Following the launch of our new website, Jimmy Lloyd, Director of Saragossa discussed the process with Toby from Hide the Shark.
There are a series of questions at the top of the homepage, such as “How can I secure the best talent?” or “How can I ensure my project gets delivered?”. What was the thinking behind this?
The core message of most websites seems to be “you have arrived to learn about us”, which seems like an odd way to start a relationship.
We are here to solve our clients’ problems, and the best way to understand the problem is to ask questions. When we get in front of people, hear how they talk, see them laugh and respond, we start to understand how we can help them.
So, by flipping convention on its head and proposing a series of questions on our home page, I’m hoping that we’re inviting discussion and demonstrating our belief that it’s not about us; it’s about you.
There are a lot of friendly faces from your team on the site. Why was it important to you to bring these people to the front of the Saragossa story?
Great people are at the heart of everything we do – it’s our core proposition – “connecting great people”.
Our work is centred around delivering technology/technology automation, but exceptional people and their performance, persistence, and thinking underpin everything. If a brilliant project gets delivered, it’s down to a brilliant person or people – it’s no different inside our business and it’s essential to recognise and celebrate that.
You’ve tailored your services into four products. What was the thought behind that? Do they help you articulate your offering better?
We operate within a service-led sector, so we don’t, strictly speaking, have products to deliver; they’re services. The problem with selling services is a sector-wide tendency to lean on woolly adjectives and vague delivery promises.
We were scratching our heads trying to work out how to resolve this challenge, then realised that by turning our services into a series of products, each with a set delivery pathway, we can get stats around each milestone and demonstrate value.
That makes it sound very robotic, but it’s the complete opposite of that in reality. Our clients find it very reassuring – we’re fully accountable at every stage of the process, which cuts out the leap of faith.
The website more explicitly reveals your thoughts on the importance of internal culture and talent development. Can you tell us a bit more about this?
Everything boils down to a consistency of respect. We will talk and treat you the same whether you’re a graduate or a CTO. We have built our company through loyalty – people come back to us because we treat their problems seriously. That might be anything from being made redundant to building a team of twenty.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s all about empathy – asking the right questions and listening to the answer. Once you’ve correctly understood the needs of someone, you can tailor a solution to it.
Stats feature heavily on the website. Why are they there?
I’m very aware that the consultancy industry tends to rely on hyperbole to describe its services, which makes me uncomfortable.
For example, the statement “we are a very detailed-focused company” is hard to prove or disprove, it’s just opinion. But if I can back up that statement with measurable facts, it becomes a powerful reason to use us.
It all comes back to connecting great people. If you make it easy for a great person to trust you and then repay that trust, you earn loyalty and from that comes a true partnership, and that’s what we’re all about.