Member Article

Sell successes to boost growth

Tees Valley companies must step up their sales and marketing game if they are to remain competitive.

That was one of the key messages from The Great Economic Debate, an event hosted recently by North East Finance and Tees Valley Business Club at the Wilton Centre.

The debate sparked several discussion points including how to bridge the skills gap, the importance of fostering a more entrepreneurial culture in the region and the need to get affordable finance flowing to small firms.

Business leaders said they were seeing more confidence in Tees Valley as economic conditions eased. But they also warned that companies needed to help themselves more by promoting their success stories more widely outside of the North East.

Jason Hobbs, finance director at North East Finance – which manages the £125m Finance for Business North East programme – said: “In this region we’re a little bit shy about promoting ourselves. Good engineers and inventors don’t necessarily make good salespeople.

“We’ve seen an increase in activity in the last 12 months and more funding applications from Tees Valley companies. To keep that momentum going, businesses have to shout louder about their successes and encourage their peers to seek investment.

“The FFBNE programme is not just a provider of funds. Our fund managers try to help in other ways by preparing businesses for investment – for example, by identifying areas where their team needs to be strengthened.”

Mr Hobbs was on a panel of business experts quizzed by the audience in a Question Time-style Q&A session hosted by BBC reporter Steph McGovern. The other panellists were Stan Higgins, CEO of the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC); Tees Valley Unlimited MD Stephen Catchpole; and Paul Bury of business law specialists Endeavour Partnership.

Stephen Catchpole said that although there was much to commend the Tees Valley, the area was being held back by “an innate modesty”.

“We don’t publicise our successes enough”, he said. “We need to do more to publicise our achievements – through media visits, for example.”

Event host Steph McGovern said she would welcome more news about local companies.

She said: “I get about 50 e-mails a day from companies offering me the chance to come up and see their business. I never get any from Tees Valley – and that’s a shame because a lot of really positive things go on in this area.”

James Robson, of Exwold Technology in Hartlepool, said companies would benefit from engaging more with the media.

He said: “We’ve got scientists and engineers – that’s the strength that the region has – but most of them would run a mile if they were offered up for an interview with the press.

We’ve got to make people more confident about doing press interviews. It’s a good way of getting the message out to potential customers.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jez Davison .