this in April 2020, even though I wanted to. I couldn’t have done this in July 2021, even though I nearly did.
This is the first time I can say people can see the foundations of what I drew on a piece of paper nearly three years ago.
Sales Consulting, (including partnerships and client development), Marketing consulting and Talent consulting all under one roof. Senior people, in your business every week, helping you grow commercially through new clients and people.
No more of ‘what will come’, no more need to sell a vision, a dream of what could happen – it’s here now and with the business posting 3 months above £75,000 MRR, it should be here to stay.
I thought about sharing the evolution, but why? Until now, Facets wasn’t whole.
I’d rather people just see how we can help their business grow in 2023. SMEs (yes all of them) can work with Facets, it’s now my job to show them how.
I was constantly speaking to people, telling them what we did but the surprise was evident as they’d looked at the old website and had an idea of what we did, so I was reselling what was pre-conceived.
I spoke with someone this week, shared the website through Zoom chat and ‘yeah, I have seen it (as they clicked)…no I haven’t…wow this makes sense’ was the answer.
The website you’re seeing isn’t finished, it will evolve for each user. The website has to be the start of the journey businesses take themselves on, solving their own challenge with Facets before speaking with me and then the department heads.
We have a long way to go. We are at the start now, 2020 was the birth, this is the real beginning. We can build from here.
A business like this hasn’t been built before, B2B services haven’t been sold in this way before. No owner of a business has bought this before but at least the new website shows them what they could expect.
Early reviews have been positive, little do people know I’m not happy, we’re not happy (not in a negative way to our designer), it just doesn’t say enough.
The website is 3.0 for a reason, by Q2 2023, 3.1 will be here.
Commercial Development is Revenue. We are a growth business. Adding new clients and new people = revenue. You’re growing, you have or need new clients or people, it’s all connected.
Our Talent division is the baby of the group (10 months old) but the one people buy the fastest, there is no consideration period. For SMEs that need to get hiring right, we map out a people process and for those that cannot stomach a recruitment agency fee, we go head hunting, split that in half and spread it out over 6-9 months whilst managing the end to end process (including after they have started) as your head of talent.
There is traditional consulting ‘strategy and positioning’ in their and then new wave results focused end product. It’s the best bits of what a head of talent will do and a recruitment agency will do, but when you don’t need a PAYE head of talent and a recruitment agency fees are scary, you can still have them both – does that make sense?
It’s not new, it’s just functional and fitting. When you want to work with SMEs, why make it hard for them to buy from you? Why offer part of it when you believe it all has to be done, we’re just not skipping part of the process, we’re doing it right and most of the time the results match.
I had someone comment this week that Facets must be 50-70 hour weeks for everyone. It is. They mentioned we go so deep that it can’t be anything but all consuming. It isn’t. It’s what businesses need and we love it.
With all our divisions (Sales, Marketing and Talent) we slip in the cracks of what has existed but never quite fit. We are flexible for all budgets and structures and sensitive to decisions already made by business owners.
Some businesses would love a CMO, our Marketing Division allows them to have that. Some businesses would love a channel specialist, our marketing division allows them to have that. Some businesses would love a marketing all rounder, our marketing division allows them to have that. Some businesses would like their PAYE staff to have a leader, our marketing division allows them to have that. Some businesses would like all the above, yup….that too.
We’re not trying to be a jack of all trades, quite the opposite. We are specialists in all areas of growth. Isn’t that what the most successful consultancies do? They do it all for you so you don’t have to, they do what you can’t and they have a team you can’t hire or don’t need forever. That’s all we have done but most consultancies are focused on enterprise businesses, we’re focused on SME growth.
If you were hiring for a PAYE position in your businesses within one of our divisions, someone at Facets could get the job. But the service we provide is, you don’t need them on payroll. Access them here, and then assign your commercial budget elsewhere later depending on your business needs. That’s the real difference with us.
Our website has also tried to be engaging, friendly, transparent and understandable.
We feel like we get new jobs everytime we work with a business. We have 24 jobs right now and it’s our job to make sure you feel that. This isn’t a transaction, we all care deeply about the growth of SMEs and we just won’t start working with you if we don’t get the feeling you are right for us.
Two things in business that are always consistent, sales and finance. All companies need someone closing revenue and someone looking at the finances. For lots of companies, that is the founder.
Our Sales Division is the OG. It’s often the hardest to sell because everyone thinks they can sell and they can, but to their mates mates.
Try selling to multiple people who don’t know you, every week, who don’t want to buy straight away, and make them feel loved over time enough to buy from you on force of will alone….not many people can do that.
Can we be perfect? I want to build a business that any company can bring in a facet seamlessly, understand what we are doing and have clear deliverable objectives. Then once that has green shoots, they can work with another channel or division when it suits them, not when it suits us or because it suits us. Of course we can advise.
The glory for us is when we set a business up for success and they go it alone. This happened recently and when revenue isn’t your focus (it comes with the more businesses you help) it’s the most heartwarming feeling.
Assign a commercial budget for 2023, come and speak with us. We’ll find out your gaps and fill them in.
Facets, for the adaptable.