News
Happy New Year
Hapy New Year to all of our clients and contacts. Thank you for the support that you have given us during 2011, and we look forward to working with you in 2012. We have recently received testimonials from some of our clients, and...
7th January, 2012 • more >
Budget time
29 November 2011 is the date for the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. It also the date for the next Office for Budget Responsibility's report on the economic outlook for the UK. At CBSL we are taking the view that whatever the OBR...
8th November, 2011 • more >
The Power of the List
Have you sent out a mailshot recently? How did it go? Indeed do you systematically measure the results and the return on investment you get from mailshots? There are lots of percentages below, but if you want to know how to improve your sales...
2nd November, 2011 • more >
Warning on disguised remuneration
HMRC has recently warned tax agents and accountant who promote tax and National Insurance avoidance schemes in respect of ''rewards for work carried out for a UK-based employer". It is practice amongst such as agents and tax advisors and...
28th October, 2011 • more >
Latest advisory fuel rate increases
The latest advisory fuel rates for company cars came into force on 1 September, and employers have to use them with effect from the start of this month. The rates will continue to be reviewed quarterly by HMRC.
21st October, 2011 • more >
New employer duties for pensions: Are you prepared?
New employer duties for pensions: Are you prepared? In a nutshell, all employers will be required to: provide one or more qualifying schemes, which can include the National Employment Savings Trust known as NEST; provide...
11th October, 2011 • more >
Are you on top of what your competitors are doing?
Here’s a list of questions that every business manager should be able to answer with an unqualified ‘yes’. They relate largely to the fundamental need of identifying and understanding your competition, and if you find yourself...
8th September, 2011 • more >
Growing your customer base
If you want to grow your customer base, a good place to start is by asking yourself if your marketing is clear, sound and persuasive. Does your marketing convince doubting potential customers that your service is the one for the job? If not, it...
7th August, 2011 • more >
Thinking of buying a business?
Buying a business is easier than building one yourself but it has its own challenges. Despite the fact that buying is a more expensive proposition than building, banks will see it as a safer option because they can look at the business's track...
26th June, 2011 • more >
Cash flow tips
Cash flow, as they say, is the lifeblood of any business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making thousands of cars a year or selling lemonade to neighbours, if you’re stuck waiting for payment from customers then you can’t pay your suppliers...
13th May, 2011 • more >
Understanding your accounts
The last couple of years have shown us the importance of having good control and understanding of our accounts. However, for smaller companies this comes at a cost beyond that which is affordable. One way round this is to use...
20th April, 2011 • more >
Measuring customer satisfaction
"Every disappointed customer will share their experience with 10 others." Companies can spend thousands of pounds on advice from consultants and business experts, but often the best advice is freely given by the people that...
7th April, 2011 • more >
How to retain good customers
“If your strongest connection is only price, you leave yourself open to a competitor undercutting you.” When times get tough, the cost of sales goes up. Potential customers are less likely to want to talk to a...
25th March, 2011 • more >
New rules for filing accounts with HMRC...
Corporation tax online filing will become mandatory for submissions of your corporation tax return and annual statutory accounts made after 31 March 2011. A range of Internet filing enabled software and forms are available from HM...
6th March, 2011 • more >
CBSL Grows its team
In our January news we said that we felt the outlook for businesses in 2011 was looking very good. As we move into February we are still seeing very positive signs. Companies remain cautious on capital investment but we are finding that finance...
1st February, 2011 • more >
Outlook for 2011
Despite the prospect of public sector cut backs starting to bite in 2011, we are pleased to report an extremely exciting and positive start to 2011. From September 2010 we have started to see a significant increase in new business...
10th January, 2011 • more >
How does your business measure up?
Have you ever considered how your business is performing against its competitors? Consider the following statistics: - Only one in ten customers who feel like complaining actually complain….so how happy are your customers? The bottom 25% of companies are achieving profit levels that are one tenth of those achieved by the top 25% Supplier performance is poor. Lower quartile companies clearly do not have control over their suppliers as up to 75% (by value) of the supplies they receive are late. Do you know how you are performing, with your customer service, your profitability, and your supplier performance? If they answer to any of these points is that you do not know, then you should consider benchmarking yourself against your competitors.
26th July, 2010 • more >
Time to go fishing? - Is it time to plan the future of your business?
I recently heard the following story that I thought I would like to share with you: -
23rd July, 2010 • more >
New Seminar Date Announced
Due to our forthcoming seminar “Action in your business” on the 30 June 2010 soon reaching capacity and demand for the event still coming in CBSL have decided to open up a second date on Thursday the 22nd of July with seminars to run at 4pm and...
