Stafford-based risual Ltd, market consultants for IT-based services and solutions, recently approached Keele University for support to enhance their sales process.

The Keele Research and Innovation Support Programme (KRISP)* has been designed to help small-to-medium sized businesses in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire to develop new products, processes or services by providing fully-funded support and resources. The programme sees students, employed by the company as Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) Associates, working alongside academics, business advisors and the company to progress the innovation-based project.

risual was founded 14 years old and currently employs more than 150 staff in their Beaconside offices. The company employed two Keele Neuroscience students as RD&I Associates through the Keele Research and Innovation Support Programme (KRISP) to review their current marketing and sales processes to identify the science behind the strategy to further understand and develop their strategy moving forward.

Alun Rogers, Co-Founder and Director of risual and Vice Chairman for the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), said: “The programme has been excellent for risual and has enabled us to gain valuable research that can help shape company strategy.

“I was very impressed with the RD&I Associates – we were lucky in the fact that the project was very unique and interesting so I think that attracted some of the best people. We had a great pool of people that all came together to deliver the project from academics, students and business advisors. It has been an excellent experience for me and the company.

“The research was really important to us – we now know what we are doing and its effectiveness through a neuroscience lens. We want to build on the research to form a model that can be fed into a staff training processes.

“We will be turning to Keele in the future for sure to make use of the Business Gateway programmes in order to support these ideas.”

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent businesses can benefit from a range of programmes that provide specialist support and funding, more details of which are available through Keele University’s Business Gateway - 01782 733001 / business.gateway@keele.ac.uk.

Pictured: risual Ltd sales and marketing team

*The Keele Research and Innovation Support Programme (ref: 32R16P00711) is part-funded from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) England Growth Programme 2014-2020.