Learn from Simone’s experiences on how she’s balanced being a single parent and sales leader, and why creating a supportive team culture is key.
What is your current role and what does a typical week look like for you?
I’m the Retail, Personal Consumer and Charity Sales Director within our Corporate and Public Sector (CPS) organisation and it’s my responsibility to lead the sales teams who serve our larger private sector accounts within these verticals.
Within a typical week, much of my time is spent engaging with my team and my customers. Given it’s our number one responsibility to deliver an exceptional customer experience, we spend a lot of time customer-facing, seeking to understand how BT can best support the business outcomes they are striving to achieve. Many of our customers are at different stages of a digital transformation journey, and so it’s our responsibility to build a trusted partnership to help them navigate this path.
You’ve been with BT for twenty years. Can you tell us about your career journey with the business and what’s kept you here?
I joined BT straight after finishing University in Leeds and began my journey in BT Directories. My first role was in sales selling advertising in the BT Phone Book, and whilst feeling like a very competitive and challenging role at the time, I don’t underestimate the sales skills I learnt during this period and how they continue to serve me well today. I progressed into people leadership roles within the Directories space, then after a few years, moved across to BT Business where I began to carve my career working with larger corporate accounts. I took a few sidewards steps to learn more about the organisation, then moved into a Head of Sales role leading the desk-based sales teams within Mid-Market. Then, as the business restructured and CPS was formed, I moved into the Director role I hold today.
Despite not deliberately setting out to work for BT as long as I have, I recognise that a couple of things have kept me here. Firstly, it's the people that really do make this business great. It may sound like a cliché, but the teams I've worked with over the years have been fantastically supportive which makes a huge difference every day. Secondly, it's been about the scope of opportunity. The breadth of BT has meant that whilst I may have worked in the same organisation for a long time, each move has enabled me to continue to learn and grow across many different and varied roles, which has been crucial for my career so far.
What are some of the most valuable experiences you’ve gained? What skills would say were most important to get to where you are now?
I’ve been fortunate to receive a lot of investment from BT over the years in terms of continued development. Of course, having worked in sales for as long as I have, the ability to sell and negotiate are skills that have been incredibly important and have served me well in many areas of my life, not just in work. Then as I’ve moved into leadership roles, having the ability to build successful sales teams; create thriving sales cultures; and manage change and transformation, are probably some of the more important skills I need to use on a day-to-day basis. Fundamentally however, the most important thing for me is how I can positively influence the best outcomes for the people around me – both for my team, and for my customers.
How have you managed to achieve your goals at work whilst also managing your work-life balance/ childcare responsibilities?
I would best describe this as being a journey of discovery. Becoming a mum to my daughter Sophia seven years ago, I did, at a point, convince myself that I wouldn’t be able to achieve a thriving career whilst being a mum to a young child. I didn’t think the two could co-exist.
However, after returning from maternity leave and settling back into my role, I quickly discovered that you can in fact do both and do them both well. It did feel tough at times, particularly when Sophia was little, but I was fortunate enough to work alongside some great leaders at the time who really encouraged me to keep moving forwards with my career – something I am extremely grateful for.
The fear crept in for a second time when I became a single parent a few years later, however again, after working through the dynamics of the new ‘juggle’, I was able to settle back into a new routine and continue with my career plans. It does take a lot of planning and organisation, but my main point of reflection has been that the fears I'd conjured up in my mind around how disastrously it could all go wrong, are always far worse in your head than they are in reality!
How would you describe the culture of sales in your team and the business more broadly? What do you enjoy most about your role?
Building a positive culture is a very important topic for me. Particularly within a sales environment, I think it’s critically important to create a space where people feel motivated and supported to do a good job. As you’d expect, salespeople often experience the highs and lows that can often come with the role, and so creating a supportive team who will help each other achieve success is vital.
For me, working with people, both internally and externally, is what I find most enjoyable about the roles I’ve worked in. I’ve had the privilege to lead some fantastic teams over the years who have not only taught me a great deal; but have also helped make the role a lot more fun too.
What is unique about working in sales in BT and with the customers you serve in the corporate and public sector?
The thing I love most about working in sales for BT is the sheer breadth and depth of the organisation. As with any complex business, whilst this can sometimes feel like quite a challenging space to navigate, it’s our world-class infrastructure, our scale and our partnerships that I believe makes us market leading. I truly believe we hold an unparalleled space within the market because of this, both in terms of the conversations this enables us to have, and the solutions we can then deliver.
