Jonathan Whitby: on moving from Audi to Tesla, how a compelling mission drives engagement and developing his own business as a Sales Geek.

Jon has spent all his working life in sales, most of it in the automotive sector. He was with the Audi network for 17 years. He started as a trainee sales exec and spent the last 10 years of his time there as a General Sales Manager for dealerships in and around Manchester in the North West of England.

In 2015 he took a gamble and went to work for what was at that time a pretty much unknown, American electric car company called Tesla. Jon was initially hired to manage the new Manchester store. After 10 months he was promoted to Regional Sales Manager looking after North UK and Ireland.   

His role expanded as the business grew until he was ultimately responsible for the in-store sales operation in the UK/IE which consisted of 25 stores. 

In 2021 he decided to try to even the scales on his work/life balance and he bought a franchise from ‘Sales Geek’. He now provides a part-time sales director service and sales training to businesses predominately in Cheshire and North Staffordshire which he finds immensely rewarding. 

In our conversation we cover his sales journey from selling flowers on a market stall to selling £100k Teslas and running multiple stores. We talk about some of the differences between the approaches of traditional automotive brands and Tesla and how having a compelling mission affects the behaviour of people with an organisation. 

Jon is open and straight talking. He has had an interesting career journey that traverses the old and new worlds of automotive. I am pleased to be able to share his experiences with you in this episode. 

If you enjoy listening to my guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.  

You can contact Jon via LinkedIn or email: jonathan.whitby@salesgeek.co.uk 

Why not follow us on Instagram @careerviewmirror where you can see a directory of all our episodes and comment on those you have enjoyed? 

This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by Aquilae.  

Aquilae's mission is to enable Fulfilling Performance in the auto finance and mobility industry, internationally. Adopting our Fulfilling Performance Paradigm helps you identify what steps you need to take to enable Fulfilling Performance for yourself, your team and your business. Contact cvm@aquilae.co.uk for a no obligation conversation about your situation. 

Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk 

Episode recorded on 9 September 2022 

Transcript

Jonathan Whitby: 0:00

And we were in a pub in Knutsford actually was just walking out, I was like Columbo, just one more thing, you are gonna pay me right? I'd not even discussed money

Andy: 0:11

Welcome to Career-view Mirror the automotive podcast that goes behind the scenes with key players in the industry looking back over their careers so far, sharing insights to help you with your own journey. I'm your host Andy Follows Jon Whitby listeners, Jon has spent all his working life in sales, most of it in the automotive sector. He was with the Audi network for 17 years. He started as a trainee sales executive and spent the last 10 years of his time there as a General Sales Manager for dealerships in and around Manchester in the northwest of England. In 2015, he took a gamble and went to work for what was at that time a pretty much unknown American electric car company called Tesla. John was initially hired to manage the new Manchester store. After 10 months, he was promoted to regional sales manager looking after North UK and Ireland. His role expanded as the business grew until he was ultimately responsible for the in store sales operation in the UK and Ireland, which consisted of 25 stores. In 2021. He decided to try to even the scales on his work life balance, and he bought a franchise from Sales Geek. He now provides a part time Sales Director service and sales training to businesses predominantly in Cheshire and North Staffordshire, which he finds immensely rewarding. In our conversation, we cover his sales journey from selling flowers on a market stall, to selling 100,000 pound Tesla's and running multiple stores. We talk about some of the differences between the approaches of traditional automotive brands and Tesla, and how having a compelling mission affects the behaviour of people within an organisation. John is open and straight talking he's had an interesting career journey that traverses the old and new worlds of automotive, I'm pleased to be able to share his experiences with you in this episode. If you enjoy listening to my guests career stories, please follow Career-view Mirror in your podcast app.

Aquilae Academy: 2:25

This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by the Aquilae Academy. At the Academy we turn individual development into a team sport. We bring together small groups of leaders from non competing organisations to form their very own academy teams. We build strong connection between team members and create a great environment for sharing and learning. We introduce the team to content that can help them tackle their current challenges. And we hold them accountable to take the actions that they decide at their priorities. We say we hold our team members feet to the fire of their best intentions. We do this internationally with teams across the world. If you'd like to learn more about the academy, go to www.aquilae.co.uk.

Andy: 3:10

Hello, John, and welcome. Where are you coming to us from

Jonathan Whitby: 3:14

Hi Andy yeah, thanks for having me. I am in today? Nantwich in Cheshire. I'm in rented office I use quite small, it's just me and I've got the use of a boardroom downstairs as well. It's an old stately home been been split up into about 20 Different businesses in here now. And it's about half a mile from where I live which is really handy.

