My first week (or 3 days) at Top Left Design as the new Relationship Manager has been great! The team has been so welcoming and friendly, and I feel right at home. It is safe to say I am feeling very optimistic and excited about becoming part of such a creative, intuitive and motivated team. Having come from a sales and client facing background, I’m hoping to bring my relationship building skills to this role and help expand my client base, creating long-lasting and fulfillment partnerships with the businesses we work with.
Sales has always been an area I have derived great satisfaction from. I believe the overall sales process, and relationships built within sales, can strengthen a person’s character and be very fulfilling for everyone. From client meetings to networking to Skype calls, people ultimately do business with people, and I love people! Being able to help a business establish a great online space that truly resembles them and their “unique greatness” within the marketplace is very exciting. It’s also an area of sales I have never explored before. I am grateful for the opportunity to become the newest member of this close-knit and co-operative team, and know there’s a lot for me to learn! However, here are 5 things I’ve learnt in my first few days at TLD:

The Top Left Design Way

These first few days, I have equipped myself with the knowledge of all the great services that we offer- from the maintenance of websites, help with hosting and domains, branding in print, blogging and workshops on how to get your social media really working for your business. This host of valuable services allows me to contact new prospective clients with endless opportunities!

The Little Things Matter

In sales, sometimes the small things can often get forgotten about when focused on deals, targets and deadlines. Here at Top Left Design, we have a reputation for attention to detail. Every email or proposal sent out by the team is fully informed and checked, and all our shared databases are clear and organised. Grammar, punctuation, tone and overall organisation are all things that are very important to be on top of.

International Meetings

With the Top Left Design team being so international, (we have a coder in Lithuania and Design and Project manager in South Africa!) communication is key and we regroup once a week, allowing us to share things we have succeeded in and areas we need to work on or tie up. Within the meetings, we can see what projects we are behind or ahead on, enabling us to prioritise for the week ahead and voice any concerns we may have. It also gives us the chance to keep a good line of communication with our colleagues overseas.

Client outreach and new opportunities

Within my first week, I’ve started to familiarise myself with the existing established client relationships we have here at TLD, as well as researching contacts within new industries to help build up my own client base.  From this, I am now able to study prospective client’s websites and notice any errors that the team here could help with, and any of our services they could benefit from. To maintain a great website online and keep up to date, the design should be reviewed every 6 months.

Technical stuff

I mostly use my iPhone to use the internet, so I was surprised to learn what a “responsive “website is. A responsive website is simply a website that looks different on whichever device you are viewing it on, allowing for the website to look great on all devices. In terms of “googling” on your phone, the search results will be different from browsing on a PC, with “mobile friendly” sites being displayed, meaning its beneficial for your business to have a responsive site. As well as being responsive, a great website should have a blog that’s maintained and kept up-to-date. A blog can engage and educate your customers, show how great you are at what you do and attract valuable traffic to the site. Social media is a powerful tool for any business, so integrating this into your website can be very beneficial. Making sure the links to social media channels are functioning, you are creating interesting content consistently and linking your social media with your blog, you can create a more engaging website.

Overall, I’ve learnt some valuable things from Keren and the team this first week at TLD. In the coming weeks, I hope to continue learning about the industry, expand my client base, build long lasting relationships and apply these initial key points I’ve learnt to my sales knowledge. If you’d like to talk to me about my TLD experiences or any of our offers, please email me at jordan [at] topleftdesign.com or call the office on 020 7036 0560.