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February 2004
Just two years ago, Leeds electronics engineer David Paley took over a struggling company that specialised in counting, sensing and measuring products. Over a twelve month period from August 2002, David Paley saw his sales grow by 119%, an achievement which has won his company Countersales UK Ltd a prestigious business success award from Business Information at Thomson Directories Limited.
David Paley, of Countersales UK Ltd, winner of the Thomson Directories Impact Award
Distributing their specialist products to electronic engineering companies forms a core part of Countersales' business, but this period of spiralling growth has been the direct result of a sales strategy aimed at attracting more potential sales to the company's website www.handy-tally.com.
“We are a small company in a niche B2B marketplace but included in our portfolio is a wide range of Handy Tally counters which have a variety of applications – from counting passengers on boats, people in night clubs, traffic, and even the types of trees in a forest! It was potential customers in these markets that we wanted to tap into further and attract to our website”, explains David.
Using the data that he had on existing customers, David identified the market segments in which he already operated and decided to target prospects using direct mail.
“The decision to use direct mail was influenced by the fact that it is a comparatively cost effective route to market as long as the data we were using was accurate and reached precisely the right markets for us. The mailshot itself had to hit the right note too”.
Using Thomson Directories' Business Search PRO (BSP), a double-award winning CD-ROM of more than 2 million UK business listings, David was able to research and draw up his own unique database of target companies.
“Business Search PRO gives me ownership of my own database which I can adapt to meet my own criteria. I can search for specific market segments, in specific locations, and the information I get may even include links to websites so I can research realistic prospects even more accurately – so less wasted effort and more successful targeting“.
As a result, Countersales UK Ltd has now built up a core database of 750 customers and his research into widening this database is an ongoing process.
“Health and Safety is a key potential area for us, particularly where crowd numbers are concerned. This takes us into an ever increasing market. As counting equipment is very much a fringe product range for most of our competition, we are able to offer a specialist service with a number of incentives such as no limit on minimum orders and free post and packing.”
David has set himself a target growth figure of 49% for next year and hopes to be celebrating this by sharing a Jeroboam of champagne with a group of fellow businessmen when they meet up for their annual business event in December next year.
The champagne is part of the prize awarded to him by Thomson Directories, along with £400 worth of Thomson Directories' Business Information Services. David has chosen a membership to Business Search PRO On-Line which will enable him to have extensive access to the online version of BSP which is updated weekly from the Thomson Directories Database. More information on this is available on www.businesssearch.co.uk or contact our Press office.
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