Andy: 3:34

Very good. So up there in the northwest of England

Jonathan Whitby: 3:39

Yeah, so Cheshire just do 216 off the M six and about 10 minutes from there. It's probably Yeah, yeah. So yeah, between Birmingham and Manchester.

Andy: 3:48

Okay, that's placed you for our international listeners and I'll make no apology that that is the part of the world that I am from. So I'm likely to get overexcited and sidetracked when we start talking about your years there. But is that where you started? Tell us about where were you born? Where did you grow? Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 4:05

yeah. So born in Stoke on Trent, grew up in a town called Alsager kind of on the outskirts of Stoke in South South Cheshire kind of guess the town was kind of built from the pottery industry and it was like kind of where all the I don't know the management would live who lived in you know, worked in the city. But yeah, kind of lived there most of my life.

Andy: 4:27

So you grew up in Alsager, Stoke yes famous for the potteries? Yeah, and so this obviously nice part of town where the factory owners would live

Jonathan Whitby: 4:37

Yeah in the old day, yes. Where they live but yeah, I guess it's kind of suburbs outside of stoke. Nice place to live moved out, I guess a couple miles outside of the town when I was eight into the countryside. So yeah, in the sticks great. When you're young young kids not so great when you're a teenager because you got difficult to get anywhere but Yeah, lovely place. to grow up and kind of stuck around, you know, worked, you know, in and around Manchester and that area most of my life now. Manchester's yeah, 20 minutes down the road from there

Andy: 5:11

lovely Okay, let's spend a few minutes on your childhood if we may. So I'm always interested to know what kind of jobs my guests had sight of when they were growing up. So what was your family situation? What did your parents do?

Jonathan Whitby: 5:26

Yeah. So Well, I actually moved to Alsager because there's, there was a Twyfords factory there. Twyfords make bathroom suites. My dad worked for them, I guess, worked his way up, went on a Training Management course for them and ended up being a director director of Twyfords there, but he passed away far too young. I was in 2000, he passed away. And he's still working there. Yeah, so did well for himself. Mom was a primary school teacher. So she worked in the area. And she well she retired, actually to look after my dad when he became ill and and it's just a bit sad since then select Primary School teacher, and director of a big international bathroom company.

Andy: 6:10

Right. Well, I'm sorry to hear about your dad, that does sound like it would have been you'd have been quite young.

Jonathan Whitby: 6:16

Yeah, I was 2626 when he passed away, so yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not a great time in my life. family's life, I guess. But yeah, I guess I'm not unique and going through that experience.

Andy: 6:31

And your mum was a primary teacher and she stopped to look after your dad when he Yeah. Yeah. he became ill. So in terms of school, John, also brothers and sisters. Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 6:41

my sister Nicola, two years younger than me, who still lives locally as well. Probably don't see her as much as I should do. But yeah, we keep in contact and get on great now.

Andy: 6:51

Okay. And did you How are you as a student?

Jonathan Whitby: 6:54

I was all right. Yeah, so I went to Alsager comprehensive school and it was I loved I love school from the social side of it and and went through formative years GCSE side of it didn't do a lot of work, but still got good grades off the back of that. I enjoyed the social side of it, and then I guess fell into the sixth form in the school. And I think you know, in hindsight, I should have gone to college you know, got out there and done something I was interested in, but it's just the easy option, I think. And a few of my mates went to sixth form, so did that and didn't enjoy that at all. the A level the curriculum and the I chose the wrong things. I chose the things that I thought I should do to get like a job like my dad in business, which is maths and economics and geography and I just wasn't interested in it. So failed all my A levels all of them I guess then yeah. So okay, came out of it and still, you know, so off the back of it. I know my mum wasn't very impressed and I wasted two years but, I had a great two years enjoyed it, you know from getting the friends and some of the experience you had at 16 to 18 It was good, but I got a job then so I thought you know, i thought I need to get a job and my first well I go back actually so being in sales all my life. First job was selling flowers on a market stall in Stoke, so I was probably 1314 1516 Maybe so quite some time and I loved it, it's great being out well in Newcastle under Lyme if you know the area and Hanley which is like the main shopping centre of Stoke on Trent selling flowers on the stall there and then in the summer

