Driving an efficient B2B team

What does the MID Communications B2B team do?

Over the past 6 years, my B2B team at MID Communications has been adding value, building lasting relationships and raising brand awareness whilst at the same time providing world-class service to our customers in and around the northwest with their telecommunications needs.

During this time, we have built a strong customer base with over 2000 businesses relying on our services and expertise. We deal with companies of a range of sizes from sole traders to larger SMB’s, they are all part of the MID Comms family.

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We currently have a well-oiled machine of a team with over 25 years of experience between us, but growth is always one of our primary objectives. Due to current success, new opportunities and our aim to reach out to larger organisations by offering a wider product portfolio (broadband, landlines, etc) we want to expand our business acquisition team even further.

What does it take to be part of the MID Comms B2B team?

From purely a business team point of view, the qualities you must possess are, experience in B2B, understand the principle that people buy people and be a strong and consistent lead generator. These are the main attributes you will see in the members of a successful B2B team in the current business environment and the crucial traits I’m looking for to add to my team.

However, competency and the 6 MID Comms core values are just as important:

• We are brand ambassadors.
• We seek personal excellence.
• We drive for results.
• As a team, we will achieve more.
• We find creative solutions.
• The customer is at the heart of all we do.

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Looking ahead for 2018

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So where do I want to take my B2B team in the year ahead? We are striving for a strong MID communications brand supported by our network of businesses. We want to continue to support our existing customers, continue to support our existing partnerships and I want to continue to support my team. Furthermore, I want each of those aims to be accompanied by growth as we’re always looking to expand and develop.

If you’re interested in joining our fantastic B2B team, drop me an e-mail – martyn.barrow@midcommunications.com

Also, follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with my B2B journey – @mbarrow1

Surround yourself with good people – talent spotting

Spotting talent to help grow your business.

So, this week we officially announced that Jennifer Hulme is our first non-executive board member, as we start to scale the business even further and build the MID Group.

Having great people in your business is essential, as you will very much already know, and good people are sometimes hard to come across. Making sure they fit in with your people, your culture and also that you can work with them is essential.

I am lucky to have three great senior leaders, all in very different journeys. For one of them in particular, their journey has taken them to become our first non-executive director.

Two out of three leaders have developed through our business both starting from a manager to becoming a major part and a real influence on how our business runs at a senior level. So, developing people is vital but it starts with spotting the talent, to begin with.

I always work on a 7/10 rule. Meaning, if I make 10 decisions, 7 will likely be right and 3 will likely be wrong but I can reflect and learn from them. This helps me manage my emotions of making a bad decision. Rather than beating myself up about them, I manage my own expectations on whether I will make a mistake or make a wrong decision.

So, as Jennifer shares some great and exciting news this week, let’s look at Jennifer as a great example that may help you and your business.

Jennifer joined our business in September 2015, and I remember seeing lots of great HR candidates, at least 12 – 14.

I remember we did the first round of finals and no one really showed they had the MID factor, it was only on the two trench finalist’s that we saw Jennifer.

Jenn stood out head and shoulders above the rest, for a multiple reasons, some of which I have spoke below about to help.

I am going to let you know what I did to help myself discover if and how Jenn had the MID factor.

Jennifer had a keen desire and passion to succeed, she demonstrated a lot of sacrifices to get success in both her work and personal life. This showed that she wanted to win, she was really focused when she knew what she wanted. She was hungry for the opportunity and took plenty of risks in the interview, she didn’t give textbook responses. Instead, she presented with passion and energy.

Jenn showcased a wealth of experience but it seemed she had not been offered a place at the table to express herself and her capabilities. By asking the right questions we were able to discover that she has great ideas, and plenty of them, but the corporate machines had chosen to overlook them, as some do with arrogance and the ‘business-knows-best’ mentality. This was clear as most businesses will experience similar challenges.

After asking some further questions she had experienced a lack of authentic leadership, coaching and development. She invested in herself, with things like the CIPD and a passion to move through it and become a external influencer, and had not been supported in doing this. It appeared she didn’t really have any regular dedicated coaching sessions that were developing and leading her rather than managing her – so many business don’t coach development, instead, they manage the performance.

Even though performance is important, developing the person is equally important, as this is how the person improves and performance improves on its own. The person will become better equipped to perform and, therefore, they become far more capable.

Are you managing more than leading or have you got a good enough balance, I try and find a good balance with my senior team. If you are not prepared to invest in yourself and those around you, don’t expect others or your business to.

Believe in you and invest in you, after all, your brain is your best tool in life, why not invest in making it better and more effective!

Lessons in a summary.

As you can see there are some really amazing things you can pick up on by asking the right questions. Try today by asking a couple of different questions to see if you get different answers that may allow you discover and uncover some new talent in your people, friends and who knows maybe even your family and children.

In summary, make sure that if people say they want success and they really want to be successful, ask yourself how bad do they want it? How do they show it? What have they sacrificed to get it or are they expecting success to just happen?

Give people opportunity.

Sometimes I feel like I am not a CEO, I feel like I am a COE, a Chief Opportunity Engineer. If you give people the parameters to work in, empower them and guide them, they will almost always flourish.

