Edge Hill University’s SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (SME PIC) welcomed SMEs from across the region to its first Connect to Grow event since before the pandemic.
The event was exclusive to SMEs who have completed the Innovation Sprint programme and provides an opportunity for participants to learn, share and network with other business owners who have all experienced similar business growth challenges.
The event focussed on maximizing the commercial value of customer segmentation. SMEs heard from a panel of other SME business leaders who shared their experience on how they generate new sales demand, improved their productivity and the impact it has had on profitability.
Professor Simon Bolton, Director of the SME PIC said: “Supporting scale-up SMEs on their growth journey is pinnacle to what we do. Using data to effectively segment their customers and clarify the market value is crucial to improving the financial performance of their products and services.
“The event is also a great opportunity for the team to hear the remarkable impact the programme has had on their business since they completed.”
Panel member Colin Clarke, Managing Director of Brick Technology shared his experience with the participants.
He said: “Segmentation has been a vital part of our growth strategy, it has helped us to define our customers base, focused our outbound sales activity and now we know what projects to say no to. The event is a great opportunity for SMEs to share best practice and learnings.”
The SME PIC is the University’s strategic gateway for scale-up potential SMEs to access a range of initiatives knowledge, skills, and resources for product, service and/or business model innovation and workforce development.
Over 170 SMEs who have completed the centres’ renowned Innovation Sprint Programme, were invited to the breakfast event held on campus. The Innovation Sprint is an intensive, facilitated programme for formulating a scale-up strategy.
The team look forward to celebrating the achievements of the SMEs who they have engaged with at their prestigious North West SME Growth and Innovation awards in November.
Find out more about the SME PIC, upcoming events and projects on the Edge Hill website.
July 1, 2022