Andy: 8:35

Did you do that? Not 10 pounds ladies I'm not asking 10

Jonathan Whitby: 8:39

Oh yeah, well I kind of I was I mean it was pounds actually quite shy younger but I think that helped me to come out of my shell so that the person who owned the market stall actually lived around the corner from a mom so that's how I did it but yeah, very much that and got you know, got to see that and enjoyed it and then we went around the country selling going to all the shows around the country you know a lot of the Royal shows etc and they sell flowerbulbs there so you know stuck in a truck and you know had that experience at a young age so that was great. And then worked in hotel behind bars and stuff you know, in later years my first proper job after failing all my A levels quite spectacularly was in a car insurance. telesales in a car insurance company is called though called Alliance insurance and went on something I said a big Newcastle underlined huge big call centre there must have been added 150 200 of us in there and this is probably pre internet internet was probably just about you know, emerging but it was all manual a book of covernotes writing them out, put them in envelopes sending them out to customers and it was pretty very much you know, phones ringing as a call centre is now you're very target driven and KPI driven but I did it I enjoyed it again pay packet each week and again made some great relationships and friendships there did quite well, I'd say as as much as talking to customers, that's a good training programme they put you through quickly after six months, became a supervisor there. So I have my own team, you know, as I was 18, here, you know, at 19 years old, I was 18 then it was great. And then I guess, peer pressure from it, well, not peer pressure, parent pressure, you need to go and get some further education, right in the end. So I managed to get into Manchester Met University, metropolitan university with my work experience, instead of A level grades I got into do HND in business and finance. So did that

Andy: 10:40

Can I just stop because this is really interesting. So the first thing that resonated with me was this idea of picking a level subjects because you thought those were the right ones to pick to get the sort of job that your father had. And that's perfectly so understandable that and that's what I'm very interested in what sets people off on certain journeys. And so that was one and of course, then you found that, as you've already said, you'd have been better picking something that you were really interested in, because when you started those subjects, it was probably really hard work and didn't work out. And the other thing that I'm thinking of is how you got the confidence from doing the market stall. So you know, that a very early grounding in, in selling and, you know, approaching people talking to people, which would have, do you think you were able to draw on that a little bit once you got into the call centre.

Jonathan Whitby: 11:33

Definitely. I mean, I think that helped me just to be more confident, I mean I was quiet as a young kid, you know, eight 910, I was really, really shy, like, you know, just wouldn't say boo to a goose. And then you know, when I guess went to high school 11 and got into a group of friends and started building confidence, then started working, I think, was 13 started working the weekends in that environment, it just really helped you and being in an environment of lots of market traders, you can imagine there wasn't you couldn't get away with much lots of mickey taking and then, you know, and it was, it was great. I really, really enjoyed it. You know, the atmosphere definitely helped me grow with more confidence through school, maybe too much confidence. Yeah. And,

Andy: 12:14

yeah, okay, that makes sense. And the fact that this is also I think, what's really interesting is you had quite rapid progression, when you got into the insurance company, you are progressed quite rapidly. It was interesting to me that in spite of not getting good a level results, which might be a sign of, you know, we know it was a sign of not having picked the right subjects, but there was clearly didn't reflect at all in terms of your ability when you got into the workplace, you were must have been highly motivated and reasonably well skilled from your market stall days. What was it like then getting quickly, you had people responsibility fairly quickly?

Jonathan Whitby: 12:49

Yeah, I think so. And I think I guess looking Yeah. back, they gave those positions to people who doing well, they were high performers. But you could I dunno they saw the ability to start managing people and I guess I didn't have any people management training at all at that point. It was but I could relate to people and get on with people work with them. And I think that's, that's something that stayed with Me all through My career is building those relationships. And yeah, I guess from that early age, we did hit it, we hit it and it was very competitive. So as a few of us are supervisors very competitive,

Andy: 13:21

right, you were competing with each other? Yeah.

Jonathan Whitby: 13:25

Well I'm a sport and football and I guess competitive and and yeah, enjoyed that and had a good time. Had a good time doing that. And yeah, I guess left there, I don't know, what would have you know If I'd have stayed who knows what would have happened after that? But I think

Andy: 13:39

How long were you there for

Jonathan Whitby: 13:41

so probably left 18 And I think yeah, it was probably two academic years until I started at university so about 18 months two years

Andy: 13:49

right and that's interesting then that that you were able to use your professional your work experience instead of your A levels get on the hnd programme to do a business it was at a business as a

Jonathan Whitby: 14:01

finance Yeah. Which I really enjoyed and I should have gone just gone to college done a BTech in business finance and you know, would have enjoyed that and be more practical I think A levels you just can't see how is this learning all this these theorems gonna help me whereas business and finance BTech HND I could understand how that's going to help me in the future and and I was interested and engaged with it and did well got a merit in the end with that and yeah, great, great experience doing that.

