Tom's career has spanned across Change, Transformation and Technology, and now focuses his efforts on delivering business value with a consultative sales approach.
Tom has a strong track record in Business Development, always with a focus on building meaningful & long-term relationships. With a particular passion for selling innovative & creative solutions into large organisations, he works working with early stage and scaling businesses.
Founders are great. One of the main attractions for me doing this as a portfolio is because, actually, founder-led organisations have a certain level of energy, enthusiasm, passion for the products and service offerings that they have, that is often really infectious.
How have you transitioned into a portfolio career?
So I've spent 10 years in leadership roles in the sales, sales and commercial marketing space. I ultimately have worked with startup, scale-up founder-led organisations as well as private equity backed organisations. So I haven't done that for over a decade now, plus the 10 years prior where I was in hands-on sales, business development roles. I made the decision to start my own business work with several different companies. There's a real gap in the market where there are some incredibly bright people with some fantastic service offerings and products to bring to market, but who don't have, understandably, the experience in how to distribute those products, service offerings, how to price them, what's best go-to-market strategy is, how to find value propositions, et cetera. So that's really where I've started to come and see that I can add value. So I'm now working with several businesses, including two through the Connectd platform.
Why did you join Connectd?
So I'd not heard of Connectd until one of the Connectd team called me and we had a reasonable conversation whether the whole overview of the product and the platform was provided. I found that incredibly useful. I was definitely unsure as to... It sounded great, but there's always a bit of a cynical aspect to it. But, actually, it's been brilliant. I think the draw to the amount of businesses that are on there, the way the product works and also just general levels, the service that I've received from everyone I've spoken to have all been exemplary. So, yeah, for me, it's been a great move.
How did you find roles on the Connectd network?
The first organisation that I've started working with, actually, I found through the Lens feature. So I had my customer success onboarding core with the Connectd team. I was then playing around on the platform myself, saw an organisation on there that looked in the domain where I've got a lot of experience, reached out to them. I've had several meetings with them and then we've now agreed to do some work together, which is really exciting. They've got a fantastic product, but really can use some help just in terms of how they take that to market. So that was really proactive through the Lens feature. So I basically have got into the habit of checking the platform once a week. And, actually, when I checked it a few weeks ago, there was a role on there, which was perfect for my skills and experience. Again, met with that organisation, they had a very well-defined, this is what we need support with and we've managed to sort out the contracts, and I'm working with them now as well.
How have you found working with the founders and senior leadership teams?
Founders are great. One of the main attractions for me doing this as a portfolio is because, actually, founder-led organisations have a certain level of energy, enthusiasm, passion for the products and service offerings that they have, that is often really infectious. And, actually, you can learn a lot through working with those founders basically. So I've really enjoyed the interactions I've had with the founders through the platform. I think they are all recognizing they need help by the very fact they're on the platform, which is perfect because, actually, that's where I can come in and add value.
What plans do you have to develop your portfolio career?
For me, now this is about growing my business, basically. Year one is just going to be really about building my credibility at that board advisor portfolio level. And then I'll look at growing the organisation out that I've started to really work with startup, scale-up businesses at a greater scale, basically. And, hopefully, grow beyond me. But I'll always be looking to keep my hand in and do the board advisor piece, basically.
What is the main focus when a business is developing a go-to-market strategy?
Founders really looking at that go-to-market strategy and they're looking at how do they really take that product and service software into market. It's really important to first define what you're famous for, what of credibility have you already got, what do you want to be famous for and who's going to be interested in that story? The biggest challenge I'd say is that most organisations will try to go really broad and try and target everybody. And, actually, getting niche in terms of that route to market is really important. Once we define that and then the target audience that is going to be interested in that story, then we can decide on terms of the channel distribution methods and how we can really start to scale and repeatedly grow.
How would you describe Connectd in three words?
Targeted, intuitive, and good service.
