“All I have ever wanted is to keep progressing,” says Amelia Spencer, business development manager at office suppliers The Paperchain Partnership.
Spencer, 24, has worked in the role since August 2013, and in August this year secured accounts worth about 10% of the business’s annual income.
However, the job, which primarily involves winning new business and managing accounts, was not all plain sailing at first for Spencer, who joined The Paperchain Partnership after working at another firm as a receptionist for four years.
Spencer says: “In my job on reception, I did all the stationery ordering and we had used The Paperchain Partnership for years. Its customer services [department] was amazing and I had a really good relationship with them. One day I looked in the local paper on the recruitment pages and saw its logo.”
At first it was the “prospect calls” – cold-calling businesses to let them know about their stationery supplies service – that Spencer found most challenging. “I found the first six months really difficult,” she says.
However, she grew more comfortable in the role and describes her recent success – securing an account worth about £150,000 a year – as her “biggest achievement” to date.
“I had been trying to book an appointment with this specific business ever since I started. I kept chipping away until I finally got the go-ahead last month.”
Sales and marketing director Michael Lowes has been given the job of doubling the firm’s turnover. “I nominated Amelia [for the Rising Star award] not just because she has been successful,” he says, “but because she has absorbed what we are trying to achieve as a business.
“It is not an easy thing – we have rapid growth plans.
“Like all people in a small business, she has been a Jack of all trades, and it is quite a demanding role.
“She joined us from an administrative role but with an understanding of what office supplies is. There are so many nuances and weird and wonderful things that we do that makes her role quite challenging.”
Key for Lowes has been Spencer’s determination and positive attitude. “We are owned and managed by the two founder-owners,” he says. “We couldn’t work in an environment that wasn’t based on support and collaboration.
“We have a monthly organisational meeting that we call ‘open book’ where we talk about how we are doing as an organisation. We like to be transparent and let everyone know what we are doing.”
Spencer says that her favourite aspect of the job is communicating with the business’s customers and creating strong relationships. “I love the interaction with the customers I look after and having a bit of a challenge. We source everything our customers need us to.”
She says this interaction has been integral to her sales success. “You need to build up a rapport,” she says. “I am not what you would describe as a pushy salesperson.
“It is about perseverance, waiting for the right time to call someone and making sure you are there when they need you.”
Spencer is clear on the direction she would like to go within the 14-strong team. “I would love to be a key account manager or director. I love looking after people in general – the big spenders,” she says. “Obviously I would need to train and develop to achieve that.”
Lowes agrees: “It is all about development and understanding. I want her to look after our key accounts in the future.”
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