Julian Sheppard’s principal business is to act as a surrogate Commercial Director. Julian can be involved in all aspects of the business – from corporate marketing and the targeting of companies identified as key players in your chosen markets, through to reviewing contractual agreements and terms of business.
Surrogate commercial directorship
All commercial organisations, irrespective of their size, have a fundamental requirement for strong financial leadership. It is, after all, the very thing that ensures a company continues to trade profitably so that it can minimise the financial risks for the future.
Whilst managers concentrate their efforts on sales and marketing, they frequently let financial matters slip. Not surprisingly, the results can be disastrous.
Often this lack of financial leadership simply reflects an underlying weakness in the managerial expertise. Entrepreneurial companies often have the necessary sales, marketing and technical expertise, but can rarely afford to employ a professional commercial director. This is where Julian’s surrogate financial directorship can play a crucial role. By outsourcing this role, even small companies can afford to plug that strategically critical gap in the boardroom.
Strategy audit
The strategy audit is a classic technique designed to deconstruct an organisation in order to identify areas of weakness and potential improvement. It examines everything: your customers; the products they buy; the financial health of your company; the personnel requirements; the organisational structure.
The information is gathered in a series of extensive interviews conducted with individuals within your company. If yours is an organisation which places a high value on customer satisfaction, Julian can also conduct a range of client interviews.
The result is a document that highlights the strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing suggestions to add value to your business. It might, for example, recommend a reward system for team members who achieve certain targets. Or an enhanced marketing budget, together with the goals that it should set out to achieve. Or the redefining of departmental goals in order to make them more focused. The whole process takes, on average, six weeks, at the end of which the conclusions are presented at a strategic planning workshop, hosted by Julian.
Customer survey
Any marketing professional will tell you that getting new customers takes time and money. But it costs nothing to lose an existing customer. None the less, although every business needs to ensure that its existing customers remain as happy and loyal as possible, remarkably few organisations take active steps to make sure that this is so. Because of this, we offer a service designed to quantify the level of customer satisfaction. At a general level, this survey will ascertain the areas of your business which tend to please – and uncover others where the service is perceived as less than satisfactory. Specifically, it will highlight customers that have the potential to take their business elsewhere (churn) and recommend a specific course of action to retain their loyalty.
Marketing planning
The marketing planning service is designed to ensure your company has a marketing strategy that truly reflects the underlying aims of your business as identified by the strategic audit. Often, as much emphasis is given to ways of cross-selling additional goods and services to existing clients as to generating new additions to your customers. If appropriate, we work very closely with partner organisations to develop operational programmes that reflect the marketing strategy.
Financial planning
Sheppard & Co’s financial planning services are designed to examine all aspects of your business which have an effect upon cash flow. This includes reviewing existing terms of trading to ensure that your company operates the most modern and relevant terms in your marketplace. In addition, the financial planning services also review the capital budgets and existing cash flows to ensure that proposed budgets are achievable within the cash flow forecast.
Incentive management involves introducing and installing systems designed to reward and encourage individual excellence throughout your organisation. Not surprisingly perhaps, the nature of the reward schemes varies from company to company, since it must reflect both the aspirations of the individuals involved, as well as the financial state of your organisation. The range of options varies from financial rewards paid to teams who achieve pre-set targets, to personal healthcare insurance and pensions planning.
Takeovers / mergers
Acquiring another business is not a common occurrence for most organisations. The in-house expertise available in such circumstances is, therefore, typically extremely limited, And yet, the financial stakes involved during such times demand the employment of as much expertise as possible. That is why we have developed a strategic service specifically to address this challenge. Drawing upon Julian’s previous experience of such deals, he can become involved at all stages, right from the first tentative approaches through to assisting during the negotiations, Crucially, we are able to assign a fair price for such negotiations, based upon shares, cash, or a combination of both.
Contract negotiations
From time to time, most businesses have to secure contracts that are of particular strategic importance. When such opportunities arise, the natural inclination is often to secure the contract at all costs – even if it means compromising the commercial aspects of the business. Using Sheppard & Co during such contract negotiations ensures a disciplined accounting framework to make absolutely sure that any terms agreed will not subsequently jeopardise the business.
Personnel and recruitment
An on-going operational headache for many companies is how best to employ existing staff – and how to recruit new ones. Ensuring that the company is protected against abuse by employees is an unfortunate, yet necessary, aspect of today’s managerial life. Sheppard & Co keeps abreast of all new employment legislation, which is reflected in the contracts of employment that we draw up on behalf of our clients.
Debt recovery
Bad debt is bad news. That is why we are available to help support clients with an escalation procedure to tackle debtors. We can get involved with everything from the initial chasing telephone calls and letters, right through to the pursuit of debts either within or outside the county courts. All legal work is handled by our own qualified
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Mentoring
In business, it is inevitable that people will come up against personal areas of weakness – whether that be in leading a team, making quick decisions or planning effectively. Sheppard & Co mentors CEOs and senior management teams to help them improve on those key skills, and enhance their business capabilities. Our areas of expertise include leadership, problem solving, communication skills, creative thinking, decision making and strategic planning.
Sheppard & Co Limited 
