Opinion Piece Archives - Page 2 of 4

Refreshing Your SEO as Part of Your Website Overhaul – What You Need to Know

Posted on 22 November 20223 June 2025 by Hannah Sanders

You’re planning on refreshing your company website. You’re already aware of the benefits it’ll bring your business and how it can boost your online conversions; however, if you’re going to put all that effort into updating your website, you want to make sure it is being delivered to your target audience. That’s why an SEO refresh an essential part of this process, allowing you to establish a strong presence online.

A website refresh should address various things such as overall user experience; lack of content; design features; and so on. To achieve the best results, there are some things you need to know about SEO first.

Why is an SEO website refresh important?

There are a whole host of reasons why updating your SEO during a website refresh should be a priority, but here are the three most important reasons:

To drive organic search content to your site – to put it simply, what is the point in developing a new site if nobody is going to see it? A lot of valuable time, energy and budget can go into a website build; the last thing you want is for your audience not to be viewing it. Ensuring your SEO is implemented correctly across your new site will help you rank for those relevant keywords that your audience is searching for.
To attract the right audience to your site – if your keywords are outdated or irrelevant, you could be attracting the wrong audience to your website. This can decrease engagement time and boost bounce rates, that can damage your search engine ranking.
To make your website work harder – your website is your online shop window. Making sure your site is working hard to rank in a multitude of SERP features will increase your visibility across search engines.

What should you consider when updating your SEO?

Updated keywords – A natural part of your website refresh will include updating and adding to your existing content; when doing this, think about the key search terms users may use when looking for your services and/or products. Ensure these keywords are implemented on relevant pages to help boost your SEO ranking.
Meta data – As you’re reviewing the keywords selected for each page, make sure you review the page’s meta data. Your keyword should feature in the title and meta description. This will allow search engines to identify the key topic and rank you for relevant search terms.
Broken links – Make sure you’ve identified all broken links and fixed or replaced them. Throughout this process it’s also worth checking whether any old backlinks can be updated to direct viewers to new, relevant content.
Lack of content – You need to include plenty of content on your site that’s relevant and valuable. Try to include at least 300 words on each page and make sure that you’re covering the right topics.
Bounce rate – You can measure your bounce rate by using Google Analytics. This will allow you to understand how long your visitors are staying on your site and how many are leaving without going any further.

What process should you follow for an SEO refresh?

Step 1: Find out what’s currently working (and what’s not)

The first thing you need to do is find out what’s currently working on your website and what’s not. This will allow you to identify the areas that need to be improved and make changes accordingly. The easiest way to do this is by using tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics and SEMrush.

Google Search Console – This is a free tool that allows you to monitor your site’s performance. It will let you know if there are any issues with your site. This will also help you identify any broken links or pages that need updating.

Google Analytics – This will give you a better understanding of where your traffic is coming from and what section of your website is performing best.

SEMrush – This tool will allow you to understand how your current websites SEO is performing. There is a free version of the tool that allows you check which keywords you are currently ranking for, which pages these keywords currently rank for, whether you are experiencing any SEO cannibalisation and much more.

Step 2: Determine your SEO strategy moving forward

After you’ve found out what’s currently working, you need to start determining your strategy moving forward. Here are some things you should keep in mind:

Who is your target audience? Knowing your target audience and how they like to search will help you in defining relevant keywords.
What design features can you use to help boost your SEO? H tags are a great place to start when making sure you’re giving search engines every chance to rank your content. Including relevant keywords in H1, H2 and H3 tags shows search engines this is a key topic within your page. Looking at whether you can include question-based subheadings will increase your chances of ranking in ‘People Also Asked’.
How can SEO inform your content plan? Content such as blogs, press releases, landing pages etc, can offer a multitude of opportunities for SEO. If you’re trying to target keywords that are highly specific, but they don’t work for any of your key pages, a landing page or blog post can be a great option. Within landing pages and blog posts you can also create great backlink opportunities. Securing high quality backlinks from external sources is the holy grail when it comes to SEO – producing high quality press releases can help secure these.
How can your images help boost SEO? Ensuring your file name contains relevant keywords will help search engines understand what’s in the image. When people search, they often look at image-based results; if your file name includes the correct keywords you will start to rank here. Image alt tag should be used to describe what is in the image for accessibility benefits. However, the alt tag is also used by search engines to find relevant visual content; including your keywords here is a must.

