Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Rob Spence: I was working as a sales and marketing manager for a fine food company when I authored, and published my first book, Relationship Selling. If I am honest, the book was supposed to be a bit of a hobby project, and I didn’t expect much to come of it. However, the book became a best seller on Amazon and sold copies all over the globe. Following the success of this book, I had businesses come to me for advice, support and guidance on all things sales, marketing and business growth - it was here that became the catalyst for Paragon Sales Solutions.
Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Paragon Sales Solutions?
Rob Spence: Paragon Sales Solutions offers an array of services that are there to help businesses from any sector, and of any size, to see an increase in their sales. Whether it be through consultancy and training of sales techniques, and processes, or by doing the sales activities on behalf of their clients which include; telemarketing, call answering, digital marketing, social media marketing, content writing and much more.
Ultimately, any client that works with Paragon Sales Solutions will see an increase in their bookings, appointments, leads and ultimately, sales!
Great Companies: What makes Paragon Sales Solutions different from hundreds of other similar service providers?
Rob Spence: We work very closely with our clients and customers to ensure we get engrained in their business and their operations, and we do not tie people into long-term contracts; which means we have to work really hard to keep hold of their business. We believe that if we feed incredible services and results into the people that choose to work with us, then not only will they grow, but we can grow alongside of them.
Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Rob Spence: I think there have been two min challenges in growing the business; funding, and the Covid pandemic. When starting the business, I made a conscious decision to not rely on investment, or loans - I wanted to ensure the business grew with minimal debt, and with no one interfering with how the business was ran. This was very successful in the end, as we have invested every penny of profit back into the business, and our overheads are now so minimal. However the downside to this is that I have no doubt we would have grown faster with some form of investment or loan.
The second challenge was the Covid pandemic. Of course for many businesses this was a horrible time, and many unfortunately failed. At the time, we were not eligible for any business grants, nor any furlough payments, so we were really alone. However despite all of this, we kept our heads down, worked hard, and actually found we grew during this period of time.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Paragon Sales Solutions?
Rob Spence: Our plans now are to really grow, and to take a larger stake of the market share. We feel that our growth will not be led through greed, or a need to be bigger, but simply because we know that by growing we can help more and more businesses and people, and we can have a greater positive impact on the people we would work with.
We also feel that by growing, we will be able to attract incredible team members that in turn, will allow us to offer better help, support and advice.
For this growth to happen, we will continue doing what we have done for the past five years; work hard, deliver quality results, and deliver impeccable service.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?ā
Rob Spence: Just take the leap.
I speak to so many entrepreneurs and potential business owners whom want to start a business but fear of failure, or safety, holds them back. They get wary of their current financials, and the safety blanket of an income. However from my own personal experience, and what really drove me to take the leap and to succeed was hunger. I started the business with just £300 to my name, an old iMac, and a dream - and now, five years on, we employ eight people, and are continuously growing.
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