14th June, 2010 • more >
Telemarketing Trials – the basics
If you are considering telemarketing but you are not sure it is right for your business, we would suggest a telemarketing trial. This allows you to try out the service without fully committing further. It also allows CBSL to demonstrate...
22nd April, 2010 • more >
Why Trial Telemarketing?
CBSL provide telemarketing, data cleaning, market research and telephone lead generation from our telemarketing department based in our Shrewsbury office. Our clients We do this for clients in a wide range of markets including:...
13th April, 2010 • more >
Telemarketing Advice: How clean is your Marketing Data?
Most companies hold a customer database of some description and use this for marketing purposes. The problem that most businesses find is that maintaining this database can be quite time consuming and they tend to only look after and keep up to date with their key customer accounts. Marketing data is estimated to deteriorate by nearly 40% year on year due to companies closing, decision makers moving on and so on. Meaning
15th March, 2010 • more >
Cold Calling Training: Telemarketing
A lot of companies and organisations provide telephone sales training and cold calling training but how many of those trainers are still hands on telemarketers? It’s all very well and good having the theory behind good telemarketing and...
4th March, 2010 • more >
CBSL’s Award Winning Digital Marketers
Sam O’Prey, the CBSL Group Marketing Manger, has been notified by the Chartered Institute of Marketing that he has been awarded the 2009 CIM West Midlands Award for Best Studying Member E-Marketing (Digital Marketing) Award
26th February, 2010 • more >
CBSL opens its Manchester office
CBSL Group Limited is pleased to announce the opening of its North West office in Manchester City Centre. Adrian Barker, Group Managing Director said...
24th February, 2010 • more >
Is your telephone marketing data TPS compliant?
If you make telemarketing calls for your business you need to make sure you are TPS compliant. Call us now on 01743 249992 to learn more about B2B telemarketing or read on for details of TPS compliance...
19th February, 2010 • more >
Sales Leads are the Life Blood of any Business
No matter what business you happen to be in there is a high chance that it thrives and grows not only on existing customers but new customers also. The problem most companies face is how do they find those new...
16th February, 2010 • more >
Online Lead Generation
Internet Marketing Both of the above are excellent examples of push marketing where you as a company would be pushing your product or services towards the client, albeit very gently. Internet marketing is the exact...
16th February, 2010 • more >
Lead Generation through Email Marketing
Email Marketing Fast and almost free email marketing can be a great way to get your message across. If combined with a telemarketing campaign this can bring fantastic returns on investment. There are...
16th February, 2010 • more >
Lead Generation through Telemarketing
Why you should consider telemarketing as a source of lead generation With telemarketing you go directly to the industry decision maker to present your case, check the relevance and generate interest. Within one...
16th February, 2010 • more >
CBSL offer a FREE one-day telemarketing trial
Special Offer FREE Telemarketing Trial to UK Companies* The CBSL Group is offering a FREE one day telemarketing trial to all new customers and current clients. We believe in proving our professionalism and the fact that we can...
15th February, 2010 • more >
CBSL featured in the Financial Times
Jon Wood, managing director of CBSL People Limited, has recently been featured in the Financial Times “Asks the experts” feature on recruitment. As part of the CBSL Group, Jon Wood and his team provide clients with HR services focusing on...
6th October, 2009 • more >
What's everyone else doing?
This is another newsletter in a series we are sending out via email to people we know, to share some of the things other clients have been benefiting from. CASHFLOW FORECASTING This issue is about cashflow forecasting - a critical...
6th July, 2009 • more >
Get Out Of The Country - And Grow!
Exporting is a good way to expand almost any manufacturing business. It will also work in a number of service-based industries. It can be done using an existing product range and simply extending product production output. It can open up new markets by targeting areas where there is no direct competition, or be used to reduce a dependence on domestic markets that are being oversupplied.
29th June, 2009 • more >
Finding Your Most Profitable Customers
Not all customers have equal value to your organisation. The 80/20 rule – that 80 percent of your sales come from the top 20 percent of your customers – applies to most small businesses.
23rd June, 2009 • more >
What your customers dislike!
Surveys of customers can be very revealing even indicating danger areas for your organisation. This article summarises findings from some recent surveys that show just what it is that customers dislike the most about their interactions with businesses.
15th June, 2009 • more >
Who Will Follow You Into The Business?
The day will come when you want to, or have to, leave your business. To make the transition to the next owner as smooth as possible, and to get the maximum return for yourself, you need to start planning now.