Step 3: Implement your SEO strategy

Now you’ve determined your strategy, it’s time to carry out the relevant updates.

Implement your SEO strategy – For every page on your website, you need to make sure your SEO strategy has been implemented. Are all your headings and subheading tagged correctly? Do all your images have relevant files names and alt tags? Are all your meta descriptions up to date? Are you linking to key content within your blog posts? Do your backlinks have descriptive text?
Create new content – You don’t have to completely re-write your entire website, but you should make sure the content on each page is updated based on your selected keywords.
Create new landing pages – If you’re targeting multiple audiences or trying to rank for highly specific keywords, it may be worth developing landing pages. These can also be linked to in blog posts and across your website.

Step 4: Review the impact and continue to develop

Finally, it’s time to review the impact of the changes you have made. Utilising the same tools as before; Google Search Console, Google Analytics and SEMrush, you can review how the changes you’ve made have affected your SEO rankings. When carrying out a full SEO overhaul and refresh, it can take time to implement all the necessary changes so it’s a good idea to monitor your site throughout the process. It can also take a while for SEO to have an impact. Monitor how your site performs over the coming months and make changes to your ongoing strategy.

Your website should never be ‘finished’, just as things constantly change within your business, so should your website. This means that SEO will need to be updated regularly.

Opinion piece by Becca Duckering – Digital Marketing Manager at Air Marketing

Office or Home Working – Which Is Better For SDRs?

Posted on 18 July 20223 June 2025 by Hannah Sanders

The pandemic has changed not only how we work, but where we work.

Before 2020, just over 1.5 million people worked from home. Now, this number has skyrocketed to 23.9 million.

Now lockdown is over, many businesses have requested their SDRs return to the office. However, others have continued to let their sales teams work from home.

While Airbnb has enacted a ‘work from anywhere’ policy for staff, Elon Musk recently made the headlines for forcing Tesla employees back into the office.

Which is the right solution? Let’s look at how office and home working can benefit your business and most importantly, help your SDRs develop to their full potential.

The advantages of working in the office

SDRs learn more

One of the benefits of office working is that SDRs learn through their interactions with others. For example, a new SDR might learn new sales techniques by listening to their more experienced colleagues making phone calls.

Learning through observation is harder in a remote environment as sales reps are more self-contained.

SDRs are more accountable

Creating a culture of accountability and responsibility in your sales department is essential, especially if you work with younger, more impressionable SDRs.

84% of employees say the way leaders behave is the most critical factor when it comes to accountability. In an office environment, managers and team leaders can be more present with sales reps and set a good example.

SDRs (typically) react better to being around people

Extraverted people typically gravitate towards a career in sales.

Extraverts are people who get their energy and motivation from being around others, which makes an office environment an ideal place for them to be.

If your sales reps thrive on getting out there and seeing people, the social interactions the office provides will keep happiness and levels of wellbeing high.

SDRs can make connections

When working in an office, SDRs don’t just connect with the people in their department; they connect with everyone in the building.

Whether they’re waiting to go into a meeting or making a cup of tea in the break room, there’s no telling who they might bump into!

Getting to know people at work helps SDRs feel part of the company culture and provides them with valuable networking contacts that will help them in their future careers.

The advantages of working from home

SDRs have more flexibility

One of the reasons why people fell in love with working from home during lockdown was it offered a better work-life balance. Workers had more time to spend with their families and partners and even started new hobbies – we all know someone who started making sourdough bread in 2020!

Giving SDRs the option to work from home means they can be happier and more productive in their sales role.

SDRs can work without interruption

As we mentioned above, some salespeople thrive in an office environment. However, others do their best work where it’s quieter, and there are fewer distractions.

If you manage a team of SDRs who are more likely to hit their targets when there’s nothing to disturb them, a work from home solution might be ideal.

Our thoughts at Air Marketing

We believe working from home full-time isn’t the answer, especially for those just starting out in their sales career.

We also believe working in the office full-time isn’t the answer either.

The solution? Hybrid or flexible working. One in four people in the UK now split their time between home and the office, meaning they get the best of both worlds.

For the final say on the matter, we spoke to our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards:

“When I was younger and working as an SDR, some of my best memories were time spent in the office. I learned from my managers and made friends that I’m still in touch with today. It’s vital that young people starting out in sales have that connection to the office as that’s how they’ll grow into the sales leaders of the future.

