We caught up with James Williamson, an Auckland-based health and safety consultant who is one of SaferMe's most prolific sellers - and he shared some tips to success.
James has been partnered with SaferMe since 2016 and has brought dozens of clients
on to SaferMe since then. Not only is he effective at bringing new businesses on to SaferMe, he has proven to be successful in growing a solid safety consultancy business with long-term clients. James focuses on smaller businesses, and offers a monthly service
Here are James' seven tips for growing your business & selling SaferMe to more clients:
1. Offer SaferMe by default
When James brings a new client on board SaferMe is always part of the discussion, because it's part of how he delivers his service to clients.
"We are trying to make safety a living document, and that is where SaferMe comes in really. Getting people actually doing things and making it a living document, not just a bookshelf document.
"Our clients get monthly reports from us about their activity on SaferMe," James said.
2. Start smaller clients on "Free"
James has been effective at using the 'free' tier of SaferMe to get clients started if they're not ready to roll out the app fully, or if it's a big shift for the business.
The free tier enables a client to use two forms. James usually starts the client with a "Toolbox Talk" form and an Incident form.
"I hook them into using it on the free level. We put most people on the free one and then look to convert them later when they have started getting benefits and realise they need more forms or more users."
3. Aligning with Totika and other pre-qualification
James offers businesses support with pre-qualification standards such as Totika. He said this aligns well with SaferMe's strengths for small businesses - and fits well with starting out on the free plan too.
"For Totika one thing they need to be doing is toolbox meeting minutes. I show them how easy it is to do in the app, and I get them in that way."
4. Be strategic about Word of Mouth
Everyone talks about using word of mouth to grow their business, James says, but there are a few things you can do to really help that accelerate.
"The strength of our business is relationships. We visit our clients often. Being on their site leads to relationships that develop and strengthen, and that's what gets us referrals. We're front of mind for people."
"Certain businesses are very good for referrals too. If you think about construction businesses, they are perfect - on construction sites where there are a lot of subcontractors. We get a lot of referral business from construction."
5. Keep it Simple - that is what people want
James says many businesspeople he meets are confused and sometimes fearful about safety - and not clear about what they should be doing.
"We aim to try to make everything simple. That’s why we like SaferMe - it is a simple product. A lot of people are really confused - and that's not good."
James felt offering people a clear, simple service with a simple tool is a very compelling offer to smaller businesses who feel short of time to engage with safety.
"A lot of the time health and safety might not even be on their radar until they need a pre-qualification or something like that."
6. Attend events and showcase SaferMe
James makes an effort to get to trade events and has SaferMe material and his phone in his pocket to show prospects how easy their safety reporting can be.
In addition to attending some of the major national safety shows, he attends local industry get-togethers and makes an effort to strike up conversations.
7. Offering Training can be a good lead generator
James offers training through his business - primarily the ConstructSafe course for construction businesses.
"We offer the CHASNZ approved training and we find doing that helps more businesses get aware of us, and we get new client enquiries through that."