Andy: 14:27

How does it affect when you're hiring people? How do you think your background and effects your if it if it does, does it affect how you hire people or what you look or

Jonathan Whitby: 14:41

Yeah, maybe yeah, definitely. Actually, I think so. I think one of the actually one of the things you know, in Tesla obviously hired lots of people there and they always insisted on a degree and actually changed it towards you know, the end of it and they don't anymore. It's, you know, a nice to have, but it's not you don't have to have a degree to go and work there anymore so I think you need to be a certain skill level and a certain aptitude you know some qualifications do count right, you do need them but I think it's not the be all and end all and if sometimes you'd interview somebody for a certain position and they're perhaps not quite ready for that but you can see something in them so actually, you know, I don't think you're ready for this right now but there could be something that's perhaps a bit less pay but come and do that for 12 months and prove yourself and that there's gonna be opportunity so

Andy: 15:28

very good. We'll talk a bit about that perhaps John when we get to the Tesla years, so you how long was the course that you did

Jonathan Whitby: 15:35

two years

Andy: 15:36

was it a full time course.

Jonathan Whitby: 15:38

Full time. But I kind of lived a bit at home as well so still work part time I worked at a bar hotel local hotel and would be on the bar there while I was while I was doing that to pay for petrol in my car.

Andy: 15:51

Yeah, I'm smiling because I did similar things myself so and then when you got to the end of your course What did you do then?

Jonathan Whitby: 16:00

Yeah, so this is I guess where my well sales journey proper started so I left there and bought a house I was a part time barman and doing night porter work and hadn't got a job yet and then bought house went down really well my parents

Andy: 16:17

I there's any young people listening they'll be shaking their heads Yeah.

Jonathan Whitby: 16:22

Bought a house, need to get and actually crashed my car and wrote my car off so I needed to get a job so I took a job selling photo copiers because you had a company car

Andy: 16:32

and you're not the first guest to do Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 16:35

there you go. So again, sales, never done Field Sales before it's got a car can do it. So my basic was five and a half grand a year for the year that was my basic salary lots of commission if you did well but didn't know any any differently really so quite enjoyed that and it was it was it was literally just going around knocking going around industrial estates, business parks knocking on doors trying to find out who the buyer is and then setting up an appointment with them go you know, present our photocopier products and get some some orders in so

Andy: 17:05

And how old were you about 2121 Yeah, so you're 10 years older than that 11 year old kid who wouldn't say boo to a goose so now you know around knocking on doors industrial estates and selling photocopiers

Jonathan Whitby: 17:16

Yeah, we we're actually getting told to sod off 99 times out of 100 But you know, didn't know any different it was quite resilient got got broad shoulders and did that and had some success at it. It's it was good right? It was okay but I think it was really really low basic salary it was quite it was peaks and troughs so you'd have a good month you know you'd earn loads of money then you'd have two or three months where you'd earn nothing I was trying to pay mortgage and bills you know, didn't wasn't conducive. So that's what led me into the motor industry. So after that I just thought I need to get something if I can get a higher basic salary great need a company car can't afford my own car. But you know where can I earn some not maybe not more money but more regular money so I can you know, pay the bills. So yeah, so then I looked for a role and got a job at a Volkswagen and Audi garage I was probably put the photocopies for 18 months ish so I'll probably 23 now and yeah was one where the Volkswagen Audi garages were together with a wall down the middle and yeah, I got a job as a as a trainee sales exec there. Although you know I've been out doing sales selling photocopies for a lot longer than now

Andy: 18:25

how did you find transitioning into presumably you're in a retail job yeah in the dealership versus a business to business outbound selling for photo copiers. How did you find that transition?

Jonathan Whitby: 18:37

It was ace it was just a it just always so easy. So I actually walked in. And there was a desk either side of the front door. And there's a guy a salesman on one one desk, and then all the other sales are scattered around the showroom. And I'm like, How come no one's here. This is all the people walking in. You want the the people says Ya know, the salesman, none of the salesmen like sitting here Because you have to deal with the service customers walking in first of all, this is great. So I started there. And it was for me, people coming to me in the market to buy something that was the hardest part of my old role. So I was just like, it was great. So we just, you know, you talk to service customers help them and they they buy cars too and we just had a great time so me and his name was Steve Gething not spoken to him for years and years but he was a top salesman and we really, really had a good

Andy: 19:23

how did how did I'm going to have a bit of fun now John, time there. how did VW take to you? I'm not asking 20,000 Madam I'm not asking 19,000 Or, did you had you dropped all that from

Jonathan Whitby: 19:35

Yeah, I dropped all that yeah and even if it's photocopy wasn't he photocopies at all it was all about you know getting in front of the right person and doing a great presentation and all that basic sales process stuff right? You know, I can maybe save you some money or our products a bit better than one you've got or

Andy: 19:51

so did you get some good sales training at the photocopier business?