“At Air Marketing, we ask our team to be in the office at least two days a week. After that, they can work from home if they want to.

“I’m usually in the office four or five days a week. However, it’s great to have the flexibility to work from home if I need to write a report or want to spend time with my family.”

Don’t forget, if you need a little sales support, whether in the office or working from home, we can help.

Our expertly-trained SDRs will provide you with high-quality leads that are ready to buy your products or services.

What’s Next For Tech?

Posted on 27 June 20223 June 2025 by Hannah Sanders

Value will continue to rise. Companies will churn. Merges and acquisitions will augment the market and people will be more important than ever before.

SaaS and tech funding gained momentum during the pandemic, with mega-deals recalibrating and redefining the value of tech industries forever. The pandemic takes credit as an accelerator but not the reason. Companies had digitisation and digital strategies in place but it was Covid (more specifically lockdowns) that made it impossible for a board to procrastinate any longer. In addition companies were suddenly exposed to, and forced to react to, a lack of utilisation of their suite of existing tech and software and ‘technical debt’ rocketed up the priority list straight into the top 5.

Disconnecting human interaction at work made digital adoption and tech hygiene a basic requirement. In the case of sales and martech, one of the only ways of proving individual and team effectiveness performance was by ensuring activities, interactions and meetings were logged, noted, actioned. Out of this sales enablement and RevOps has blown up. ‘Faster, higher, stronger, together’ isn’t just applicable as a motto for the Olympics and athletes.

So where’s it heading?

According to CB Insights Q1 2022 State of Fintech Report, there has been an 18% reduction in tech investment in Q1 this year, that will make for some interesting boardroom discussions. Competition for investors’ money will come with more scrutiny, more prudence. Less Dragons Den and more Goldman Sachs. Because of this companies will churn and mergers and acquisitions will be on the rise. The mega-mergers will make the headlines but the SMB and mid-market conglomeration will be prolific and shape the landscape just as much.

SaaS and tech investment drive returns and whilst the value bubble isn’t going to burst, the talent bubble might. Leaders and executives who can deliver at speed have never been more in demand – nor have they ever been more aware of their value. Forget brand equity, ARR or EBITDA, what’s your talent equity?

Exceptional people, who have the right attributes not just to perform and develop their function (e.g. sales, IT) but across other areas of the business are in scarce supply. The cross-pollination of ideas across business functions is the alchemy where the real magic happens. It’s hard, almost impossible, to create these conditions remotely which is why we saw Google earlier this year mandate employees to be back in office three days a week on average. How this plays out and how it defines and affects companies success is a subject for another day, another blog.

Neil Clarke

Commercial Director – Air Marketing

Leading your sales team like a human – why authenticity really matters

Posted on 5 October 20203 June 2025 by Doug Roots

I can honestly say that making the conscious decision to lead my team as a human and aiming to be the most authentic version of myself, has had a huge impact on shaping our culture as we’ve grown. Shortly after founding the business, I decided that in an otherwise complex world, one thing could be straightforward, my role. Yes, I am a boss, a leader, a manager and a salesperson, but first and foremost, I’m me.

The idea of being confined and limited by the narrow parameters associated with a title, a bulleted list of things I should be, seems counterintuitive to connecting with people and aiming to inspire them. Simon Sinek said, ‘a boss has the title, a leader has the people’ and that to me, epitomises the mindset that makes the most sense.

Humans are highly complex and capable. We work best when we’re given
the freedom to be creative and innovate. The average UK worker spends 1,676
hours at work every single year – that figure is perhaps even higher in the
sales industry. The idea that your input, in all that time, can be reduced to a
500 word job description seems absurd; it doesn’t reflect the role we each
play.

When you try to neatly box the notion of what sales leadership should
be, you close yourself off to possibilities and true connection. Every day you
can choose to be human in your approach, when sales leaders neglect to make a
conscious decision about it, they leave their leadership style down to luck and
forget to be mindful. When you let your team see the real you, you’re showing
them someone who cares about them and you lay the foundations for trust to grow.
If they can see you have their best interests at heart, they will appreciate
and accept your honesty when delivering tough messages and taking difficult
decisions.

Self-awareness is critical for any good leader. Leaders who claim to
be infallible are not relatable and sometimes unlikeable. Nobody is perfect and
those who can show vulnerability, and strength and resiliency in the face of
challenges, without hiding their emotions and compartmentalising their feelings,
will be far more inspiring to the team around them than somebody who chooses to
hide behind a façade.

