HiFi

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at a business school that specializes in sales education. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate diplomas, as well as masters-level programs for professionals.

I head up everything marketing-wise, including the website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with HiFi?

Our project revolved around the idea of transformation. We had an existing asset that was basically an excel spreadsheet and worked like a survey. We sent the survey to clients and customers to help them evaluate their assumptions and mindsets of their own sales practices.

HiFi was already working our website, so because the sheet wasn’t scalable, we came to them with the idea of turning it into something more digital.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Beforehand, we sent an email to a client or customer and then would wait to hear back for them to turn in their submission. The process was very tedious and mundane. I initially wanted to turn the Excel spreadsheet into an online version that we could host on our website, almost as a lead generation magnet for potential customers and prospects. That project has now gone beyond a lead generation tool into a self-evaluation tool that we offer for free on our site, as well as part of our consultancy offerings, helping organizations judge their employees’ mindsets.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with the main founder of the agency, a backend developer, and a frontend developer (handling UI/UX). There is also a principal designer on the website project.

How did you come to work with HiFi?

I’d worked with the founder of HiFi at my old organization, so when the opportunity presented itself to transfer work from our old website to the new one, I knew I could trust HiFi. I knew they had the expertise and ideas to expand the project beyond web development. When I came to HiFi with the whole idea of digitizing our offering, they knew that they were the right people to carry it out as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re on a monthly retainer with them, so sometimes we’ll shift focus from website development to the survey project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since September 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve taken our project from a spreadsheet to a 360-degree survey that potential customers can take to see if their salespeople are doing an effective job. It’s very exciting.

We’re started talking to customers about the product itself: going into organizations and evaluating their sales teams based on how we think they’re selling to customers. We’ve set up around six customer portals to date for our consultancy services from our existing customers alone. We haven’t even started bringing this opportunity to new customers. Once we do, however, we’re confident that organizations will want to talk to us. So far, our monetary gain is around $200,000–$300,000 in new opportunities.

How did HiFi perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly calls every Monday to discuss where we’re at in terms of hitting particular deadlines, potential blockers, and more. They’ve been great in terms of constantly communicating viz Zoom, Slack, and more. They’re top-notch at keeping us in the know at all times.

They were quick to reply, especially over Slack, and even though we were on separate parts of the country, they make the effort to come down and see us once a quarter. We use these opportunities to scope the work and figure out timelines and priorities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re a business school, so we have this particular view of how salespeople should be selling, and what sorts of values customers want to see from salespeople. There are four values we really talk about, and HiFi has demonstrated all of them: authenticity, client-centricity, proactive creativity, and tactful audacity, which is being willing to go deep in conversations and challenge our thoughts and beliefs. I’ve never come across an agency that does these things.

Other agencies I’ve been involved with aren’t centered around our needs and requirements. There’s often a lack of ideas around what we want to achieve, and I wanted a firm that would take the extra step and suggest things that we haven’t thought of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s not their fault, as COVID influenced so much, but it would have been nice having more regular face-to-face interaction. We increased the amount of Zoom calls we did, however. This is something that the whole world has had to deal with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you understand what you want to achieve from a particular project and that all the appropriate stakeholders are involved. There’s a level of expectation there, which you’re going to take to HiFi as well in terms of what you want. They’ll be able to give you what you needed, plus much more if you have a distinct idea of where you want to be.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Head of Marketing at Northern Group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire HiFi?

Our website was created some time ago and became outdated as the business evolved. HiFi advised on digital strategy and developed and planned the web migration from start to finish.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

HiFi was selected before I had started with the company, however, it has been a longstanding relationship.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I am yet to work with HiFi on a larger-scale project outside of website management but I look forward to potentially working on some projects that we have discussed that are in the pipeline. Phil from HiFi is really helpful and quick to respond to any queries using Slack. HiFi also regularly come to our offices in Manchester for face-to-face kick-off meetings.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We work with two people from HiFi, Phil & Lewis, although there is an extended team we can also speak with if necessary.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They are very understanding of the client's needs and are able to articulate projects in terms of priority and benefits that relate to general company-wide KPIs. It is great to have insight from a Umbraco development perspective as well as wider digital marketing strategies within a small team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I have found the workflow to suit our business needs. We much prefer having a smaller team without an account manager as such, so you are directly speaking to the person who will be implementing the work. This way the person you are speaking to really understands the work involved rather than passing on the message from team to team.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their web development and digital marketing knowledge rolled into their relatively small but dynamic team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Our focus is quality over speed, we would rather take the time planning than have to do rollbacks, so in turn, nothing outside of the usual constraints of time.