When did you start working at Johnson & Perrott Motor Group?
I started with Johnson & Perrott in Douglas, Cork in 2018 as a Brand Manager for KIA before moving to our Mahonpoint premises in Mahonpoint in 2020, to take up the role of Peugeot Brand Manager.

How have you developed since working as Brand Manager?
In my day to day role I have/had to deal with KIA Ireland and Peugeot Ireland, including their New Car Logistic Managers as well as Area Reps regarding stock. It’s an important and tricky part of the job and I now realise that building relationships with them and other dealers is key to the role. It allows me to get stock levels right, or to swap stock, in order to fulfil customer orders. It’s difficult but it’s something I believe I have gotten to grips with well since starting the role. Dealing with the fleet business is also something I never would have done before moving to Johnson & Perrott and it has been a steep learning curve. Finally my product knowledge is of upmost importance and I now do my best to consume as much information about our products and services as possible at its key to dealing with customers.  

If someone wanted to become a Brand Manager, what key skills and attributes would they need?
I would think that having good organisational and time management skills are important to make sure all aspects of the job get the adequate amount of attention. At its core, in my opinion, is that the brand managers job is to sell cars -  so the key skill or attribute would be to sell profitably in combination with high customer satisfaction.

Do you need qualifications to become Brand Manager?
I don’t think you need any specific qualifications to become a Brand Manager, I have a BComm from UCC and I believe that was one of the reasons I got the initial job when I applied for as a Junior Sales Executive all those years ago.  There are aspects of my degree that help me in my daily work. A desire to learn and  pick up  as much relevant knowledge as possible is important. This includes but is not limited to taking training courses in house and from the different manufacturers, listening to audiobooks from sales trainers - not just in the motor industry but across all business types. I think all these things will help anyone become a better sales person and possibly help them progress to becoming a Brand Manager and beyond.

What are the best & most challenging aspects of your role?
The best part of the job is selling cars and hitting personal/dealership targets and having customers come back to you for repeat business. The most challenging aspect changes all the time, at the moment it is trying to keep stock levels high both for new and used cars.