It’s important to put your team’s development first, even before your own. Investing in people goes far beyond caring about their success and professional development. True leaders care for their team’s mental wellbeing too, and know they will only truly thrive in a trusting and honest environment where people are comfortable with expectations and feel supported to speak their minds.

Whilst you can and actively should show emotions as a leader, you
can’t let them dictate how you behave and the decisions that you make. The
ability to step away and create space is critical. Be somebody who explains
their motivations and thinking because context really does matter. Give your
team transparency around data and decisions and explain the thought processes that
led you there.

Don’t be a control freak. Let people exceed all of your expectations, with your full support. True leaders give people ownership and encourage their team to fail fast and learn from the experience. Most importantly, try to create that culture where you talk openly about failure. If you can have honest and normal conversations about it, everyone can learn and move on, it’s all you need to motivate and educate your team.

Our new platform, Wellity, is designed specifically for the sales industry and focuses on the mental health and wellbeing of professionals within it. We recently interviewed a gentleman called Chris Brindley MBE, who was formerly on the board at Metrobank and is now the Chair of the Rugby League World Cup 2021. He talked about two principles that always resonate with me. One is mirrors and windows. Imagine a scenario where a CEO pulls you, the sales leader, into his office at the end of the quarter and chastises you for a poor quarterly performance. He asks you, ‘what’s happening?’. A great leader will reflect that back on themselves, like a mirror and assume accountability. Equally, when a quarter goes well, that same leader will open the ‘window’ motion towards their sales team and congratulate them for the success. The second principle I really admire is that all great leaders are like umbrellas, because they protect their team from the storm.

I’ll leave you with one final point relating to that word,
authenticity. Being authentic means coming from a real place inside ourselves;
it’s when our actions and our words are congruent with our beliefs and our
values. It’s about being fully ourselves, not an imitation of ourselves or what
we think we should be.

For me, great leadership doesn’t exist without ‘extreme normality’. All
you need to do as a sales leader is bring the best version of your normal self
and the results will follow.

For more insight, check out my talk on the same subject at SaaSGrowth 2020.

Opinion piece by Owen Richards
CEO, Air Marketing Group

Writing a new playbook, my lessons from lockdown

Posted on 7 September 20203 June 2025 by Doug Roots

The start of lockdown seems like a lifetime ago now, but when I cast my mind back over the past few months it’s clear that it not only represented a turning point in all of our lives but marked a big change in the way we do business. As a sales professional, I’m no stranger to the challenges of a fast-changing and unpredictable environment. As many people in the sales community will attest, it’s all part of the deal. But this was very different. As soon as lockdown was announced, there was an immediate shift in mindset. It felt like the market froze overnight, paralysed by the uncertainty of well… everything. Before the lockdown, we had a warm pipeline of opportunities almost coming to fruition that seemed to drop immediately. People’s faith was understandably crumbling in new and uncertain territory, and sales was not immune.

When you have no idea what the future holds, decision making is harder than ever and that was reflected in the numbers. Slowly but surely, we started to see a gradual change in mindset and attitude as lockdown measures were eased and the market recognised that this may be the ‘new normal’.

From an outbound perspective, prospecting was a challenge in the early weeks of lockdown. We experienced a dip in contact rates and getting hold of decision makers became more difficult. We noticed that the quality of the opportunities coming through our inbound channels improved, with people being ready to buy rather than making a general enquiry about services. Another silver lining was this also meant an increase in conversion rates.

In hesitant times, the purse strings tighten. We saw the average sales cycles increase, most likely due to revised budgets. The decision-making process was taking far longer, with more levels of sign-off from decisions makers before making the final commitment, due to sensitivity around spending.

Reaching a turning point

In the past 8 weeks I’ve noticed a significant change in attitude to outsourcing sales and marketing, and the decision-making process has streamlined and accelerated. In my opinion, this can be attributed to decision makers accepting and adapting to the ‘new normal’ and making that leap of faith to reinvigorate their sales and marketing plans.

With internal teams being furloughed, the flexibility and scalability of the outsourced sales and marketing model has an additional appeal to businesses right now and we have seen a growth in our enquiries from prospects looking to outsource.

