Meet Grant, 25, a sales performance manager for Nissan. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Grant:
I'm Grant. I'm 25 and I'm a sales performance manager. My responsibility is to ensure that every dealer sells as many cars as they can, while also giving excellent customer service along the way. Every day is completely different for me. I can spend a lot of my time in a car, driving between different meetings, interacting with colleagues. I spend a lot of my time analysing data. I focus on everything from customer experience to sales.
From the age of about 10, I've always been interested in cars. The way they look and the style and then I chose the subjects at school that would help support a career in the car industry. My A-levels that I chose were Business Studies to help understand how the business operates, Media Studies to help understand advertising, ICT, so I can understand how the systems work, data analysis and the programmes to support that, and then Psychology to understand a bit better relationships and the way people operate.
After school I went to university. I chose a sandwich degree, which meant that I had to do a placement year. I studied Business Studies and I spent my year in my placement, working at a car manufacturer to get a real good understanding of what the roles in the car industry entailed, and what they looked like and to make sure that it was the right career that I wanted to get involved in. When applying for the graduate schemes it was really important for the recruiting company that had experience in industry, so the year placement really made a really big difference in my application and ensuring that I got a place on the graduate scheme.
The car industry is an exceptionally competitive marketplace. To make sure I got offered a job at the end of the grad scheme, I had to make sure that I was reliable, always on time, going the extra mile, taking on new projects and being really engaged with everything that the business was doing.
The car industry is an exceptionally competitive marketplace. To make sure I got offered a job at the end of the grad scheme, I had to make sure that I was reliable, always on time, going the extra mile.
Interested in cars from the age of 10, Grant chose subjects that would help with a career in car sales. At A-level he chose Business Studies to understand how businesses operates, Media Studies to understand advertising, ICT to understand systems and data analysis, and Psychology to understand relationships and people
He did a Business Studies degree with a sandwich placement at a car manufacturer, which was a good way of learning about the car industry and deciding whether it was the right field for him
It was this placement that helped him get onto his Sales and Marketing Graduate Scheme at Nissan's head office, which allowed him to get an understanding of the business in a variety of roles
He became interested in a dealership-facing role and now works with dealer principals and sales managers in Nissan car dealerships to inspire them to reach their goals.
Grant's role involves working with sales managers at Nissan dealerships to make sure they are meeting the company's objectives. The sales managers oversee teams of salespeople to try to ensure performance is the best it can be. If you're interested in getting into sales, you may wish to start off in a sales team and work your way up to sales manager or, like Grant, sales performance manager.Grant is a sales performance manager. A similar role is a sales manager. Sales managers organise, coach and lead teams of sales representatives to work towards agreed targets.
What to expect if you want to be a sales manager
- Sales manager average salary: £22,000 to £70,000 per year
- Sales manager typical working hours: 38 to 40 hours per week
What qualifications do you need to be a sales manager?
You could get into this role via a university course, an apprenticeship, applying directly or training with a professional body.
Sources: National Careers Service
This information is a guide and is constantly changing. Please check the National Careers Service website for the latest information and all the qualifications needed.
Find out more on the Prospects website about working in sales.
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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