The Chief Executive Officer of Afribiz Group and founder of Jane’M Salon and Spa, Janet Sunkwa-Mills, has said the idea of working as a salesperson at Nestlé Ghana did not seem very attractive to her because she felt it was not a position lofty enough for her.
Speaking on Joy Learning’s The Career Trail, she said that the position had seemed especially demeaning to her since she had just obtained a master’s degree in Marketing and was looking to secure a prouder and more elevated position such as Brand Manager. Instead, she was asked to be a salesperson.
“I’m like, sales? I didn’t feel like it was lofty. You have to go and sell Ideal milk and Maggi? I was like, oof! Alright”, she divulged.
However, owing to the wise words of the Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana at the time, she decided to be more receptive to the idea.
“He said, until you learn how to sell a tin of milk, you cannot be in marketing, i.e. you can do the education part of it, but the practicality of the solution brings you face to face with your consumer”, she disclosed.
Although she had obtained abstract knowledge of how to operate as a marketer in school, it was through face-to-face interactions that she could attach practical solutions from the consumer’s perspective. Hence, in a way, this position as a salesperson was the opportunity she needed to evolve into a distinguished marketer.
Nonetheless, she still perceived the idea of working as a salesperson as problematic, as it entailed driving from place to place to sell the products, yet she had no driving experience whatsoever.
“So when I went to the interview, there was a lady there who asked me, do you know how to drive? And I said no, I don’t know how to drive. And she said, go and learn how to drive. So immediately after school when I started working, they enrolled me in the then McAshley Driving School. So I learned how to drive through a driving school”, she revealed.
After she was through with the driving lessons, she was now faced with a new challenge of actually going around to sell the products.
“In my first job as a salesperson at Nestlé, I was given a huge car, an American Chevrolet, and when I sat in it, you wouldn’t even see that I was in it. It was that big. But you know, it was challenging yet so exciting, because you’re sitting in the car, nobody is seeing you, yet you’re honking and driving through everything. It taught me how to be tough”, she shared.
She therefore encouraged people to cease looking down on sales persons, because if the salesperson does not sell, the Marketer has no job.
She also asserted that the role of the salesperson in any company could not be overemphasized, because, without them, the company would not accrue any revenue.
Additionally, she encouraged everyone who had pursued a Master’s degree in marketing to opt for the position of salesperson as their first job, because it was through sales that one could get to know the consumer much better and also come up with practical marketing solutions.
Janet after working for some time as a salesperson was then promoted to sales administrator.
“That’s also very interesting because the job of the sales administrator puts you face to face with the Nestlé clients. So whereas sales puts you face to face with the end consumer, the sales administrator puts you face to face with the clients; the first liners that Nestlé invoices to. And with them, you get to understand the business side of the company; what kind of profit margins are they looking at? What are their distribution costs, etc.? So it kind of helps you to master your job when you go into marketing because you go there holistically”, she explained.
After her role as a sales administrator, she was finally promoted to her dream position of Brand Manager.
She concluded by urging everyone who is pursuing marketing to make it a point to first start as a salesperson before aiming to procure a loftier position like Brand Manager.