Ultimately, there was no playbook for surviving sales in a global pandemic and companies have had to keep selling and building the pipeline for a life beyond lockdown. I feel like my perspective has certainly shifted. As a sales team we’ve adapted our approach and it’s been a good thing that we’ve been able to have empathetic conversations with our customers and prospects, as all good partnerships are based on honesty. Now more than ever, it’s important to be human and employ empathy and reassurance in our business and personal lives.

Opinion piece by Marco Alfano-Rogers
Sales Director, Air Marketing

Lingual and cultural diversity in telemarketing

Posted on 19 March 20203 June 2025 by Doug Roots

In the words of Paulo Coelho: Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they have a deeper understanding of one another, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems and the same questions.

The days of selling our items to each other village to village (think the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker), face to face, are long past us. In my opinion, today we are selling our “technoproducts” and services via the digital superhighways to people all around the world. In this more tech focused world we work with “turbomachinerie” with “flashcapacities”.

Despite the fast changes that have happened and continue to happen in our selling culture, the culture of individual human beings who are ultimately the end users being sold to, are slower to change.

Culture within individuals heavily influence their choices – how to cook, speak, act, dress etc. These cultures are as diverse now as they were centuries ago, but they are changing and need to be kept up with. For example, the English culture of 1782 would not be the same as the one we experience in 2020. This is the same for all cultures French, German, Dutch etc. Culture is a living and changing thing.

So why is this relevant?

As a company we embrace this cultural diversity (including languages) as it enriches not only our teams and our methodology to solve problems and challenges, but it also benefits our clients and prospects. We find that a diverse team will find many solutions to a problem – whether that is within our business or within a client’s business.

At Air Marketing, we celebrate the German Karneval, we celebrate the Oranjekoorts during Koningsdag, we welcome the tartiflette and merguez on our lunch or BBQ and embrace the culture and language of our clients and prospects. By speaking their mother tongue we understand certain cultural differences (for example the directness of the Dutch Dutch-speaking market in comparison with the gentle tone of the Belgian Dutch-speaking market). All this out of respect of our clients and prospects and of course to do business together.

Wouter Vanaelst Background

Wouter was born and raised in Belgium, right on the linguistic border. His mother tongue is Flemish/Dutch and from a very early age he also learnt French and German. After studying in Brussels and gaining 2 academic degrees in Educational Sciences and Art & Cultural Andragogy, he then went on to work for 7 years as an Educational and Client Services Officer for the Centrale Culturelle Bruxelloise. In this role his focus was monitoring and researching the social and economic climate alongside organising and delivering marketing and recruitment campaigns

Wouter also spent 2 years in Africa conducting research on the educational & socio-economic challenges, whilst learning to overcome many logistical and cultural obstacles. Wouter moved to the UK in 2015, his first role in the UK was teaching French and German classes as an associate lecturer. Alongside this he worked with international companies analysing business to customer (B2C) communication in Dutch, French and German.

Wouter is now heading up the Multilingual offering for Air Marketing Group, helping businesses open up opportunities within strong economic countries such as Germany, France and Holland.

Wouter is fascinated by cultural and linguistic differences, how people choose to act, speak and work differently and in understanding this looking at how to make bridges in between cultures and languages. Wouter does not believe in uniformity, he believes every language, culture and client have different needs that require a bespoke approach. This includes adapting to cultural manners, working with native speakers who have native accents and cultural knowledge.

“Every language you speak is another market that opens up to you.”

Interested in talking to me about our multilingual offering? Contact me directly on 01392 575282 or complete our contact form here.

Wouter Vanaelst
Senior Business Development Executive Multilingual, Air Marketing Group

It all starts with a Hello

Posted on 10 March 20203 June 2025 by Doug Roots

I’ve recently seen the launch of a new Netflix show called; Love is Blind. The concept is a dating show based purely on building an emotional connection; you cannot see the person you’re dating meaning that verbal communication is at the forefront. This got me thinking about the importance of communication and the part it plays in our lives.

The question that I’ve been thinking about is; as the world becomes more digitally driven, do we lose the ability to effectively communicate?

As children, human interactive and communication was key to us – we learnt, explored and discovered, utilising these key skills. But as you develop through your childhood (especially in today’s world) you become more digitally aware and communication becomes stagnant, if not regressive. Lives are busy – we take to texting, Facebook messages, WhatsApp groups and sending voice notes via media platforms rather than simply picking up the phone or speaking to someone in person.

