Meet Chris Beeby: Business Development Director for sopp+sopp

A vital part of growth for sopp+sopp is being able to attract and keep new customers. We need to be able to continuously demonstrate that we can adapt to different customer needs, and showcase how our services can really benefit new prospects in the commercial fleet industry.

Chris Beeby, Business Development Director, leads the charge in this area. We caught up with him to chat about his extensive experience in sales, his journey within the business so far, and how sopp+sopp is continuing to innovate and expand into new exciting areas.

Interview with Chris Beeby

Tell us a bit about your career and how you came to join sopp+sopp

“I’ve always been heavily involved in sales, and I moved into more senior roles very early in my career. When I first started out, I worked for a family business which provided mortgages for holiday homes abroad. After around a year in this role I took over the running of the company along with another partner in the firm.

Once I left that industry, I moved to work with a kitchen sales company. Throughout my 12 years there I took on various roles and really got to know the business as I worked my way up to Head of Sales. This is a position I enjoyed and gained a lot of experience from.

I joined sopp+sopp as Business Development Manager in January 2020 – just before lockdown! This was challenging as I was furloughed just 3 months into my new role, but some good came of it, as my little boy had been born in November 2019 and this gave me the chance to spend time at home with him during lockdown.

Once the world resumed and the business reopened, I was able to throw myself into learning the commercial fleet industry and my new role. Thankfully I had a fantastic support system in place with Callum Langan and Jamie Sopp who helped to guide me through it.

It was always the goal when I joined sopp+sopp to learn more about the business and grow within it. I was promoted to the Head of Business Development after 18 months, and Business Development Director 2 years after that. The department has also grown during my time here and we now have a fantastic team which allows us to engage with multiple opportunities at once.”

Can you tell us about your current role?

“I’m the Business Development Director for sopp+sopp - so I’m primarily responsible for new customer acquisition and helping to grow the revenue for the company.

I work closely with our fleet customers, prospects, and intermediary partners to try and attract new business to sopp+sopp. We also partner with a lot of claims handling TPAs and camera/telematics providers to try and drum up business through other channels.

Our day-to-day is identifying and finding new opportunities, responding to formal RFPs, tenders, and closing deals – essentially our focus is on converting a prospect into a customer.”

What do you think attracts people to sopp+sopp?

“I think a big part of it is the work that our founder Jamie Sopp has done to establish sopp+sopp as the first choice accident management partner for commercial fleet operators.

When we started, we only provided our services to commercial vehicles – since then the business has really grown and changed over the years. We’ve used the strong foundation and great reputation that Jamie built to expand into other markets and channels. This has meant that we now have a wealth of experience across multiple different sectors and vehicle types.

Our focus has always been on listening to our customers and delivering tailored solutions to their problems. This approach has allowed us to be proactive about staying ahead of industry changes and client needs - as fleets continue to evolve, so do we.”

How has the company grown and changed over the years?

“sopp+sopp started from very humble beginnings when Jamie established the business back in 2003. At that point we were working with a single company providing HGV engineering and cost validation services. As our customer base grew, so did our knowledge and the scope of services we offered – over time we’ve expanded our reach into repair management, FNOL, third party intervention and recoveries.

The types of vehicles we look after has changed a huge amount over the years in response to evolving industry standards and client needs. We now look after around 50% lite commercial vehicles, 30% cars and around 20% heavy complex vehicles. This shift really showcases our flexibility and willingness to adapt to our customers and the changing landscape within the commercial fleet industry.

Since joining Activate Group in 2017, we’ve also invested heavily in infrastructure and continued to push new boundaries with technology. We are a modern business that has all the tools needed to continue to grow and develop.”

Are sopp+sopp working on any new innovations?

“Fortunately, we’ve always had an innovative approach to our business. We’re very keen on digitalisation which means that we can take advantage of emerging technologies. We’re not daunted by change – we see it as an opportunity to grow and provide the best possible solution to clients.

Our ability to stay at the forefront of innovation is made possible by our brilliant development and product teams. We’ve put significant investment into our own claims management system, as well as many other products developed in-house. To name a few we have: our own instant reporting app – Activate Initiate, our own damage & image capture app – Activate Assess, and we’re now about to launch our 3rd party Captcha app – Activate Captcha.

Of course, we also have our latest product – FleetScout. FleetScout is an automated vehicle inspection tool designed to provide a full damage profile across commercial fleets. We are incredibly excited about its launch, and we think that it’s going to have a huge impact on cost and time savings for both our existing customers and new prospects alike.

Ultimately, we view the products we create through the lens of what benefit they will bring to our clients. We never put anything into development unless we are sure it will provide genuine value and make a real difference. That will always be at the forefront when we’re developing or delivering new technologies – we want to see the value for our customers.”