From positioning to fractional growth partner

Impact Beyond is a specialist sustainability recruitment business with ambitions to become the go-to partner in the North. Its founders bring a valuable combination of sustainability expertise, recruitment experience and strong connections across the market.

I initially worked with the founders to look at the opportunity for the business: where it could create a more distinctive position, who it most needed to reach and how its marketing could better reflect the expertise and value behind the service.

There was an opportunity to broaden the relationship Impact Beyond could have with its clients. Sustainability is a complex and fast-moving area, and the people responsible for building teams do not always have the specialist knowledge to know which skills they need now, how those requirements may change or whether the answer should be a permanent hire, interim support, fractional expertise or consultancy.

We developed a clearer position for Impact Beyond as a people partner in sustainability, bringing its sustainability and recruitment expertise together and giving the business a stronger platform from which to build longer-term client relationships.

Building the offer around the position

An important part of the work was making sure the proposition lived in the services Impact Beyond offered, rather than simply in how the business talked about itself.

We developed the Sustainability People Plan, an elevated strategic offer that enables Impact Beyond to work alongside internal teams to understand their current sustainability capability, align future people requirements with wider business goals and develop a roadmap covering the structure, skills and capacity they will need over time.

It creates another way for clients to work with Impact Beyond, whether through a defined strategic project or as their requirements develop over time, and reinforces the wider position of the business as a partner rather than a transactional recruiter.

Alongside this, I reviewed Impact Beyond’s marketing activity and developed recommendations for how the new position could be built consistently through its website, LinkedIn, email, events, advocacy and content.

From strategy into delivery

Following the initial project, Impact Beyond asked me to continue working with the business on a fractional basis, helping the founders turn the strategy into sustained activity.

My role combines strategic direction with delivery. I help identify the conversations Impact Beyond should be part of, develop campaigns and thought leadership around the issues affecting sustainability teams and careers, create reports and practical tools for clients and candidates, and find opportunities to build greater authority and visibility through content, partnerships, events and PR.

Working with the business over time also allows us to join activity up, with individual pieces developed against the position we established at the outset and contributing to a more consistent and visible presence in the market.

An ongoing fractional growth partnership

What began as a defined positioning project has developed into an ongoing relationship with the founders.

I bring an external strategic perspective while working closely enough with the business to understand its commercial priorities, challenge where it focuses its time and help turn opportunities into activity.

From positioning to fractional growth partner, the relationship is a good example of how I often work with growing businesses: creating greater clarity around where they can win, then staying alongside the leadership team to help turn that thinking into growth.