Clement McGough & Sons are a family run funeral directors in Stoke-On-Trent. It was started by Clement McGough 60 years ago and has been passed down, father to son, to the current Managing Director Tim McGough.

Tim’s family had a series of serious illness issues over the course of nine years. This obviously put a lot of strain on the business and Tim decided in 2010 that he needed to regain his focus and direction after such a traumatic period of upheaval.
It was while talking to a current client that he was referred to a business coach from ActionCOACH. So they met and Tim immediately liked the ActionCOACH approach. As he said “One thing that stood out was the talk about testing and measuring marketing activities. This struck a chord because I was fed up with spending money on advertising and not knowing if it worked.”

He then began having business coaching every week through face to face meetings. The first area that they worked on was developing a clear vision for the business. This covered what Tim wanted the business and his personal life to look like in the short and long term. Once they had this vision set they then worked backwards to understand what needed to be achieved to reach these goals.

One of the first, and most important, aspects of running the business that they got to grips with was monitoring all the key numbers affecting profitability. They used the ActionCOACH ‘5ways’ model as the starting point. This looks at the key performance indicators such as leads and conversion through to margins. His coach helped Tim to define what he needed to measure. They then created a dashboard that monitored these on-going. Crucially just knowing these numbers enabled Tim to define what he needed to improve in order to reach his goals. As he said “Previously we didn’t measure anything very well. Now I am very focused on driving profit from all areas. For example there were some services I offered free as ‘loss leaders’, now I don’t, which has increased profitability.”

This focus on profitability meant that every aspect of the business was scrutinised. This included checking their customer prices against the competition and tightening up credit control. It also meant analysing prices on all purchased goods which enabled increases in margin. This gave Tim the drive to expand his range of products and services. As he remarked “We now sell additional products such as jewellery. We push this strongly and are even developing an e-commerce function. My coach’s support has given me the confidence to try new things.”

Tim and his coach also worked hard on refining the marketing activities. This began by understanding more about their competition and clarifying what Clement McGough & Sons did differently. This enabled them to define the message they should be conveying. Vitally they also measured all activities and built a clear picture of where the business came from. As Tim said “We now measure everything. This means we can test different marketing tactics to see what works. For example, we know that 95% of our business comes from referrals and that advertising is not very effective.”

Another area that his coach has helped Tim with is the development of the team which includes four permanent staff and a larger number of part time staff. Everyone was profiled using DISC profiling and this created greater understanding amongst the team. Tim has also become much more open with the staff regarding the business. As he said “I have shared the vision with everyone. I also tell them about the financial situation, which I would not have done before. They now understand what the goals are and are focused on achieving them.”

Having a team that functions well has enabled Tim to delegate more of his work. This has had a big impact on the time he spends in the business. As Tim remarked “My coach has made me analyse how I spend and manage my time. This has allowed me to focus on what my role is and delegate effectively. It also means I spend more time with my family, supporting them.”

The results have been clear over the first year of working together. The business has seen a 20% increase in turnover and reached £1 million in 2011. Tim now feels confident enough to push further and has a target for 2012 of another 25% growth. As he said “It’s a challenging target. But it doesn’t mean we can’t do it. I have the confidence to go for it.”

It is this confidence that Tim feels is the main benefit ActionCOACH has brought to his business. As he said “My coach has given me the drive and confidence to question everything. I now always ask myself how I can improve, and how I can drive the business forwards.”

Additionally Tim enjoys working with his coach. As he said “Even though he challenges me and asks the difficult questions he is always positive and easy to work with. I would recommend coaching to anyone who wants to achieve more. It’s been very productive for me.”