Jonathan Whitby: 19:55

Not really. I had some training from this couple of senior guys there who were great and helped me but I didn't have any proper is just on the job on a job that

Andy: 20:04

you worked it out for yourself

Jonathan Whitby: 20:06

yeah to get out of yourself what works and what doesn't. VW, obviously, there's a training programme there, which was, which was good. And I just enjoyed that side of it. And then again,

Andy: 20:16

And people were walking through the door, Yeah I'm in the market to buy something or I could be in a few months and for me, this was just this is just paradise.

Jonathan Whitby: 20:28

some of those people once you've got somebody in the market, yeah.

Andy: 20:32

So did you do well? How did you do

Jonathan Whitby: 20:35

Did Well, and did great and really enjoyed it. And I guess, from there quite quickly moved in there, maybe did that for about a year, VW and then moved into business manager side of the role, which was, well, you'll know, Andy was this the finance side. Business Manager of the dealership is the lady or gentleman who does the finance, and I just saw the current one earning double the amount of money I was doing. So I'm like, I want to do that.

Andy: 21:01

That was the motivation.

Jonathan Whitby: 21:03

That was the motivation. Yeah, and doing probably not as much work. And so yeah, so so. So just asked, you know, said I want to come and do this. I've got hnd in business and finance. I think I'd be good at it. And so actually, then, is when Audi then split away from VW, had separate sites, and I went to the Audi site, then and was the business manager there.

Andy: 21:24

Right. And there all the customers are supposed to come to you, salesperson's supposed to bring all of the customers.

Jonathan Whitby: 21:30

Exactly. Yeah. And actually, that's quite interesting so went there as quite a young business manager, lots of Audi salesmen, you know, and they weren't great, but you know, a lot older than me, sort of 1015 years older than me, and I'm trying to say look there's a process, you bring customers, to me, I need a certain process doing, for me to have the best chance and for you to earn some extra money on top of selling the car. And it was, yeah, uphill struggle with some of those, but we got there in the end, and, you know, built relationships with those people. And it was, it was great. And we're going back, this is like TT had just been launched. So it was from 99 to 1000s. Just as Audi was starting to really, you know, ramp up a three it coming out, the first of them, only three have come out. And we we had a great time. And

Andy: 22:15

so your challenge was really to get your colleagues in the business to follow a process and introduce the customers to you in a certain way that would allow you to maximise your results and also allow them to earn a bit a bit more money themselves. So how did you then you said some of them were reluctant to think that

Jonathan Whitby: 22:37

yeah, I mean, I guess it's that I mean, it's not now but an age old problem was you know, the sales they'd sell the car and then they'd have to go and introduce them to the business manager because it's what they were told to do and it was especially me being quite a lot younger than most of them couldn't see the benefit in them doing it they felt like it was a bit of a cheesy thing to do to try and sell them more stuff after that but I think actually pretty quickly I said get them into me as soon as possible so it's you know, all the things about I'll come and meet them as they're doing the test drive say hello. And I ended up closing probably half the sales for them themselves and obviously build relationships with the salespeople doing that.

Andy: 23:14

Why were you able to close sales?

Jonathan Whitby: 23:16

I think that's a good question. I think I think customers would maybe go out with the salesman preconception about them whereas I perhaps not got as much skin in the game as them not you know would never be pushy anyway. But just speak to them, you know, give them some advice.

Andy: 23:37

I have heard this as a benefit of being a business manager that the customers do treat the business manager differently from the salesperson it's almost they're happy they've got a salesperson to put in their salesperson box in their mind and their business manager someone someone different and they'll actually share information with the business manager they wouldn't necessarily share with the salesperson they see you somehow as a different or they see that role is a different type of person so I'm sure you know there's be some elements of sales skills as well and some of the paradigms you had perhaps about how you were helping them plus if you actually done some really tough selling over the years like the photo copiers and so on the the insurance call centre, you've got a few you've earned your stripes haven't you you've got a few skills under your belt then and so Okay, so you're able to help the sales people convert the deals.