The digital evolution has enabled many things – it has allowed us to reach a larger audience, it’s broken down borders as distance makes no difference and it allows us to target more people. But it always comes at a price. What we lose is the ability to learn about individuals in depth and really get to know each other as you would when communicating face to face or over the phone.

Have we become numb to this digital communication? How many emails do you delete without even taking any notice of them? How many adverts do you quickly scroll past on social media? How many times have you paused someone midway through a conversation and ignored them? My point is that communication needs engaged interaction from two people – it can’t be a one-way street. Strong communication builds trust and relationships which is imperative to business success.

The simplest and most effective form of communication continues to be through two-way conversation. I find in a business environment when you can’t always meet people, a phone call will create a connection. There is always a place for this to be supported with digital communication, when time is short or quick messages are required instantly and digital applications allow us to work smart. But I haven’t come across another method of relationship building that can even closely compete with a conversation.

What my time at Air has taught me is whether you are talking to a client, customer or colleague, conversation is always the best way to discover the information you need. In a people centric world lets focus on those basic human interactions, pick up the phone speak to your customers and if you don’t have the capacity to do that then you may just be looking in the right place for someone to do it for you.

It all starts with a hello so why not take the time to talk to us today.

Alex Burgess
Account Manager, Air Marketing Group

Build A Team So Strong, You Don’t Know Who The Leader Is

Posted on 4 February 202027 January 2023 by Doug Roots

We’re all in this together. We are all colleagues, regardless of job title. We all work together to achieve the same goal, to make a difference for our clients, make the company a profit and ultimately get paid. When people start feeling undervalued for doing the role they do, we have a problem. Have you ever heard a colleague say, ‘what does it matter what I think’ or ‘my opinion doesn’t count’? Your opinion does count and yes, I would like to hear what you think.

We want to know how our colleagues feel and what they believe would work better. Having this feedback means we can make a difference and help.

Loyalty and commitment come from feeling valued. Feeling valued comes from respect and inclusion. Yes, roles within an organisation vary and so does workload, but every single person is here for one common goal. We win together and sometimes we lose together, but we are a team.

Some of the best results I have seen have come from people who have felt empowered to make a change. Some of the best ideas have come from people who have felt their opinion counts. When we feel we are able to have an input and suggest improvements, we work with a different vigour and we push ourselves. Not doing this is a sure-fire way to lose your best talent.

Encourage feedback. What’s working and what isn’t? What will make the process better? From my perspective things might look right – but that’s just my perspective. Tell me how it looks from yours. None of us are perfect and we can all make mistakes or miss things, but as a team we can get it right.

In my opinion, Air has got this balance right. We have regular catch-up sessions with all of our team members to review performance and processes. Not just as individuals, but as a team. Everyone has the chance to input and everyone has the chance to challenge. Feedback is essential to ensuring we get things right. It’s not a dictatorship, it’s a company which nurtures and nourishes its staff to ensure we all give our best and strive to achieve. Every role is valued and every person within each role understands the impact they have. With this comes an immense sense of comradery – a team so strong that you wouldn’t know who the leader is.

Opinion piece by Account Manager, Michael Hepburn.

AIR’S CORE VALUES

Learn more about Air’s values in this post.

My 5 Tips to Personal Development

Posted on 4 December 20193 June 2025 by Doug Roots

I started my journey with Air Marketing back in 2018 as a Business Development Executive. I really enjoyed the role, the culture and the opportunities that were clearly available from this position. But I was hungry for growth and I knew I wanted to develop my career, within the first year I quickly excelled and was rewarded with the management of my first account. I was thrilled by this opportunity to really show what I was made of and also to give the client the best experience of working with Air.

Fast forward to today, just over a year later and I’m stepping into one of just three Account Manager roles, with my sole focus to deliver ROI for our ever-growing client base.

I wanted to share with you how I got here, so these are my 5 focus areas:

Training

I’m a huge believer in achieving anything, if you’re willing to learn and open to change. Within my time at Air I’ve had the opportunity to learn from various senior team members and taken part in some fantastic training sessions. These have been vital to my progression as it doesn’t feel like I have ever stopped learning. My favourite training was a Time Management session run by our in-house Learning and Development Co-ordinator. It taught me how to balance my workload and keep stress levels under control, which is vital in a fast pace, high performance environment like Air.

