culture is key.

Being the new starter at a company is never easy. Getting used to new systems, new dynamics and new challenges can be a daunting task; but yesterday was a big day for me...

It marked my five-month anniversary at Sherpa, so I am the new girl no more (and thankfully haven’t been given my p45 yet!) - cards and gift can be sent to the main office address. And actually, joining the Sherpa team wasn’t daunting at all – it was a seamless experience and very much reflected how the agency works…don’t sit around twiddling thumbs, be proactive and get on with the task in hand! It is a good quality of an even better culture.That’s actually a nice segway in to the real inspiration for this blog…

B2B Marketing recently published a research document discussing group dynamics and how they impact b2b decisions and one of their findings resonated with me: “The benefit of a strong corporate culture goes beyond its ability to drive relationships; 89% believe culture leads to great customer experience”

I could bleat on all day about the capabilities we have at Sherpa; how we can guarantee lead generation and increase conversions by 140% with our end-to-end marketing, but it actually means very little if you don’t know anything about the company and the people to whom you would be entrusting your marketing. Now, you probably don’t want to sit through a run-down of staff résumés, so I will summarise. Sherpa was set up by former water polo and EMEA marketing guru Tom Perry (don’t you know the two go hand in hand?). With a wealth of experience working with Vendors, VARs and Distributors across the channel, he saw an opportunity to offer a specialised marketing service to the tech world (sharing our expertise is our mission!) and Sherpa was born.

Supporting ‘El Jefe’ is a team of three Directors – Pascale Smith (if you need to know anything about digital marketing, there is nothing Pascale doesn’t know…), Lee Walker (who oversees all operations and keeps the Sherpa team buzzing and on their toes). Now on to the rest of us…! We are split in to three very close knit teams (and me!), one which covers the account management side of the business – Priya Dayal, Lawrence Copeman, Patrick Kitson and Lennox Potts; one which looks after all things specialist – Ryan Overson, Katie McCraith, Olivia Fisher, Luke Hartley, Marc Smith and Jesse Lehal who is on the phones. Oh, and then there is me…I do the brand-side marketing (when I close my eyes all I can see is our logo). We also have a network of regular freelancers, who further bolster our expertise in times of need.

This may not seem like a huge team (and is certainly a very brief overview of what we all do), but my goodness is it well-oiled and bursting with experience. I have worked in marketing for quite a while now, but I am learning so much every day just from my colleagues. This is a great (and fun) environment to be in. Everyone has their own specialisms, but ideas are bouncing around constantly and we all share our learnings and experience with each other. We have all the benefits of a smaller team – dynamism, autonomy and ownership of everything we do; but also, the attitude and work ethic of a much larger one - we understand growth, we can deliver scale and have experience in Global reach. As mentioned before – our team is at the heart of our business and the feedback from our customers reflects this.

So, to tie this up I thought I would leave you with our values. These often get people talking – specifically the final point – but these are the commandments we live by:

Technology experts - we stay where we are awesome
'A' players only
Honest & open - always
Dedicated to growth - Sherpa & clients
Always learning
We are not afraid to make mistakes
No fluffy shit

Obviously, this blog has been slightly fluffy (you’ve got to be nice about your colleagues sometimes, right?), but when it comes to managing your tech marketing campaigns, that’s when it gets cut. We say it as it is and we do what works.

And on that note, I’m going to quickly post this before Tom realises I mentioned his water polo glory days and I don’t make it to my six-month anniversary (what was that I said about my P45…?).

Our door is always open – get in touch if you want to chat through your marketing needs or would like to come and meet the team.