Burnell & Co

In a nutshell

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• Burnell, an accountancy business, wanted to grow their business by providing innovative accountancy services
   

• Pure worked to support Burnell in developing an innovation breakthrough strategy, sales and marketing approach and implementation plan
   

• Burnell, rebranded as Spark Accountancy, has now seen its revenue grow by 90%, customer base has grown by 65% and has recruited 5 new members of staff

 

Company background

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Phil Burnell started his accountancy business in early 2014 after working for a large practice in central Birmingham. Based in Sutton Coldfield, the company traded as Burnell & Co and offered friendly, down to earth, personal accountancy services.
 

With a small but strong group of customers, purchased from his previous employer, Phil had ambitious plans to significantly expand his business. He had a clear idea of how he wanted to grow the business - by utilising progressive cloud based accountancy software applications to offer a more engaging, interactive, and forward-facing service to clients.

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The challenge

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As Phil’s business coach, we found a number of significant challenges:

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• The business was a new start up, with a young profile, in a competitive market - it would be essential to establish credibility.
   

• The business was planning to adopt an innovative approach to delivering traditional accountancy services and so customer benefits would need to be clearly defined 
   

• We would need to change perceptions of accountancy services 

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The approach

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We worked to support Phil in three key areas:

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• Innovation breakthrough strategy - working alongside Phil to undertake a strategic review of the business, including financial performance, customer types and perceptions, products and services, pricing, service delivery and competitor analysis.
   

• Innovative sales and marketing approach - provided coaching to help develop a focussed business development growth plan, establish a meaningful sales proposition, define the key messages, outline potential target sectors and customer profiles and create appropriate routes to prospect engagement.
   

• Implementation plan – created a detailed, timed implementation plan, incorporating the outcomes of the breakthrough strategy and the innovative sales and marketing approach. This include deploying effective marketing communication activity as follows:
   

  • Product and service configuration – created a range of packaged services, providing a clear specification to manage customer expectation and establish value perceptions
     

  • Proposition development – established a relevant, meaningful proposition appropriate for selected target sectors and customer profiles
     

  • Brand development – created a new company name and visual identity that better communicated the company’s innovative brand position
     

  • Digital media – developed a new website providing company information in a more vibrant and dynamic context, consistent with the company’s innovative positioning
     

  • Social media – developed a significant, consistent output of social media content and activity to establish brand awareness and credibility amongst selected target audiences
     

  • Physical environment – established a new office lay outand installation of internal and external signage to create improved environment for both staff and customers

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Results

Since working with Burnell, now rebranded as Spark Accountants, the company has seen fantastic results:

 

• Revenue growth in year two, following the development of the strategy and its implementation, was 90%.
   

• In the following 12-month period, the business increased its revenue by a further 45%.
   

• The business has grown its customer base by 65% over a twenty-four-month period
   

• The increase in business growth necessitated the recruitment of 5 new members of staff

 

Further information

If you want further information on how Pure may help you and your business, get in touch today.