Case Studies

Starting in late 2020, we were commissioned to work with the Managing Director and an incoming Project Management director to develop a major new division specialising in good-quality and high-end residential new-build and complex remodelling building opportunities.

This takes advantage of an unusually capable direct trades team of over one hundred, linked to a very good reputation for service and quality of delivery. We have placed two of our business developers with them including a director who has specific experience in the high-quality residential field.

Working together, we provide four days a month developing very strong links with top-end architects in the area using construction sales leads to locate new-build houses up to £4m and for remodelling projects up to £1m.

We were brought into this firm two years ago at an early stage with the turnover less than £1m. Well-funded and with a development background themselves, their new MD knew one of our directors from work some years ago. He brought us in to work one day a week in late 2019. Over this time we have enabled very substantial growth in an interesting new business sector to the current £20m+ and on track for a targeted £40m by 2023.

We have worked with this client on a number of six-to-nine month ‘campaigns’ over the last ten years. He recently re-engaged us to enable him to lift his business from smaller high-quality residential jobs up to £350,000 to be able to secure contracts of this type up to £1m across specific areas of South and SW London.

An unusual commission with one of our directors providing informal one-day-a-month business development support to the Managing Director. This is for the ongoing development of key clients and the targeting of eight to ten carefully selected new planning applications a month, largely for care or education projects up to £2m. We have worked with this client for over ten years.

This is a successful firm with a great track record and a fine reputation for work in both hospitality and residential sectors. With the decline of the hospitality sector (at least temporarily) we placed one of our directors with them two days a month, usually working one half-day a week to identify and to develop close working links and opportunities to tender for the specialist top-end architects and interior designers in Central London. We have now worked with them for two years.

We have known this contractor for some years and have been re-engaged with them in the summer of 2021 to drive their next stage of growth. We’re focusing on developing new business from selected main contractors for electrical packages from around £5,000 to £50,000. This is a time-limited campaign: once the new and higher business levels are being reached, we will move out – until the next stage of growth brings us back!

We have worked with this practice for nearly three years, with one of our directors acting as their Business Development Manager for two/three days a month. The specific commission has been to develop close links with potential work providers in London and the South for Care-specific architectural design and development support. These high-potential contacts include the major care operators, care-oriented developers and the larger project managers with care development clients.

Another interesting and somewhat unusual assignment (one day a month, worked as two half-days) specifically to develop links with and to secure tenders from carefully selected London Building Surveyors. This is a developing assignment which includes developing work opportunities in the care sector. Care is a fast-growing sector as of summer 2021, with major investments coming in from a wide range of funders - all of which opens up new opportunities for contractors and others working in care.

This has been an exceptional case study in controlled and directed growth: we were brought in by referral in 2012 when the firm turned over less than £750k and only handled small domestic extensions. At that point the father’s two sons joined him in the business: he wanted to grow the business in a careful and controlled way for their future. Over the eight years since, one of our team has worked closely with them in their offices, as part of their team and providing just two days a month. This has proved exceptionally successful: they have made a serious investment in some of the best marketing collateral we have ever seen including some exceptional photography of each new contract. As of summer 2021, their second £2m contract has been secured for a highly-specified new house in the Croydon area, giving them a likely and very profitable 2021/22 turnover up to £6m.

We have worked with this highly professional market leader in dispute resolution and related services for over three years, providing sales support and appointment generation for their senior directors. Key targets have included major contractors and specialist contractors in the UK, together with law firms and other professional practices of potential interest.

This was a specialist campaign run over a six-month period for this very successful subcontractor. The objective was to work with the Managing Director to reshape the business as a main contractor. We secured opportunities to tender for or negotiate principle contracts up to £2m on larger residential and mixed-use developments in London where there was a substantial groundworks requirement.

We have worked three times for this very interesting and exceptionally capable client, recognised as one of the best in the country at what they do. One of our directors has a long background with their management team and has developed a close familiarity with the natural and composite stone market. Most recently, we ran an eight-month campaign for them on the opening of a new workshop for interior stone manufacturing, to develop close links and pricing business with over eighty high-class kitchen designers for the design and production/installation of granite and composite worktops for wealthy clients. This culminated in a major open-day event which ran very successfully.

A successful <£1m specialist working with building surveyors, property managers and housing associations/end-users. They have engaged us to provide what is proving to be a particularly effective and high-value two sales days a month to develop new links with larger building surveyors and potential work-providers in the West Midlands area.