Feedback

I may be a Gen Z; however I don’t agree with snowflake culture that the generation has been tarred with. I value and really take on board feedback from those more knowledgeable both inside and outside of work to aid my professional development. Sometimes the feedback has been negative, but I always feel you can take learnings and constructive criticism from these moments. Being in sales I have a tough skin anyway!

Honesty

Yes, honesty. I’ve always taken the approach of transparency with my colleagues and clients. It’s something that fits well in our culture and something we pride ourselves on at Air. You can’t lie when it comes to statistics and data. If you’re honest with clients this will create a strong and respectful relationship for the future.

Creative thinking

A large proportion of my role is process driven, with this we see consistency of delivery and of results. However, you need to be one step ahead in account management. This means you need to be thinking of new ideas all the time to keep things fresh. Nine times out of ten your original strategy is going to change, and you will need to adapt to this to keep on the front foot.

Passion

I believe that passion is the biggest thing you need to get to the next step. I love what I do, and I am lucky to work in a culture that nurtures that passion and ignites it even further. Being dedicated to reach your goal is important and it is this drive and dedication that will see you become successful.

I’m looking forward to everything 2020 has in store in my new role, working with more fantastic clients and achieving great results for them. If you’re interested in joining Team Air, visit our careers page or call 0345 241 3038.

Opinion piece by Gracie-May Bryan, Account Manager at Air Marketing Group

How to motivate a sales team in an outsourced sales environment?

Posted on 1 October 20193 July 2023 by Doug Roots

This opinion piece has been written by Keryn Seal, one of our Account Directors, who has a passion for team motivation owing to his impressive sporting background.

As an Account Director at Air my role is split between managing a team of sales people (between 15 and 20) and managing the performance of 8 key client accounts – ensuring optimal performance across the board. But perhaps the most important aspect of my role, and my favourite part, is to motivate, retain, and reward all of the people within my team.

The atmosphere and performance on my section of the sales floor is a direct reflection of how well motivated those in my team feel – and I strive to make it as positive a place as possible. My job is to be tuned into the individuals in that space and how they are feeling on any given hour, day, or week. At Air, we know that no one wakes up wanting to be a telemarketer. It’s not a ‘sexy’ job and it often comes with a high-pressure environment, so I want my team to feel as motivated and engaged as they can be. It’s important that we show how grateful we are for the work that they put in for 8 hours a day.

As somebody with 15 years of experience in elite level sport, I know all too well that motivation levels can be different on any given day for a number of different reasons. In my opinion, the very best managers I ever had were those who took the time to learn what motivated and inspired me, and my wider team, to perform. Sales people are no different to athletes. We are all human beings with different drivers, pressures and commitments.

I base my leadership style on what I would want in a leader. I try to understand each one of my team members on an individual level; what motivates them, what challenges them, and where do they want to get to? From there I can then map out a progression plan with them, giving them motivation and a pathway to success. This doesn’t always have to be work related, it may be affording the car they want or achieving their next promotion.

Within sales environments companywide incentives are run to generate healthy competition and inspire high performance – we are no different at Air. But whilst an insurance company or a PPI centre are selling one thing to their prospects, at Air we can be working on up to 30 campaigns for 30 different clients at one time. It is therefore important that we create and devise fair incentives for our team, and I try to make these a little different each time to keep the whole team engaged.

Last month the cricket world cup inspired me to run a company wide Telemarketing World Cup incentive, where 32 agents battled it out over 2 weeks to be crowned the overall champion. I did this by creating a point system for each lead and campaign, based on the difficulty of that campaign. The team then played off against each other each day and the person with the most points that day went through to the next round. The winner of the prize could either receive a cash prize in their wages or a paid day off.

Motivation isn’t all about cash prizes, vouchers, or days off paid for by the company. It is about having fun and enjoying what you do and who you work with. I strongly believe in having fun, active, or inspiring daily buzz meetings that get the team switched on and ready for the day. The ideas for these come from my experience working as a youth mentor, after my sporting career ended. Again, sales people are no different to athletes or the young people in the groups I mentored. Motivating them always comes down to understanding what makes them tick, how they feel on that day, and what I need to do to get them to where they need to be in terms of being ready to perform. At the end of the day, I just want the team to succeed and be proud of what they achieve day in, day out.

Opinion piece by Keryn Seal, Account Director at Air Marketing Group

Category: Opinion Piece