Describe your role: My name is Daniel Callaghan and I’m a Sales Executive for Van Monster in Cannock. You get phone calls incoming from people who have seen our adverts but you also have to do a lot of prospecting for customers; on the internet, Yellow Pages, and others to get a list of company names. You can then send out letters, emails and make phone calls to see if they are interested in buying a van. Customers will also ring us and you get people walking on to the forecourt asking for test drives; you just need to check their licence and take that off them, get in the van, put on the trade plates and away you go!
Do you get repeat business? We get a lot of repeat business, so obviously if I’ve dealt with a customer who has been coming in for the last 9 or 10 months, I'll contact him or he’ll just call up having seen a van on the internet, you look through the retail guides and find the sort of thing that he wants and have it ready on the forecourt.
What types of vehicle do you sell? The style of van that we have is all light commercial vehicles. The biggest van that we have is a Mercedes Sprinter, Luton, a Box Van – something like that. Our range is small to medium sized, nothing bigger than 3.5 tonnes. When I joined the company I had no van sales experience but that’s not something you need to have; so long as you are good with customers and quick with learning your product knowledge.
What do you enjoy most about the role? The most enjoyable thing that I like about working at Van Monster is the fast pace of the customers, it’s very quick like I said. If you want to see how quick the turnaround is, just go and get the customer in the van, do the paperwork, lift the barrier. Once he’s gone, you’ve got the next customer in front of you.
What support do you get? We are part of a team; we do get a lot of support from the my manager and from the Area Managers. So if there is anything I need doing, like if I want to get a discount on a van or put an MoT on a van, I’ll call the Manager and he'll help sort it out.
Your advice to someone considering joining Northgate? I’d just say be passionate about the job you’re going for. I just love it because the guys I work with are great; I get a lot of help from the people I need help from, from the Managers right down to the bloke who sits behind me, its very team-orientated.
