I’m writing this 1,473 days into our Doqaru journey. Four years on, we are still here, not only surviving but thriving. I couldn’t be more grateful.
With 20% of UK businesses not making it past 12 months and a further 40% ceasing trade by the 3-year mark, this feels like a huge achievement for our small team!
Our growing team have been on this crazy rollercoaster together and supported one other each step of the way. We’ve faced some challenging times, of course, but we’ve also made sure that we’ve had a lot of fun and celebrated our wins. Whether it’s a small or big win, we try not to forget to celebrate even when the pressure is on.
The work we did as a team on co-creating our new vision statement at the end of 2021 has paid off this year. We’ve stayed on track, challenging and holding ourselves accountable to our values and vision.
We’ve had some big wins this year:
- Gaining our biggest contract so far with three SMEs
- Retaining over 95% of our clients
- Winning two prestigious business awards: Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards (GBEA) and Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 at the 4th Scottish Women Awards.
- Hiring our first Operations Manager (Hi, Derek!)
We feel honoured that our hard work has been recognised locally and nationally.
What was new in 2022?
We have made some significant changes at Doqaru in 2022. We conducted a full repositioning exercise in Q1 to create our new focus as Scotland’s FIRST Sales Enablement Consultancy. Our new focus has helped us clearly articulate to our target market that we understand their challenges and how we can add value.
Renewed clarity about our messaging and offering are already bearing fruits. We have more frequent conversations with our target buyers – growth-minded C-suite executives, sales directors, investors and business owners looking to make incremental improvements in their teams’ sales performance.
We knew the messaging on our old website needed a refresh to support our new position. So, we worked with the talented guys at Form Digital, who brought our concept to life and the new website launched at the beginning of March this year.
In February, we researched and launched our very first sales performance report: Social Selling Proves to be a Critical Success Factor in Sales. There were around 100 downloads and several new leads as a result of the report. We were able to have more in-depth conversations with business leaders, driving changes and adoption of effective sales techniques as we move deeper into the digital age.
Building on thought leadership, we are working on new research that highlights to what extent businesses can identify, evaluate and nurture selling skills in B2B sectors. We know that the sales profession has one of the highest attrition rates, and is also under-supported in terms of training, onboarding and the hiring process. Our aim is to help business leaders do a better job of hiring top sales talent and retaining them. Watch this space for the report in the new year!
We’ve celebrated some internal promotions as our team has developed and hired our first Operations Manager, Derek Forsyth. Derek has been working closely with the directors, with a focus on day-to-day operations. He has responsibility for people management, QHSE, and business processes. We can honestly say that life at Doqaru is a lot better with Derek around. We are becoming a well-oiled machine!
More recently, our Marketing Team Leader, Sarah Gardyne (nee Dickie), newly married, celebrated becoming a published author. Her first book, Reactive Marketing: Best campaigns and tips for creating your own, launched on Amazon UK, and quickly reached Top 100 in the ‘International Sales and Marketing’ and ‘Advertising (Books)’ categories. Have you got your copy yet?
Re-enforcing culture and team resilience
To be fair, we packed A LOT into 2022, and we will all be very deserving of our Christmas break! Not all the things that happened were good. We lost two valuable team members who left in April and August, respectively. Being a small team, this hit us hard, but we’ve developed resilience, finding innovative ways to build skills and capabilities.
For instance, we created a Sales Enablement Taskforce (SET). A sub-team focused on driving our sales enablement goals and inciting campaign ideas. Since the sub-team launched in September, we’ve seen a significant reduction in our sales cycles. Possibly the best thing about SET has been the team’s learning experience. We brought together employees with marketing and finance experience, and they’ve contributed to a strong sales pipeline by applying their own expertise. Having diverse skills and perspectives has positively impacted our culture and performance.
The final quarter of 2022 saw our revenue grow by nearly 50% compared to the previous quarter.
So, we end this year on a high note. But we don’t take anything for granted. Staying true to our vision and values takes continuous effort. We’ve committed to creating and sustaining a psychologically-safe work environment where our team can thrive and be themselves.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, our amazing clients, superstar suppliers and our LinkedIn community.
Wishing you all every success in 2023.