10th June, 2009 • more >
Businesses Increase Profit through Strategic Pricing
Profit improvement specialists the CBSL Group are holding a strategic pricing seminar on June 18th at Shrewsbury Football Clubs Pro-Star Stadium
9th June, 2009 • more >
7 Quick Ways to Stimulate Sales
Some ideas for stimulating sales have become marketing classics. They aren’t expensive, nor are they complicated, but they’ll work for almost any business and can be implemented with little more than your customer list, a bit of word processing...
3rd June, 2009 • more >
Tips and profit improvement ideas from CBSL
The fastest way to improve profits... ...is usually through pricing. It has a much quicker effect than cost cutting or trying to win new customers, and all the benefit drops through to the bottom line.
2nd June, 2009 • more >
User Focused Online Marketing Strategy
Search Engine Optimisation & Marketing are buzz terms for most website owners and businesses looking to get themselves online. Done correctly it can reap great rewards and drive a lot of traffic to your company website. Far too...
22nd May, 2009 • more >
Mystery Shopper
We are always on the look out for more people to add to our database of mystery shoppers, much of this work can easily done in a town near you and the follow up work from home, provided that you have the right resources and self discipline to...
18th May, 2009 • more >
New pricing tool designed by CBSL
CBSL are pleased to announce the development of a new pricing tool designed to maximise your companies profits.
8th May, 2009 • more >
CBSL Pricing Seminar
After the success of our Marketing Seminar in April CBSL are proud to announce the next in our series of Seminars & Events. The seminar will be held at 5 pm on Thursday 18th June 2009 at the Prostar Stadium (Shrewsbury Town Football Club). Practical methods for developing a pricing strategy for your business
7th May, 2009 • more >
CBSL Marketing Seminar Tuesday 28th April 2009
The first of this year’s CBSL Seminars has been announced CBSL Marketing Seminar Tuesday 28th April 2009 Being held at the Prostar Stadium (Shrewsbury Town Football Club). The CBSL Marketing Seminar is the first of a series of Seminars being held by Shropshire based professional firm CBSL Group Limited.
19th March, 2009 • more >
Marketing Strategies That Don’t Hurt the Pocket
Marketing is something every business must do to stay in business. A little imagination will make your marketing work better and more economically. This is a selection of some cost-effective ‘tried and true’ strategies that work for SMEs.
18th March, 2009 • more >
Your Competitive Edge – Is It Time For A Revamp?
There are several ways to institutionalise competitive improvement in your business. First, there is customer feedback. Many successful business leaders say publicly that the best ideas for product and service improvement came from customers.
28th August, 2008 • more >
Branding For B2B’s
In the world of fast moving consumer products a proliferation of branding is often the way a major, or ‘umbrella’ brand, can manage its product mix.
25th July, 2008 • more >
How To Avoid Costly Payroll Mistakes
Payroll is at the heart of any relationship between employer and employee and mistakes are not only embarrassing, but sometimes costly. You need to work on this at two levels – setting up fair and transparent polices about pay, and setting up a system that minimises the chance for error.
23rd June, 2008 • more >
Making the Best Business Decisions
We always have the choice of making a decision using our intuition only. The primary advantage is that it’s quick, it’s over and you can get on with the next item on the agenda. The trouble is, without giving enough thought to some of the decisions you make you’re likely to have a higher percentage of bad decisions than if you took a bit more time and worked them through.
3rd May, 2008 • more >
Thinking Strategically To Define Your Vision
Most business owners have a vision for their enterprise but often lack the strategies that will enable them to realise that vision. The problem is usually a failure to think strategically.
21st April, 2008 • more >
Resolving Employee Conflicts
Intervening in employee disputes is a risky action and, often as not, ends up with the manager alienating both parties. A better way to proceed is set up a policy that will enable management to listen to any employee with a grievance, yet still encourage those with disputes to do everything they can to resolve it among themselves. This should be a formal policy, stated in writing and copied to everyone who is employed in the business. It should also become a part of employee orientation and be incorporated into the company’s policies and procedures manual.
11th March, 2008 • more >
Why Don’t Salespeople Perform?
One of the main reasons salespeople are often seen to be underperforming is that their companies don’t have an internal system or process for creating continuous improvement. Let’s look at how an organisation can really work at developing its salespeople.
10th February, 2008 • more >
September
Rowan House (North) has been let to CBSL Group Limited, a firm of Business Consultants and Chartered Accountants & Auditors. The offices, totalling 2,483 sq ft (230.79 sq m), are located in The Professional Quarter at the Business...
10th September, 2007 • more >
August
Jon Wood, Managing Director of CBSL People Limited, today announced a major recruitment programme across all group companies as a result of a strong order book for 2008 and 2009. "By recruiting now, we are able to train new...
15th August, 2007 • more >
