Ha - I'm quite new to Derby personally actually but im sure some of the team would of been there!!!
The design notes are very valid, the initial design was a lot cleaner, very similar to the JCB site in actual fact, however, I was asked to revise and got a result others liked but I personally wasn't quite happy with. This is something I will re-visit and discuss with the team.
In terms of content, I am looking at ways of creating more dynamic information, the imagery too will be updated, I was not a fan of the product range on the home page due to duplicate images - but they are our best sellers so I am required to display these prominently - I was thinking of tweaking with the image angle and backgrounds on these (scenic shots in the peak district). The resource section is quite thin, just comprised of manuals and guides, I will be looking at creating some videos for product range intros and pump maintenance.
With buyer profile, it is a mix, more recently we have noticed procurement people, more than engineers, and these tend to be all about the pricing - and with pricing, we are only allowed to discount to a certain level online, so the inquiries are crucial to conversion. To help inquiries I have included the chat feature and it has increased the number of inquiries, and our customer service levels have been greatly appreciated by clients and led to repeat orders, but I still feel we could do more.
Cheers
Rob