Supporting businesses on a journey towards success

Terry Neale from The Jersey Evening Post spoke to William Church following the launch of the marketing and PR specialist’s business consultancy.

The man who became the public face of Jersey’s premier agricultural crop is now taking his skills to the wider market with the creation of his own business.
William Church, formerly the director of sales and marketing for The Jersey Royal Company Ltd, has set up William Church Consulting, through which he aims to take his core skills into the commercial community, offering advice on business development and effective strategy.
’The key to achieving this is by helping a company to plan its journey and identify the tools that are needed to get there,’ said Mr Church. ‘I can guide people to work in a collaborative manner and gain success. I am very keen to engage and help businesses to develop and improve their purpose, to work with them on that journey and to communicate core messages to all interested parties. I thrive on building meaningful relationships, both internally within organisations as well as externally with customers and other stakeholders.
’As a chartered marketing and PR professional, I use all available relevant tools to map out strategies that can be tailored to individual projects, as well as to businesses and industry.’
Born in Portsmouth, Mr Church is a farmer’s son who was raised on a mixed farm just north of Chichester, on the South Downs. He moved to Jersey in 2002 to work for the Jersey Produce Marketing Organisation, a company that was one of the founding shareholders of what eventually became The Jersey Royal Company Ltd. He had previously worked for a number of organisations in the UK, as well as spending time on location in Spain and Zimbabwe. He has over 19 years of board experience and has a strong commercial awareness and business acumen, combined with a deep passion for his calling.
In his previous role, Mr Church frequently brought the famed Jersey Royal into the very homes of the intended consumer, appearing on television programmes alongside renowned chefs such as James Martin and Phil Vickery.
’Where marketing potatoes was concerned, I really did it for the industry as a whole as well as for the company. A lot of what I did was to help raise the profile of the Jersey Royal new potato and that has been achieved significantly over the past ten years.
’The key words are passion and charisma. Having been involved in some mainstream TV shoots and adverts during my career, I can help firms both by acting as a public face for them and by providing media coaching.’
In addition to offering his services to large organisations, such as utilities, Mr Church also has small to medium-size enterprises in his sights; firms that might not be able to afford a full-time sales-and-marketing professional on the team.
’For example, I have been helping a company called Royal Mash, which produces a premium, vintage vodka using Jersey potatoes, and another firm called Shape Associates, which specialises in digital systems and business transformation. This is a very new company and I am assisting with the marketing side, both locally and further afield.
’It is very much about understanding people and bringing various essential disciplines together. Public relations is one aspect, then there is marketing - which is different from sales because it is all about a campaign,’ Mr Church said.
‘The PR revolves around brand awareness, but there is an obvious cross-over which leads to substantial savings for the client if you are able to bring all three together.
’You have to understand a client’s product or service properly before you can sell it for them. There has to be a story and you have to believe in it and then market it to the target audience. As I say, it is a journey and you have to become involved with the client on that journey.’
Away from his desk, Mr Church has served as honorary secretary for The Jersey Rugby Football Club and the self-confessed committed family man will also be regularly found at a variety of Island sporting venues from the Farmers Cricket field to La Moye Golf Course or on a tennis court - that is, of course, when he is not busy running around and supporting his wife and their two children in their own individual pursuits.
Not surprisingly for a man of sporting action, he regards himself as a team player and, as such, a keen awareness of the value of a good and cohesive team is a vital ingredient in his business philosophy.
’It should always be remembered, for example, that the receptionist is very often the first port of call for a prospective client, it is such an important role. That said, everybody has a part to play in the process of winning business and, for that reason, everybody in an organisation should be valued,’ he explained.
Setting up a consultancy as the Island, along with the rest of the world, battles to restore normality while emerging from the trials and tribulations of a major pandemic is a challenge in itself. Mr Church, however, is optimistic for the future and believes that the past year or so has even provided an interesting learning curve for management.
’Some sectors have undoubtedly experienced a very difficult time, while others are thriving,’ he said. ‘They will all have been forced to look internally at both the good and bad aspects of their operations and evaluate where they are going. In that sense, at least, it has provided a wonderful opportunity to carry out such assessments.
’I think that the Island is currently in a good place; the government has handled the pandemic effectively. People have embraced guidelines and worked together well. This has not necessarily been the case in a lot of other jurisdictions which have seen much harder times as a result.
’Maybe some things could have been handled better but, on the whole, our government has kept the Island moving forward so that generally things have been OK.
’The businesses that have survived the enormous challenges of the past year will now find that they have good opportunities to exploit in the future. The will emerge from this leaner and fitter.’

The Jersey Evening Post - Wednesday 12th May 2021