'Be mindful of expenses, work on retention even more than you would have."
Having trained and worked in business development for many years, Ion Farmakides always emphasized quality, performance, and communication in his work.
To this day, he employs the same thought process and puts the same level of care into his position with Pearl Lemon Leads. Recently, he has brought these qualities to the Pearl Lemon community. This company stands out in the SEO and lead generation spaces as a leader who pursues efficiency for their clients, yet never compromises on quality.
Pearl Lemon is a lead generation service that specializes in Linkedin, cold email, B2B, cold calling, outsourcing, and appointment setting. As a full service lead generation company, Pearl Lemon Leads is ready to capture leads and help you turn them into sales. Featured in TedX, SEM Rush, and more, Pearl Lemon Leads is a force to be reckoned with in the lead generation space.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Ion Farmakides: My name is Ion Farmakides and I am the managing director of the Pearl Lemon Group.
We specialize in services including SEO, PR, B2B lead generation, PPC, Web
Development, and Consultancy, among others. Pearl Lemon has been prominent in the
previously mentioned areas since 2016. We are UK headquartered, and we have
agents and clients all around the world.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Ion Farmakides: Be mindful of expenses and work on prioritizing client (as well as employee) retention.
The unexpected became the expected, and by now everyone should have hopefully adapted to the new norm. Since a lot has changed from a workforce standpoint, you should also ensure favorable remote working conditions as much as possible. You should also focus on what your workforce needs in order to achieve your collective goals, as opposed to what the “corporate angle” is. Ensure that you engage, work with, employ, and interact with people you can trust.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Ion Farmakides: Trustworthiness is key. Prioritize trustworthiness more than you have done in the past
because there will be more people working remotely. You also need to be much more
flexible and nimble – hopefully your niche allows for it.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Ion Farmakides: To begin with, most agencies in our niches have lost clients whose business they have relied on. We had clients who unfortunately (and obviously more so for them than us)
went out of business due to the pandemic. Some of our clients have had to adjust their business models in order to survive and we are of course not immune to all this.
Much like some of our peers, we have been fortunate to have done considerably well these past 2 years, but there were times when the tip of the iceberg was definitely visible. A large number of agencies have suffered tremendously. Despite taking a hit like everyone else, the majority of the services we provide have proven to be relevant and valuable even during these testing times. This is due to the fact that there are still companies interested in ranking well on Google and speaking with their prospects directly – both services we provide.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Ion Farmakides: To focus on deals with companies that would have been either unaffected by the pandemic or close to it. As an example, we had some unlucky clients in the tourism and hospitality industries – not that we wouldn’t have serviced those companies to the best of our ability regardless, but if we knew in advance what would have happened, it would have made sense to focus on industries that were less affected by the pandemic. Having said that, we always try to improve on everything we do.
We are constantly working on the services we provide, as well as the communication of those services. Our team continues to place our clients at the top of our priority list and we work to improve every aspect of our relationships with our clients.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Ion Farmakides: As mentioned above, we have been quite fortunate with the services that we offer, as they were not affected as much as other services/fields were. To take an extreme case: Virtual meeting companies didn’t just do well, they exploded – and it makes sense.
For a while, they were more necessary than in pre-covid times. My prediction is that we will gradually return to a new normal; a correction of sorts. More companies are beginning their journeys, and face to face time will be more popular than before, seeing as appetite for human interaction has been suppressed for too long.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Ion Farmakides: The majority of my time is spent on the phone and in front of a screen, in video calls. So, quite a few. 🙂
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Ion Farmakides: I enjoy stories too and I try to employ a variety of them into my day-to-day activities. In order to keep things fresh, I like to create a followable and relatable narrative at any given situation. There will typically be a story or a circumstance that will resonate with the team or team member I’m speaking to. Storytelling has a significant impact on how we communicate with our teams, clients and/or prospects. An example would be to “clean your kitchen before you start cooking”, which could suggest that before we start delivering for a client, we need to have all our ducks in order
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Ion Farmakides: Growing, scaling effectively and efficiently is always a challenge. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, but you also want to take calculated risks. Team-wise, once you get the hang of something, the next step is to teach it to someone else so that you can move onto another venture. While that occurs, you can’t always be on top of every level of that new situation, and that can sometimes leave holes. As an example, when you delegate, you never know if the process you built will complement the next person’s skills, which can be difficult at times.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Ion Farmakides: I want to know everything there is to learn about how to help our clients reach their goals. I am focusing on SEO and PPC strategies which will bring our clients closer to their goals. Organic growth components appear to be yielding more positive results than ever before and one of our aims is to remain ahead of the competition. The ambition to be the best at what we do serves as a motivator.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Ion Farmakides: I believe that many people have recently been given new opportunities and are now better qualified than ever to take advantage of them. I am sure there are a lot of individuals who are not being heard. There are many people who will say, “Not me, I’m not that type of boss.” I believe it is a combination of factors. Someone in leadership may be at fault, or perhaps there are team members who have unrealistic expectations. To me, the most important thing is to figure out how to make everyone as happy as possible while keeping in mind that there is a corporate goal that everyone should presumably be working towards.
As an example, the remote/flexible working situation has come up a lot for companies. Personally, I do not have a preference about where people are based. If something works, it works. I believe in hiring good people and allowing them to work in their own way as long as they are consistent with the company’s goals. I would like to think I am a good listener. I want people to know that they are being heard, and I feel I make that clear on a weekly basis. However, I am aware that my objectives will sometimes not be perfectly aligned with everyone else’s. I believe you should be aware of this fact regardless of which side of the table you are on, and attempt to keep the communication open.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Ion Farmakides: I would like to be able to stop or slow time down so that we may work around deadlines to complete the work as efficiently as possible while staying within people’s time frame, with all the time in the world to spare. 🙂
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Ion Farmakides: Success in 2022 will be the same as it was in 2021, and most likely in 2023. Maintain growth at a reasonably ambitious rate, make sure that everyone is happy with what we do, that we are profitable, and that we do everything in our power to ensure that our clients enjoy the same privileges. I hope I continue to be a valuable member of the team, and that I contribute to everyone’s progress, not just my own, and not just the company’s. I try to help every team member reach their goals by being as helpful as I can and being as helpful as possible so that they feel at ease coming to me hoping to gain something positive. That looks like success to me!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ion Farmakides for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Ion Farmakides or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