Investing in you and your people.

How often are you, the candidate or the team member in question? Are you self-developing or going to free seminars to expand your knowledge and skills and build relationships.

Understand leadership truly and spiritually. How to lead more than manage, the job is more enjoyable when you lead and connect with people emotionally.

Ask yourself or event look at what people bring to your table. If Jesus brought wine and bread then everyone must bring something, look for it and ask people what are you contributing to the business. Do they know how they can contribute? Do they understand the impact of them contributing?

Seek questions that make you think – can you see the woods for the trees?

Read more about Jenns’s latest journey in the latest Press Release, here.

Alternatively, you can view the full news clipping by clicking here.

I hope this article can help you and offer you some food for thought when seeking or scouting for talent.

Watch out for my VLOGs coming soon, as we asked our digital media apprentice to start doing some interviews about key topics with certain leaders, especially the interviews with each of my senior teams.

Our first Board Member and HR Director, Jennifer Hulme, will soon feature in our upcoming videos which could include showcasing her experience, offering some great business insights and most of all, providing some really key information for local businesses.

Until next time… keep being awesome!

Giving the gift of Christmas in 2017

Making a difference with Manchester

I hate knowing that children will not have a Christmas! At MID Communications and alongside Cash For Kids, work tirelessly to improve Christmas every year, with an amazing bunch of people to help reduce poverty right across Greater Manchester and the North West.

We have built this over the years to be the biggest toy appeal in the UK!

Why do we support Mission Christmas with Cash for Kids?

Because we always want to help more children every single year, as 1 in 4 children live in poverty.

Christmas is all about spending time with friends and families and sharing experiences full of laughs, smiles and enjoyment. A quarter of our children across Greater Manchester and throughout the North West do not get to enjoy the festive period like the majority. At MID Communications, we love to put smiles on the faces of these children and will continue to support this fast growing cause that is doing everything to try and remove poverty from our communities.

The Mission Christmas VR Experience

As part of Cash for Kids Mission Christmas, we visited the children’s hospice Francis House in Didsbury, Manchester along with Key 103 to surprise kids under their care and their siblings in the run up to Christmas. Francis House helps families of children with life limited conditions. Christmas is a special time for all the families to create amazing memories together however it can sometimes be interrupted by unexpected visits to the hospital. Key 103 Cash for Kids Mission Christmas asks you to buy one extra present this Christmas for a disadvantaged child living in Greater Manchester and help put a smiles on their face this Christmas.

A quick message from Key 103:

Huge THANK YOU to O2 Franshise, MID Communications for help making this possible by providing all the latest virtual reality technology. More information about Mission Christmas can be found at key103.co.uk/mission.

How do we contribute to helping this fantastic cause?

Helping to raise money and donate by hosting events across all of our communities, fundraising and working tirelessly with our partners.
We also encourage shoppers buy an extra gift and drop it off at any of any one our stores or any other drop off point.
Volunteer your time, become a drop-off point.

Make it simple and inspiring others to help. An easier way is sending a text to donate.

I tried to inspire people on the night by saying ” Helping this cause doesn’t have to cost anything, but YOUR TIME. We know time is the most expensive currency, that’s why we value you and yours…”

Please help myself and our teamsat MID Communications give a little more this Christmas and help make a difference with us and the rest of Manchester.

MID Supports Rochdale Business Awards 2017

The 7th Year of Rochdale Business Awards

This year, we supported the business awards by putting an award together to celebrate local retailers, that are independent within the Rochdale borough.

It was a great process, as we teamed up with local entrepreneur Gregory Couzens. Greg’s hair salon, Gregory Couzens, has been in operation for years in Rochdale and is possibly one of the longest trading retailers in the town.

Our second partner was with Chris who is the Regional Sales Director for Shoppers Anonymous, a customer service delivery business who are experts in helping businesses deliver excellence in sales and customer services.

Above is Rochdale Council CEO, Steve Rumbelow, kicking the event off.

We Were Overwhelmed with the Positive Response

We were blown away by the response from the Rochdale borough, and applications, for the awards first year out. From all these amazing businesses, we did manage to make the cut of applications down to three finalists based on their applications and business history plus a series of face-to-face meetings and interviews and, of course, encounters with our mystery shoppers.

Rochdale Business Awards 2017: High Street Retailer of the Year
Top Three Finalists

All three finalists were amazing but there could only be one winner! A huge congratulations to Chantilly.

Such an amazing business that’s delivered exactly what they said they did. They are a great bunch of Passionate, people that go always above and beyond at every point they do.

A shining example of not just great retailers in Rochdale but an excellent example of British retailing and what retail experiences should be. I am proud to have presented the award to them.

Furthermore doing this was amazing to allow smaller independent retailers to step up and show how great they are,and have a voice amongst the larger retailers, who in my opinion could learn so much from the smaller passionate retailers, who aspire to be the next big retailer.

Putting passion back into Retail

I am passionate about wanting to get retailers working better together in 2018. My conclusion is we have become so comfortable with online shopping and trading and that we are neglecting our best part of any business… the part that involves people.

