Traction Six helps business owners and leaders get what they want from their business using a complete set of simple proven tools – known as EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).
One of our clients with headquarters in Hampshire, Fresh Relevance, is growing rapidly, experiencing record YTD revenues and recently closed a follow-on investment round with the Foresight Group.
Traction Six caught up with the CEO, Mike Austin and asked him to share more about the business, why he took the investment and how EOS is helping the business.
- What is the company’s core focus and what do you do for your clients?
In short, we drive personalised customer experiences. Clients use our personalisation platform to get better results from the websites, email marketing and mobile apps.
It’s no secret that a more personalized experience better serves the needs of customers. Better served customers spend more.
Our clients are across many different sectors. Our solution is particularly suited to eCommerce, travel and publishing. Clients see increased sales, improved customer experience and uplift in important metrics such as return visits and time on site.
- How many staff do you have across your Hampshire, London and US offices and why did you decide to take further investment now?
We’re now at 64 staff across the offices and we’re growing fast. We took investment now to accelerate our progress and increase the speed with which we can take advantage of the boom in eCommerce over the past 12 months.
The shift in consumer habits that would have happened over the next 3 to 5 years has been compressed into a year and a half because of the pandemic.
- How do you plan to use the new investment?
We’re accelerating our expansion in Europe and the US as well as continued investment into product development. Product focus is on three key areas – ease of use, understanding the shopper and influencing their journey. These developments further enable digital marketers and eCommerce professionals to increase customer engagement and revenue.
- What has been the secret sauce to the business success?
We align very closely with the needs of our customers. Having understood their needs, we build powerful, flexible systems which allow them to achieve their goals.
A key differentiator of our solution is the versatility. The solution handles the demanding and complex needs of many major household name eCommerce brands. There is a very good chance you’ve visited a website that uses our solution!
- The business decided to implement EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), a system that harnesses human energy using a simple set of tools. What drove this decision?
With a small start-up, alignment within the team is easy, everyone knows each other well and can talk to each other frequently. A light touch informal approach is fine to keeping the whole team aligned and rowing in the same direction.
As the business grew communication became harder, complexity across the business increased. I saw the clear need for structured approach to aligning the whole team and execution on a shared vision.
EOS provides that structure with simple practical tools to make communication and decision making efficient and faster. It’s a simple approach and doesn’t add bureaucracy.
- A common concern with change when implementing something new is that it will be a short-term distraction that negatively impacts performance of an already busy business. What has your experience been?
The EOS implementation has been straightforward. The small initial investment of time for the implementation sessions was well spent.
The sessions helped crystallize and develop our thoughts in many areas. We found the tools quickly started saving the team time. Many people have remarked that the L10 meeting pulse is saving time in 1-1s and ad-hoc meetings, keeping the whole team better connected and on track.
And Rocks have created clarity about the true priorities for individuals, driving more accountability than we’ve ever had. The result is we’re getting more of the right stuff done. Achieving more.
- How has implementing EOS helped the business, what positive impact has it made – in short does it work?
The business is running more efficiently and people across the team have a clearer understanding of our shared purpose. Everyone knows what they need to do in the immediate term to achieve our longer-term goals.
As a result of EOS, I’ve now more time to be working on the business and spend less time getting dragged into working in the business.
In a word, yes, it’s working for us.
The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a set of simple concepts and practical tools used by more than 100,000 companies around the world to clarify, simplify, and achieve their vision.
Ultimately eliminating common business-related frustrations and helping entrepreneurs get what they want from their business.
Tim Watson, Professional EOS Implementer. www.tractionsix.co.uk