A business’ sales pipeline is more than a list of potential deals – it’s the lifeblood of its revenue engine. However, many organisations struggle with unhealthy, unreliable, and inflated pipelines that lead to missed targets, inaccurate forecasting, and wasted resources. Mentor Group, a global sales training company dedicated to empowering sustainable selling, have published a new whitepaper – Clean. Healthy. Sufficient. The whitepaper is designed to help sales leaders transform pipeline performance and lay the foundations for sustainable revenue growth. According to James Barton, Chief Solutions Officer, there are five steps organisations can take to help create clean, healthy, and…
Author: sme-admin
Misalignment between sales and marketing is costing companies billions in lost revenue and wasted budget. Julia Payne, founder of Fractional CMO Services, offers practical steps for building shared goals, using data effectively, and creating a culture of accountability between teams. An estimated $1 trillion is lost annually in the U.S. due to misalignment between sales and marketing, according to LinkedIn’s “Art of Winning” report. In the UK, similar patterns emerge, with businesses losing up to 10% of annual revenue when these two functions fail to operate holistically. Clearly, when sales and marketing fail to align, businesses aren’t just wasting campaign spend…
Nebel Crowhurst, CPO at Reward Gateway | Edenred, shares her thoughts on employee retention and how best companies can make their employees feel appreciated, leading to better business outcomes. “In recent years it’s clear that businesses have woken up to the fact that the retention of talent directly impacts the bottom line performance. “This is not only due to the costs of replacing lost talent, but also through the increased productivity of highly engaged and motivated talent. With this comes the awareness that organisations need to ensure there is a focus on employee retention and benefits as part of its…
Fuel Ventures, one of the UK’s most prolific VC firms, is inviting startups to pitch businesses built with an AI co-founder, with up to £250,000 available for investment in the strongest idea. The initiative is based on recent internal analysis conducted by Fuel Ventures, which found that 76% of the highest-performing businesses in its portfolio were co-founded by two or more individuals. These co-founded startups consistently demonstrated higher resilience, broader skill coverage, and stronger overall execution compared to ventures led by solo founders. In light of this data, Fuel now wants to know: can artificial intelligence act as a functional co-founder, filling the…
The number of UK businesses exporting solely to the EU fell by 19% in 2024 to 14,300, from 17,800 in 2023, says London-based chartered accountants and business advisers Lubbock Fine LLP. Meanwhile, the number of UK businesses importing and exporting exclusively to non-EU countries increased 12% over the same period to 132,000, up from 118,000. Alex Altmann, Partner at Lubbock Fine and head of the firm’s German Desk, says this drop in companies exporting to the EU highlights how welcome the May 19th EU/UK trade agreement is. The deal will see a reduction on veterinary checks on plants and animals transported…
As inflation jumps to its highest level in over a year and continues to pinch pockets, new research has revealed the UK sectors offering the best hourly pay for workers.¹ The business finance experts at money.co.uk business bank accounts have analysed ONS data about average hours worked and median average pay for a range of sectors to uncover the ones offering the best – and worst – hourly pay. Industries with the highest hours-to-pay ratio: Rank Industry Median weekly paid hours Median gross annual pay Median gross pay per hour 1 Electricity, Gas, Steam, and Air Conditioning Supply 37.0 £51,886 £26.89 2 Financial…
Small firms are keen to become more energy-efficient, but they are being held back by the high upfront cost of green investment. A major new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in partnership with Zurich UK, New Growth: How to support small businesses to cut carbon and costs on the road to Net Zero, published today (27 May), finds that half of small businesses (51%) say that sustainability is a high priority for their business. While nearly two-thirds of small firms (64%) think that sustainability should be a high priority for the Government, only a quarter (25%) expect to…
More than four-in-five (86%) DB schemes are currently running at a surplus, though 36% need advice on how they could utilise it, according to new research from LawDeb, the independent professional services firm. The research, which was conducted amongst 150 finance decision makers in UK companies with DB pension schemes, also revealed that 76% of smaller schemes, with assets valued between £100m-£249m report running at a surplus, with this number rising for schemes between £250m-£499m (90%) and £500m-£999m (93%). How do firms say they plan to utilise DB surplus? With the majority of DB schemes running at a surplus, it’s…
National children’s reading charity Schoolreaders has partnered with a leading furnishing, fit-out and service provider to enhance employee wellbeing and support reading ability in primary schools. Project Group, sought to expand its ESG programme by offering meaningful, holistic support for its staff working in fast-paced environments. After research and a word-of-mouth recommendation, Project Group partnered with Schoolreaders, a charity which provides free reading support to primary schools. Andrea Ball, Group ESG and Social Value Director at Project Group, said: “As a volunteer myself, I’ve had the opportunity to support reading and mentoring programmes with previous employers, and it’s something I’m passionate about.…
With rising costs and uncertainty around international trade impacting the shape of UK businesses, many small businesses are looking to adapt to new technologies. New data* from VistaPrint, the leading print and design partner for small businesses, reveals that 1 in 4 (25%) small businesses have used cryptocurrencies to help support business growth, increasing to 3 in 5 (63%) for small business owners with 10-49 employees. The adoption of cryptocurrencies by small business owners is largely driven by an appetite to provide more payment options to grow customers. 1 in 2 (49%) UK small businesses have accepted or are accepting cryptocurrencies…