Consequently, we must work together to improve the standard in retail to inspire people to start online and finish in store, because they get amazing experience in store, from the people in those stores!

After all, people buy people… let’s not forget or overlook this.

Watch this space next year, as I try and inspire more retailers to seek WORLD CLASS SERVICE, just like Chantilly does, and our teams do every single day.

Why supporting local charities is part of our CSR

Supporting our charities

Friday was a great day for the business as we supported two of our great charity partners and helped towards making a difference in the community that we operate and do business in.

Charity days, if you do them right, can be amazing for you, your people and your business.

Let me tell you how and why we do our charity days

The people in your teams may already be helping and supporting a charity, so ask them and find out which ones so you to determine which one to support as business. You could even let your people choose a charity as they will help towards making it a success, they will also make encourage any new team members get involved as the passion is in your team.

Four years ago, we decided to support Cash for Kids and our team love it. I am now fortunate to be trustee for Cash for KidsS both locally and nationally, for our support as a business, and our contributions to them. Really, I represent all our team as it’s them that drive me and the charity.

Cash for Kids – Charity Golf Day & Gala Dinner

Let me tell you how the day started… some people think taking a full day out of their business is crazy, but trust me, you need to step out and this is great way to do it.

Stepping out with your team and doing charity days, allowing you to still remain effective, can be very rewarding and you get sooooo much for the day if you do them right.

Friday morning started with a quick visit in the office to recognise a team member that delivered great service, as I always make sure we promote, recognise and praise great service. Our business account manger, Teresa, definitely showcased this.

I was on the way to a charity golf day that we support every year with Darren Proctor for Cash for Kids. I am not by any means a good player. I am more of an all the gear and no idea kind of player. It was defiantly a hack and wack session for me.

The day was brilliant for me, the business and the team member that came with me for the day. We had a lot of fun and had a great opportunity to give back and support something amazing. We also got to network with some amazing people. We reflected and discussed our businesses and set new plans and goals, all while supporting and helping a great charity.

I spent the day with Martyn Barrow and Thomas Clough from our business team, who are both great golfers, and Jennifer Hulme, our Head of HR. Jenn was the only female golfer on the day, which was surprising and left me thinking, again, why more females don’t get involved in golf days, charity or corporate events.

While playing the 18 holes we had time to have a huge amount of fun, mainly at my miss hits.

It was great to discuss business objectives to find out how people are doing in their role, listen to ideas on how we can improve and do things different, especially as Martyn is now starting to head up and lead our Business Team going forwards. I got to speak to him about how he was feeling, understand his ideas for the new role and it was great to see Tom supporting him.

The day came to a close, I left the event and the team invited their partners to the evening Gala Dinner. Again, this allowed them to bond and get to know each other’s family members. We really take the opportunity to make sure, where possible, we bring team and partners together.

Time for Charity Event No. 2

After finishing up the Charity Golf Day, I headed home to get changed and collect my beautiful wife and set off out the door to support our good friend, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Ian Hopkins, as he hosted his curry night to raise money for Retrak and Police Memorial UK – two more great causes.

I met with our Operations Manager, John Harvey (pictured above in the red tie), as he used to be a Special Constable before he worked for MID Comms 5 years ago, so there was some great commonality for him also. Ian is a great friend of mine and the event saw plenty of support to help raise over £26k on it’s 2nd year out as a charity night.

Getting to know your people, outside of the office

Again, it was great to meet new people and great for me to be able to speak to John about his new role and get some ideas from him for the charity support going forward, and also about his department. He made some great connections on the night that he took some ideas from and wants to do business with back at the ranch. Both charities are amazing and I love that we support them, it is great to find the time to give something back.

Where do you invest your time?

Both events cost only a little to support in comparison to the difference you can make to the charity and your team. I believe the money spent can be made back, but time is one commodity and currency that can NOT be replaced, refunded or created after it is spent. Make sure you make the most of your time, invest it well, and invest it on the right things and with the right people.

People have so many different views on supporting charity, but I hope I have given you some ideas that it doesn’t just have to be about giving money. When people ask, you can use the events to help spend time with your team in a social environment that helps them see the value of giving back. It also helps them see what the charities are doing and what they support. Your time supporting charity will help a multiple people, don’t underestimate YOURSELF and the difference you can make. Taking time to give back and do it with your team is an amazing opportunity so go and take yours!

Supporting a charity you are passionate about

Your team will love to drive the charity and it’s message both inside and outside of the business, it’s a win-win situation. So, why would you not look at what local charities are in your are for you your team engage with? Never underestimate the many ways you can support your local charities, just make sure you pick the right one for you and your people. As I always say, if your not passionate about what you or your team are doing then don’t do it.

Go find that charity and do something special with your team, you will be surprised at what difference it can make for your team, your business and it’s great to show your customers. You are a business that gives back the community that you do business in. By them your customers doing business with you, they’re helping a local charity also.

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Category Archives: Business

Driving an efficient B2B team

What does the MID Communications B2B team do?