VIRTUAL Sales Team (VST) celebrates its 10th birthday on 1 February and to mark that achievement, they have accelerated their expansion plans and moved into larger offices on Rushmills, Northampton.
It’s easy to spot the new office. The VST sign is highly visible from the Bedford Road (next to the HSBC building) and is a clear statement of the firm’s intention and determination to take the business to the next level.
Seamlessly, Managing Director Andrew Smart’s 35-strong team were immediately back at work in the new offices, with the various calling teams busy at work, creating a highly productive atmosphere.
VST is a business to business sales lead generation agency – very reluctant to be known as a call centre.
Andrew Smart said: “A call centre measures its staff on how many dials per hour they make, or how?quickly they answer the telephone and they generally use scripts as?part of their conversations. We are very different in?so many ways. Fundamentally, the difference is that we measure our?sales execs on the quality of the meetings or opportunities they?generate for our clients and ultimately how much business the client wins?from our leads.
“I’d much rather my teams have longer, non-scripted and more in-depth?conversations with a real decision maker, rather than leaving numerous messages on voicemail or constantly being blocked by a well-trained gatekeeper. ?
“At VST we also recruit more mature callers than call centres generally do. We actively recruit back-to-work mums and semi-retired people, and predominantly fill our teams with part-time staff as this creates a fantastic work-life balance and a happier workforce. This demographic is both extremely reliable and brings a wealth of life and previous business experience.”
VST certainly doesn’t look like a telemarketing company. The office is a contemporary space and feels more like an advertising agency with professional staff who aren’t chained to their desks and have the autonomy to go about their business. The only give-away is the headsets that the team are wearing.
Andrew added: “It’s a satisfying achievement to reach this milestone, especially as we started six months before the 2007 recession. The irony was that it actually helped us, as?companies reduced their sales teams but employed us to keep their best business development managers (BDMs) in front of clients and prospects.
“Once again, turbulent trading conditions seem to be assisting us. Demand for our services is dramatically increasing, as our clients and prospects take a proactive approach to post-Brexit trading decisions.?It’s great to help our clients to reach out and find their ideal?customers and fantastic to hear when a client tells us they’ve hired a new BDM?to manage the pipeline we’ve created for them.?
One of our longest serving clients of seven years has doubled their turnover from?£12m to £25m in the last five years, I like to think we’ve played a part in their success story.
“This particular client really does treat us as an extension of their sales and marketing team, as opposed to a supplier. We’re often invited to their internal meetings and treated like members of their team. In our experience, this style of working creates the best results.
“I founded the business ten years ago with the vision to challenge the?image of the telemarketing industry and create a business built on?partnerships and I feel we’ve certainly achieved our aim. The move to?bigger premises opens an exciting new chapter, I look forward to building on our success. I owe a lot to our clients and staff, of course. Their support and loyalty has helped to make this possible.”
As part of their expansion VST have also launched a new website and collection of corporate videos which explain more about the business.
