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Steve Mann, Regional Account Manager in Out Of Home channel. Steve completed a placement year with us from August 2004, and later joined us in his current role on completion of his degree.
"I'm Steve Mann and I'm a Regional Account Manager for the Out of Home Team.
I've recently graduated from university and I spent, whilst at university, a gap year with Twinings. I spent a year here working quite closely with the sales side. I think on placement I was given an opportunity to prove myself. One of my main projects whilst on placement was a project we called regional branding. It was trying to educate the consumers on the different varieties of tea that are available. Quite often you go out to a restaurant and you'll see the different coffees, the lattes, the cappuccinos, but a lot of people aren't aware of the different teas that we do. And it's all about getting that on the menus, and getting that communicated to the customers. I think that was a great project for me because it really sort of boosted my confidence; it was something I could really get my teeth into. I was working quite closely with a number of different design agencies, communicating the message about the different teas and compared to my colleagues at university who had other placements it was a much meatier project.
It seemed very natural for me to come back to Twinings after graduation. I had a lot of responsibility here and I got on very well with the people. I choose a marketing degree and I wanted to get into sales because of my placement. I spent a lot of time with the sales team, interacting with them, and that made me decide I wanted to be in sales. It seemed sort of natural for me to go into a regional account position within Twinings. It gives me a lot of opportunity to look after my own budgets and plan my own promotions within these accounts.
As an account manager I look after a portfolio of about 80 accounts across the southeast of England. My ambition within two years is to be a national account manager. Other people say this may not be possible, but I have a lot of drive and I have a lot of support from Twinings so I think that is achievable.
My business is worth about 630,000 at the moment, and my target is to grow that to a million pound business. The average is about 7-10% growth in our market that we operate in so anything above that is great, but I set myself quite high ambitions. Currently I'm on about 36% growth so working well towards that.
In June this year we're hoping to climb Mont Blanc; that's four of us from the sales and exec team. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe. It's tricky, it's more of a stroll than a ... there is technical climbing involved but it is more walking and winter climbing than it is actual hardcore ice heights climbing. There is quite a high risk of avalanche and rock fall, so we're having to get the timings right and ... we're off on a training weekend this weekend, climbing mountains in Snowdon and then we've got a practice weekend in Scotland in March time and then hopefully in June we can climb Mont Blanc.
I was involved in organising the Three Peaks, and I sort of led a fourteen strong team up the Three Peaks in under 24 hours, which is a great challenge. Overall we raised about twenty thousand pounds for a local charity. It was a challenge in not only weather but also the actual physical challenge. Towards the end we weren't sure if we were all going to make it, so we sort of split up into two teams, and then some of us went ahead and in the end everyone actually completed it which was a great achievement.
Something I've always enjoyed is the interaction with people, and I have a real mixture of customers, and I think we've got a really good relationship and it's great to be able to watch those relationships build over time. There's a real mixture of sizes of accounts, from large wholesalers to small end users. Some bringing in about ten thousand pounds, some bringing about a hundred thousand pounds a year.
Sometimes we do have a few problems with customers, whether it's pricing issues or deliveries that aren't made on time, but I think that's all part of the experience: it helps you develop as a person. Being around the customer is very varied from day to day, that's something I particularly enjoy, and again, just general interaction. I'm quite a social person, so that sort of reflects my personality.
Twinings are a great brand. They're a brand that everyone's heard of. I'm very proud to say that I work for Twinings. They give you a lot of support through your future career and I don't think there are any barriers to stop you doing that."
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