Maven Specialists in selling start-up and SMEs

DEVELOPING A smart new product or service is one thing. Selling it to paying punters is another and something small companies often struggle with.

There are companies who specialise in driving sales for clients, but their service is generally aimed at big, well established organisations. Maven is a new, inside sales and lead generation business-to-business company targeted specifically at start-up and SMEs in the technology sector. The company is coming up to its first birthday and having started out with founder Mark Cradock (above) alone, it now employs 12 people.

“Tech companies are often very good at what they do but hopeless at selling it,” he says. “I’ve worked in this sector for many years and identified a niche to provide a service to small business who often don’t have the resources to hire a sales professional. I hand-picked my team for their experience and proven track records using tried and tested methodologies. We have the expertise to operate in Ireland, the UK, Europe (including Eastern Europe as we have the languages and the knowledge) and the US.

“Our service is very price competitive. We cost around 30 per cent less than our main competitors and clients can turn us on or off as they need us. There are no long term contract commitments. So far around 60 per cent of our business has come from referrals,” Cradock says.

Typical clients for Maven are emerging SMEs with new cloud-related products or services for whom the Irish and UK markets are too small but who lack the knowledge and contacts to break into bigger markets, where the critical volumes lie.

Maven was set up with assistance from the Carlow County Enterprise Board and has been revenue generating from the beginning. Cradock expects his team to grow to 16 people in the short term.

Apart from generating sales leads the company has a number of other services, including database cleansing and building and sales recruitment consultancy. Mark Cradock originally studied science at university but took a job with a technology company as a young graduate to fill a gap and has never looked back.

– Olive Keogh