Simply the best

7th April 2015 |   Nick de Cent

In the male-dominated profession that is sales, women are still under-represented at the top level. We met three inspiring women at the 2014 Women In Sales Awards.

I am responsible for managing and inspiring a field sales team of over 320 people who all locally drive the performance of our soft drinks portfolio across the national supermarkets of Great Britain. Retail sales value for this channel is £1.4 billion.

Nicky Robinson

Top sales director

Nicky Robinson
winner Sales Director category

“I am responsible for managing and inspiring a field sales team of over 320 people who all locally drive the performance of our soft drinks portfolio across the national supermarkets of Great Britain. Retail sales value for this channel is £1.4 billion.

“I initially started out in research and marketing but quickly learned that, when I understood what customers would like, I wanted to be the person who directly acted on delivering against it. I also love the responsibility of feeding back and inputting into all the functions based on customer feedback and market developments.

“I think there are fewer women in sales leadership partly because of perception and partly because of reality. The assumption still persists of a prerequisite to be aggressive and have the capacity to thrive in a cutthroat, long-hours working environment. This is far from the truth and I think businesses don’t necessarily recruit with this in mind, and yet some women do not put themselves forward.

“However, as a business function, we are often not good at supporting flexible working requests. A lot of senior sales positions are still full time and require considerable travel when there could be flexing for job shares and part-time roles. For the right circumstances, I firmly believe that the cost of doing this would be more than offset by the benefit of retaining more women’s perspective, capability, passion and experience.”

Nicola Robinson is Director – Field Sales
at CocaCola Enterprises

Founder of the International Journal of Sales Transformation | + posts

Nick de Cent is the founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Sales Transformation. A business journalist for over 35 years, he has been covering sales since the mid-1980s and has been a strong advocate of enhancing its professional status. He has freelanced for the Financial Times and edited the Sales Performance supplement in The Times. He also writes and edits extensively on behalf of corporate clients, including a Big 3 management consultancy and a top four global executive search firm.
Contact: editor@journalofsalestransformation.com.