Business Support Business Support Pointing your company in the right direction for success
Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce delivers a number of programmes designed to help businesses realise their growth aspirations. It can also help identify other schemes that may be applicable to your particular industry.
CONTACT: Growth Hub T: 0800 032 3488
Chamber Insight Focus on a member
This month Chamberlink introduces Member Insight, a new monthly feature focusing on a Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce member. This month, Mark Barber from VoiceMobile, one of the UK’s largest independent communication specialists, based at Fort Dunlop, is under the spotlight.
Name: Mark Barber Company: VoiceMobile Job title: Group sales manager
What does your company do? We provide a comprehensive portfolio of unified comms solutions to a wide range of industry sectors. With a main focus being company mobile phones.
How did it all start? Ian Watson (MD) & Dean Sale (SD) began the business in 2000. Building foundations in a thriving and competitive mobile market, quickly becoming one of the UK’s largest independent service providers through hard work and determination.
What’s your greatest achievement so far? Where do I start? We are the UK’s largest EE business partner, 90th fastest growing business in UK (Fast Track100, 2009), Best Unified Comms dealer 2014 (Mobile Industry Awards) and ISO 9001 accredited. More importantly, we have built a wonderful office family 52 people strong that work very hard to push the business forward everyday.
What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken – and did it work out? At the age of 16 I decided to defer my university placement to work for Voice Mobile for a year... Needless to say I never ended up going to university, I have never looked back! Best decision of my life!
What keeps you awake at night? Besides ‘Great British Bake Off’ on catch up TV, I have trained my body/brain to wake me up at certain points in the night to look through our automated overnight sales reports! Sad, I know.
If you could turn the clock back, what would you do differently? Honestly, nothing. I am a firm believer in never looking back, everything happens for a reason. Make the most of each day.
What has surprised you most in your job? How great it feels to see your guidance make a difference in people’s lives, making them fulfill some of their dreams and aspirations. Giving them the springboard to achieve their goals.
‘If you want to grow your business you must network. There is no better or bigger networking platform than the Chamber’
What advice would you give to someone starting out? Be yourself, people buy from people... it’s how sales should be done. Enjoy what you do and your passion will shine through. Oh and one last thing... do one thing every day that scares you, it’s the best way to test yourself.
Which business do you most admire? I think businesses like Guinness are admirable. A true family mentality, built on a foundation based on a passion to succeed and supply a good product, good customer relations and fantastic marketing. They make people smile!
What exciting projects is your business working on? We are currently working on many exciting projects. For example, although we manage accounts nationwide, we have revamped our B2B strategy to concentrate more on acquiring
Mark Barber, group sales manager of VoiceMobile
new business in and around Birmingham. It’s a city thriving in good quality business, we want to be part of that and provide the fantastic local service they deserve.
What made you join Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and how are you making use of your membership? It’s simple, if you want to grow your business you must network. There is no better or bigger networking platform than the Chamber. We attend regular networking events and
sponsor lots of local activity (including being an Acorns corporate charity partner and Sport Birmingham headline sponsor). This activity gives us the platform to talk to local businesses and consult on their business communication needs, showing them where we can make them more efficient (whilst saving them money in the process). Combining this with our unrivalled level of service means we can boast a fantastic success rate on managing accounts of local businesses. We never hesitate when it comes to renewing our membership.
T: 01217488484/07813015638 E:
mark.barber@
voicemobile.co.uk W:
www.voicemobile.co.uk
October 2016 CHAMBERLINK5
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