Anyone who works in sales understands  that revenue accountability is fundamental  to measuring the success of an individual. This could be divided into new business and existing business. This could include Account Management or revenue retention as well as new / additional revenue

The range of roles within sales & business development are very broad and our database has seen increases in roles for marketing consultancies, online businesses, media and professional services clients. Roles have a risen as a result of the need for businesses to find new revenue in reaction to a tough economy and a change in business culture > Companies may be looking to expand into new geographical markets as a result of client demands, or launch new products into existing clients.

The most common mistake made by people who want to work in sales ; whether they are applying for a role focused on strategic new business development, or they are applying for a role which focuses on account management ; is the lack of information on the cv to outline this.

The job market is much more dynamic and aggressive in many instances, in the sense that businesses cannot afford to get it wrong with their sales people. They are the face of the company and, in the case of new business activity, they are often the reason why a new company will buy into the business. They reflect the style of business in the way they present themselves.

We are surprised at the lack of accountability shown in many of the cvs that we receive in response to an application for a business development role we are handling

As a matter of course clients want to see the following information :

What kind of sales have they been responsible for : new business or account management?

What type of sale: consultative or product?

What revenue was achieved in total?

What were the targets and how did the applicant fare in relation to them? Targets may be linked to revenue and activity.

Sometimes they ask how other people in the team did. to gauge how successful the applicant was in comparison to the department ?

How much revenue they brought in as new business or even how many new clients they brought in?

Where did they get their leads from?

How long was the sales cycle typically (a week , a month , a year)?

The day in the life of a Presentation Scheduler”

By Lorraine Plumb

You never know in the morning if it’s going to be a manic day or run like clockwork.  You can have days and weeks where everything seems to go wrong, commercial, promo and programme changes all seem to come at once so,  the key to pres scheduling is organisation and a slight obsession with stationary is always as a good sign that you have the right mentality.

Most mornings start, after a large coffee processing as runs, looking at over night data and prepping the schedules, so adding all your promos and secondary events in.

The afternoons tend to be timing up schedules and sending them off to TX, making your channel look as strong as you can by placing promos in the strongest part of the schedule. Changes come in at any time and one of the skills is to juggle everything at once and keep on top of things, normally starting with a cup of tea to make a plan of action.  There is a lot of repetition as its one of the few departments that has deadlines everyday that need to be hit so you have to like a bit of predictability but be able to role with all the changes as and when they come in and not crack under the pressure so times it can get pretty hectic.  That’s part of what I like though and I am one of the odd people who loves the challenge of never knowing what the next day can bring.

July 2011