Welcome to the Sales and Marketing blog page!
Feel free to post comments and come back to share more experiences with our sales & marketing graduates.
A plea
Posted by Ross on 20 Aug 07
Please go and buy lots of Christmas confectionery at Sainsbury's, in-store from 12th September.
Kind regards,
Ross
Account Manager - Sainsbury's Seasonal
A sign of the times
Posted by Jill on 15 Aug 07
The office here at Maple Cross has just been branded up with pictures of our sweets and chocolate brands and a sign is hanging over the board of directors that says 'scary corner' - I'm sure they're flattered..... Some of those in scary corner will be reviewing 'gate papers' for 2 of my projects at the Commercial Executive Meeting so I'm hoping that scary corner will not be 'Scrooge corner' and that they won't kill my projects for Christmas 2008 else the nation will be missing out on some great stuff..... I'll keep you updated.
I can't live if living is without boxed chocolates
Posted by Ross on 02 Aug 07
Time for another blog, me thinks. I'm now three weeks into yet another new role, so I thought now might be a good time to continue my ramblings about life at Cadbury Schweppes. Plus we're poised for our new graduates to start in September, so scheme type things seem to be on my mind recently.
Last time I wrote, I was Category Manager for Giving and Sharing. This meant I worked with boxed chocolates like Roses, Milk Tray etc. I've now made the giant leap over to Sales, where I'm now an Account Manager on the Sainsbury's team, working on boxed chocolates and seasonal. I'm starting to wonder whether my career is now too intertwined with boxed chocolates for me to ever do anything else, which is slightly worrying as it's hardly an area of expertise that will result in fame and glory (I don't see many segments on Newsnight on boxed chocolates, where I might be invited on as a guest speaker).
So far, my new job is absolutely brilliant. I'm loving being on the front line again, working with my colleagues at Sainsbury's on things like range, distribution, display and promotions. In my last job, I was creating the recommendations for all of these things for the Sales guys to implement, but now I get to go and do it myself, meaning I'm getting a real understanding of what's achievable and what works within a specific account. I'm developing my financial acumen as well, as discussions on margin and promotions require a strong level of financial accounting knowledge to do properly, and so it's a real baptism of fire.
Shruthi posted a comment on my last blog asking me how my role influences the company and vice versa. I influence the company because I have some level of control over the profit and loss account for a specific pack group within a specific account e.g. I make the call on what promotions we're going to run, I recommend a price to my customer, I propose volumes. This all leads to a certain level of sales and promotional spend that reaches the "bottom line" (profit). The company influences my role by setting the short, medium and long-term strategy at a high level, and this is then cascaded down to me (so for instance, if our board tells us that our objective is to grow market share, that gets cascaded down to where we're going to grow share, and if it's decided boxed chocolates is a priority area to achieve this then I have a real job to do!).
I'm coming up to the two year point now, and looking back on the roles I've done I'm really delighted I've had the opportunity to do a variety of different things. Some have been really interesting, fun, challenging etc, while others have been frustrating because they've made me realise it's not what I want to be doing. But there's two great things about that - firstly, whatever I decide to do next, in five years, in twenty years etc, I can honestly say it's because I've tried a spectrum of things and I know what I'm good at and know what motivates me. Secondly, because I've done these different roles, I'll be better at whatever job I'm in at that stage because the diversity of experience really helps you relate to other people's perspectives.
I'm sure you're all on tenterhooks wondering how the "B Party" went, mentioned in my last blog. Sufficed to say, it was yet another ace night in graduate land. There were some issues, such as me falling asleep on a tube dressed as Roadrunner (the theme ended up being first letter of your first name), and only narrowly managing to get on the last tube back into London to join everyone for the second part of the night. But all in all, good times. And only three hours of cleaning required in the wee hours of the morning to get my flat back to a respectable state!
It's also almost time to start planning our next graduate Christmas party, which I realised when I recently saw "Organise your Christmas party here!" leaflets in a club in Central London. After recovering from the minor heart attack these leaflets caused me, I have moved to declare I will not be getting heavily involved in the organising this time around, in the hope that I will just be able to attend and not have to run round the restaurant frantically with menu choices and Secret Santa presents ala 2006. I can but hope.
Finally, we're only about a month away from applications opening again for the scheme, so I hope you've all got your electronic pencils sharpened and are feeling like the paradigm of self-awareness in preparation. I'm sure I'll (happily) get roped into multiple different recruitment events again this year, so I'm sure I'll see some of you then!
Until next time folks...
Top tips for appraisals
Posted by Jill on 01 Aug 07
Phew, two feedback sessions consecutively in preparation for my half year review has turned out to be quite emotionally draining. Imagine all your friends sitting down and telling you quite honestly what they think of you (with examples) and then your payrise being worked out on the back of it and you're quite close to the Cadbury feedback culture, (Note to any Cadbury Senior Managers reading this - my feedback overall was very good, I have a great reputation in the marketing function and should definitely be promoted very soon. I am of course working on a few minor development needs to further improve my performance and improve upon the success of the company). It's actually very useful and when you get to your review and they will be cleverly structured as your boss will begin with the words 'how do you think you've done so far this year?'. In response, you're forced to list all your 'development needs' (nice way of saying weakness) because you don't want to appear too big-headed. They then agree with you, (hopefully) and then comes the useful bit about how you can work on them and therefore become the perfect employee for your next review. If you really want to make your boss feel uncomfortable then give yourself a completely inaccurate self assessment and watch them come up with a way of saying 'interesting you should say that but you're completely wrong'. (Note to my boss if you're reading this, I will not be doing this).
All because the lady loves...
Posted by Ross on 18 May 07
Afternoon all. It's now been something like six months since my last blog, which seems slightly counter the whole idea of blogging, so I thought I'd take the post-lunch lull to jot down some thoughts.
Since January I've been in a new role - I'm now working as Category Manager for Giving & Everyday Sharing. Easily the best job title I've ever had, I'll be sad to see that one go whenever I move on to my next career track. It basically means that I work on things like pricing, promotions and in-store activity (such as display) from a pack group perspective instead of a brand one (so within my category, I have Roses, Heroes, Milk Tray, Flake Moments etc etc). It also means I get to work a lot closer with the sales guys, which is great from both a professional (they're all scarily on the ball) and personal (excellent banter) point of view. I hope you all bought your loved ones a box of Milk Tray for Valentines Day - you can't beat the classic!
In other news, it feels like the office is literally buzzing with graduates at the moment (some sort of takeover plan?). The magic of placement rotations has meant that only one person is currently out in Field Sales, so wherever you look there tends to be someone on the scheme. The fact that we regularly lunch together is also causing people to start questioning what the collective term is for us - is that a flock or a pack of graduates heading to the canteen?
I'm currently also immersed in trying to organise a smaller scale "Community Project - Part II" for my grad year group, where we can all get together again to reminisce about going to Poland while clearing a bog or building a fence somewhere. Plan is to do that at the end of a week then spend the Friday and Saturday nights camping somewhere nearby - I love how these things seem like such a good idea when they're months away and you're thinking about them from the comfort of your desk. I'm fairly certain by August I'll be ruing the day I ever suggested a tent was an excellent accommodation solution.
Final thing to note - those who read my blog last year would have noted the excellent "B Party" we held in the summer. I'm delighted to announce that it will be back this year, this time at my new flat, and potentially with a new theme. Therefore, as soon as I know said theme, I will be posting it up here and looking for ideas to beat last year's biscuit costume. Hard act to follow, I agree.