Sheffield-based business phone, broadband and IT support provider, Wayv, have seen consistent growth over the last three years. Liam Parnell, Managing Director, discusses how the business founders established a clear path for growth, based on differentiating themselves from the competition and provides advice and tips for other businesses to do the same...
If you could give one piece of advice to small businesses starting out, what would it be?
For me, it’s about differentiation – what’s your story, and what makes you and your business truly different? Furthermore, how can you go about proving this point of differentiation so that the customer trusts you enough to ultimately invest?
When asked ‘what makes your business great?’ you hear so many people respond with ‘it’s our service… we have the best service!’ but in a saturated, competitive marketplace, this just doesn’t cut it if you are looking for real growth and disruption. If you can find this differentiation and articulate a point of difference that the customer can relate to, then you’re on the path to success.
What do you consider to be the starting point to defining differentiation?
First and foremost, you’ve got to be clear about what your target market looks like. Be even more clear about what they want. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because the competition is doing it that it means your customers want it. Listen to their challenges, their needs, who they are, and where they see value. Finally, be ready to adapt before it’s you that’s left behind.
How did you embark on the journey to differentiate Wayv from other businesses?
From the outset, we knew we were in a very competitive market, and that we needed to stand out – for the right reasons. A book that I can strongly recommend to businesses in competitive marketplaces, and one that helped us build Wayv’s vision was Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. This book was key to helping us identify our target market, how we effectively remove ourselves from the competitive marketplace, and begin to build our own market.
It took around 18 months of speaking to businesses about their experiences, challenges and needs, before we became clear about what our target customer looked like, and what our key messages were, before we launched as Wayv! Only a few weeks later, we went into lockdown… but throughout this tough period we could see that our points of differentiation were working, and we’ve continued to go from strength to strength.
How do you ensure Wayv’s brand ethos and identity is maintained?
Firstly, and it’s been a great challenge especially since Covid, we have to make sure we bring the right people into the business. It’s about having great people that both understand and believe in the mission of the business, and the part they play in achieving that mission.
Our mission is focused around our differentiation in the market, and our values support what we’re trying to achieve. We don’t compromise on our ethos and values when it comes to hiring, simply because we become busy and a little stretched (this actually brings the best out of our teams). We deliver on our differentiators first, and growth follows naturally, and importantly, sustainably!
Once onboard, it’s about constantly educating our people. Our message is bold and disruptive, which means we put ourselves on a pedestal, ready to be shot at it if we fail to deliver, but this is precisely what drives and motivates our teams. We have to deliver - in our case, if we don’t, our commitment to our customer is they don’t pay, simple as that.
How do you measure success?
Back in 2022, we put together our 2030 vision, which included achieving a £10million+ turnover among other milestones. Since then, we’ve seen over 180% growth in terms of new customer acquisition year-on-year, been named Fastest Growing Partner twice by our partner Ericsson-LG, and we’re well on track to smash the £10million target.
However, growth is certainly not the only measure of success. What I count as one true measure of success is customer satisfaction. We’re incredibly proud of what our customers say about our work; it’s hugely important to us, as it validates what we’re looking to achieve.
Lastly, having a happy team is, to me, an indicator of success. To have a team of people who are all pulling in the same direction, are engaged and onboard with what we’re doing, and proud to say they work for Wayv, indicates that we’re building something special. Everyone’s aware of how we plan to achieve our short- and long-term goals, and feel very much a part of this – we never need an excuse to celebrate our successes, but it says more about the level of engagement we have at Wayv when I see how we all pull together during the times when it’s not all about growth and success.
All of this said, we’ve only scratched the surface of our opportunity to date, and we have a long way to go, with lots of challenges – and very exciting times – ahead.
WEB: www.wayvtalk.com
TEL: 0114 5534888
