Meet the Team: Jason Pooley, eCommerce Consultant

We sat down with Jason Pooley, eCommerce Consultant at ECI Software Solutions to find out more about his role within the team.

ECI: Describe your role in 50 words or less.

JP: I consult with a range of builders merchants, from small family owned single sites to large timber yards, on future-proofing their businesses with eCommerce and account management self-service tools to address the new buying patterns of customers.

ECI: What and where did you study?

JP: I studied CISCO CCNA at Lincoln College.

ECI: Tell us about your background and the path that led you to your current role.

JP: I started off in sales as a Sponsorship Consultant for a junior motorbike championship in the UK. I developed a passion for supporting independent teams, usually a father and son, by helping them gain sponsorship to be able to compete in championships. This is when I realised sales is more than just selling; it's helping people do better and achieve more. This led to my first role at ECI as a Business Development Representative and after 4 years, I began helping small independent merchants realise their true online potential through Spruce eCommerce.

ECI: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned since you began your career?

JP: I learned you must find a visionary who sees change as an opportunity, not a threat to their business. Someone on-site who is steering the ship through the storm of change to get to the other side. Finding that person can be difficult as this seems to be a very emotional decision for merchants to adapt to. I think adopting an eCommerce strategy is particularly challenging for our customers as they may have always viewed themselves as fighting the good fight against the nationals.

ECI: What do you enjoy doing when you're not at work?

JP: I'm a keen gym goer who enjoys playing board games with my wife and of course travelling any chance I get - Borneo being the favourite place I have visited.

ECI: If you could go travel to any area of the world right now, where would you go?

JP: Ah, as hinted above, it would be back on a flight to Borneo with my wife to do some voluntary work in the local Orangutan sanctuaries!

ECI: What's currently on your music playlist?

JP: It's either an American 80s playlist mixed with a little queen and Phil Collins, OR it’s some old school metal to get me in the mood for the gym!

ECI: Where do you live and what do you love about it?

JP: I live in a city called Lincoln, which was once home to the tallest building in the world (Lincoln Cathedral) before the spires came down after an earthquake. Lincoln Cathedral is famous for having Hollywood roll in from time to time - the Da Vinci Code being quite a well-known film that was partly filmed in Lincoln. But what I love is that it’s a nice quiet city with a lot of history and interesting architecture. I have lived here many years and still stare at our cathedral in awe.

ECI: Who inspired you on your career path?

JP: I only seek inspiration from within. If you can't inspire yourself, how can you possibly expect others to?

ECI: What does your day-to-day work life look like?

JP: Everyday I'm talking to a range of people, ranging from the guys on the front line battling in the trenches on the trade counters, all the way up to business owners, with differing opinions and experience of what eCommerce means to their business. I advise customers as they adapt to the changing online needs of their customers that their grandparents, and sometimes even parents, never had to think about. I am working every day to help protect small to medium-sized businesses, from falling to the national merchants. I take a true partnership approach when talking with customer about this change. Change is scary and I know how addressing that fear feels.

ECI: What excites you most about working within this industry?

JP: Being part of a massive digital adoption wave such as what we are seeing with eCommerce in our industry is great to be a part of. Our customers are gritty and have survived Brexit and Covid. They are battlers and we can help them flourish with this massive opportunity to modernise their approach to servicing customers. The success we see from our customers is a testament to the value these products and services offer as a modern source of competitive differentiation.

ECI: What advice would you give someone just starting in your industry? Any words of wisdom?

JP: Be honest, accountable and real. The merchants I speak with are some of the most hard-working and down-to-earth business owners that I've ever met. That includes many of my co-workers too! As long as you are authentic with your team and customers, everyone wins.

ECI: What do you find most challenging about working within this industry?

JP: It's frustrating to hear from merchants that they think their business is so different to the rest of the world in the way that people transact and conduct commerce. There are a lot of humbling moments on phone calls when customers realise how much money they're losing to their competition who have already evolved to providing self-service to their customers.

Ultimately, when you Google your company, what people find about you will influence if you earn their business over the conveniently modernised option of Jewsons, Travis Perkins, or Screwfix. If your website says you offer the best customer service and you are not online, you won't earn that business. Convenience is the new loyalty. This can be a hard pill to swallow. My mission is helping merchants to see our solution as an extension of their business - online.

ECI: Since you started working in the industry, what changes have you witnessed?

JP: I've seen some merchants that are not in the cloud get hacked and held for ransom. I'm also used to hearing, "I want to wait and see,” and merchants continuing to dig their heels in and not shifting to the ways in which the world has changed.

I've seen customers staying loyal to their existing websites that generate very little revenue just because “that’s the way we've always done things and that’s what our peers do.” I've seen owners sell their businesses and give up the fight to national merchants. Countless merchants tell me, “timber isn’t selling online,” even though multi-million-pound national merchants thrive in these categories and grow sales 5% YoY in this category.

On the flip side, I've also seen customers take the leap and benefit from a streamlined business process with self-service. I've seen customers triple their sales window with 24-7 eCommerce and account access and bring in thousands of pounds every month with our online virtual branch.

It's great to see staff turnover decreasing as employees are happier in their jobs. Our customers are now able to showcase their expertise and superior value in-branch as opposed to having to manually take orders. Most importantly, I've witnessed the sense of relief our customers realise with our solution’s ability to give them more time with their families without compromising sales, and a way to future-proof their business and protect their family’s legacy.

ECI: What book would you recommend for anyone to add to their ‘must-read list?

JP: If you have small children, any Guiness Book of Records! The joy I have when my 8-year-old daughter just comes out with a random fact about a record she read in one of these books can sometimes help you get through a tough day.