Central Sales – Direct Sales Support Executive Review

You will work on various areas of the business from pulling together creative marketing campaigns to reporting on sales performance and liaising with clients across the UK. Day-to-day you will aid the sales team in reaching their targets, and ensure you provide excellent service and care for our customers and external network. You will work closely with various teams across reporting, planning, marketing, purchasing and pricing. You will co-ordinate and track key initiatives within group brands, produce campaigns to our internal customer network as well as carry out key market research and competitor analysis, all whilst maintaining a close relationship with suppliers, customers and manufacturers.

The role has allowed me to not only expand upon my marketing and business skills, but also allowed me to work closely with various departments I had not before been exposed to – working closely with various team members in reporting, planning, marketing, purchasing and pricing. This has exposed me to a wide range of skill sets, and allowed me to professionally flourish throughout my time at VWFS.

When working for VWFS - you are very much seen as an employee and given full credit and responsibility for your works. Due to the fluidity of my role I have been allowed to gain a wealth of experience across the organisation. The main highlight of the placement for me was this responsibility of seeing projects – such as marketing campaigns for various vehicles – come to fruition from the first briefing to copywriting to enquiry and finally a customer order.

You have regular check ins with your line manager as well as monthly 1-1 meetings which prove useful when tracking your placement progress. This is also a really nice time to reflect on your achievements as well as raise any concerns you may have surrounding your work due to the independent nature of your tasks. Throughout my day to day tasks - I have always been able to pick up the phone or send an email to members of my team or to individuals across the business for support - and they are always there to support a tasks completion. You are also encouraged to participate in many training sessions run by HR - as well as access to LinkedIn Learning which also proves useful when completing tasks not before covered. For example - when carrying out my reporting for the team I was able to join an excel Intermediate course, which helped me develop my excel skills.

The VWFS culture is extremely inclusive and encourages you to speak up to create positive change. Within my team especially, I felt comfortable to ask questions and take on new challenges, even if that did mean making a few mistakes. These mistakes were then always explained to me and I was able to use these errors as a learning point in order to grow and develop professionally.

I found my placement extremely enjoyable and it has allowed me to gain a huge amount of confidence, not only in my ability to work in a corporate setting but also in my decisions after I graduate university. It has offered me insight into what areas I would love to work in and what areas of business interest me and will allow me to evoke positive change. This - alongside working with a supportive team - has made my time at Volkswagen Financial Services an exciting and pleasant experience.

Yes

Research the company before hand - and the automobile industry. It is also good to observe the key issues that are affecting the organisation and areas for growth and development for the company moving forward. As always, let your enthusiasm and character shine through at interview, or even cover letter - share your interests and link this back to how this can be best applied to your role and what you can offer that is individual to only you.