Business type
DevOps
Solution type
Scale Coaching
Size of commercial team
4
Company stage
Bootstrapped
The Scale Factory is a specialist software development and IT (‘DevOps’) consultancy based in London. Founded in 2009, The Scale Factory focuses on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and predominantly helps UK-based SaaS companies to scale by advising on data security and compliance, such as encryption and storage. The Scale Factory currently employs 25 people and services around 60 clients per year.
The Scale Factory Need
Historically, The Scale Factory had choppy sales figures with peaks and troughs occurring from month-to-month. The Scale Factory was in the process of stabilising this pipeline when Covid hit. While this prevented face-to-face meetings and saw customers’ budget lines frozen, as a tech consultancy, it also led to a massive influx in sales leads with 20 different sales calls every week. To capitalise on this momentum, The Scale Factory sought an external perspective that could act as a sounding board for ideas and help The Scale Factory build a sales plan that produced consistent results.
ScaleWise Impact
The Scale Factory’s CEO was referred to ScaleWise Coach (and ScaleWise Co-Founder) Gavin Sumner. After an initial exploratory call, Gavin and The Scale Factory Chief Consulting Officer Mike Mead began three hourly coaching slots per month. The ScaleWise coaching had the following key impacts:
1. Fine-tuned sales decisions
2. Built team’s confidence
Having Gavin in the wings boosted the sales team’s confidence. With an experienced sounding board, the team was now more sure of their strategies, bolder with their actions and less hesitant making decisions allowing them to arrive at sales solutions earlier and improve their effectiveness.
3. Enhanced product lines
Thanks to ScaleWise coaching, The Scale Factory reviewed and overhauled their product lines. Having previously charged consultancy rates per person per day, The Scale Factory built out consultancy and engineering packages to solve specific customer problems at a fixed price. Additionally, The Scale Factory had a limited retainer offering that is now being expanded to cover more use-cases and deliver a better service to clients.
4. Improved marketing plans
Overseeing both sales and marketing, Mike felt his time was often constrained with marketing taking the hit. After reaching a point with Gavin where The Scale Factory was happy with its sales, Mike switched to working with marketing expert Linsay Duncan in order to focus their activities on more outbound activities and devise a strategy to successfully generate leads. Using the ScaleWise model, The Scale Factory was therefore able to pivot to the type of coaching it most needed at the time.
Mike Mead
Chief Consulting Officer, The Scale Factory
“The external perspective has been invaluable. Being able to ask someone who’s been there, done that, whether your sales strategy makes sense gives you so much more confidence to execute a plan successfully. I’m really looking forward to doing the same with marketing – especially as I think we’ll need more hands-on support there.”