Jonathan Whitby: 24:31

Yeah, got through that and enjoy that and then I guess then moved around a bit a few a couple of Audi dealerships around Manchester. So this was still in Crewe, you know, down the road from where I am now. Did that for a few years

Andy: 24:44

did those moves did you go out and get those moves where they were in the same group who was moving you around or were you just going to rival business owners?

Jonathan Whitby: 24:51

Well, I think so I was in Crewe in Cheshire so small ish that you know did well did great for what you know batted above the league they were in definitely we did well there but I just I think I just wanted to go and spread my wings a bit really only worked around Stoke on Trent and South Cheshire that's all known really enjoyed going out Manchester's 40 minutes on the train an hour in the car. So just wanted to go and get some experience of working at a bigger dealership, you know, three, four times the volume and go and doing that did that and when I actually left my first role was with a group in sort of Stockport, South Manchester as a relief business manager, so they had at the time, five of us and there was big groups they had Volkswagen, Audi, Audi, Toyota Lexus, I think they were the main ones in that group and when the business manager in each of those dealerships had a day off we would go and swoop in and be the business manager on that day it was great you just in and out gonna meet loads of different people get to know a lot of the all the managers around around that area. And it was quite lucrative, you know, it's good for me then they got to go buy a PLC and just made all those those five roles was a luxury to have that right so that just right and then and I went then went to Manchester Audi gorell Manchester Audi in Old Trafford, just literally two minute walk from from non-united were there for a couple of years and a great time as business manager. Yeah, that's probably mid 2000s So is when Man United sponsored outtie so we'd get free tickets to loads of their games and we go along and you know I was going out as Greg had a great time out in Manchester most nights after work with the with the team and it was a good time then once again to set the sales manager side of it so moved then my head of business the boss from there, move to Stockport so I went there as like a sales controller initially did that for a bit he

Andy: 26:44

take you with him? Yeah, well, I

Jonathan Whitby: 26:46

kind of you know, stayed in touch we've gotten really well and just said look, you know, I think you know, think he said come come along as a business manager and it's a lot I don't want it I've been doing it for a few years now mastered this one. I want to be a sales manager.

Andy: 27:00

So you saw that a step up sales manager, business manager you wouldn't have had a team or did you have a team?

Jonathan Whitby: 27:07

Not directly No, it was just me Yes. So it was just me but this team came to me and work with me and dis did really well Manchester and but wanted to so I took a step down actually with sales controller for a couple years at Stockport to learn that trade and sales management. So

Andy: 27:23

rather than you said, I don't want to do business manager again, I've mastered that I want to do something different and you are prepared to take a step down we call these we started to call them in these conversations John investment move. So you take an investment you step down, because it gets you into a different place and in a different light. You're in a different channel then. Okay, so to say a little bit about that. Yeah.

Jonathan Whitby: 27:43

So then when my sales controller Stockport Aldi again at the time they were like one of the biggest Audi dealers that maybe still are don't know, well, you know, one of the biggest retailers in the UK, loads of volume, right used cars. So a really, really good sale and actually between us and Manchester, some great competition there between the two of us. So did that for probably a year, year or two maybe doing that start controlling really, really enjoyed that role. then got into a role as a sales manager at a factory I think it did, I think it did a sales manager role there and then move to Maxfield General Sales Manager part of the same group. So this is big PLC and in that group, so as to PLCs in Manchester the group in crew was family owned and still is moved to Maxfield and around a bit around that area doing GSM repair ended up back then crew did that for about a year or two me and somebody else. We ran that sales department at Crewe for a couple of years and then got the call in Tesla.

Andy: 28:51

Okay, that's before we got to Tesla what was smartly a bit of an obvious question but difference between the family owned business and then the PLC says

Jonathan Whitby: 29:01

I think pros and cons I guess processes at that time processes in the PLCs were a lot better pay was better the purchase of better, you know cars fuel cards or that kind of thing was was better I guess that's what you know, being really salesman. That's what attracted me there. But you could I think in the family owned business, you can get decisions made a lot quicker. What a bigger fish in the pond family owned business, as we you know, is a management level. So yeah, I enjoyed that side of things there.

Andy: 29:33

If you had to choose between between them, did you have a preference?

Jonathan Whitby: 29:38

Probably now, family owns? I think even more and I don't know, I'm not experiencing working for PLC for a long, long time. But certainly, you know, those are stories from friends are still doing it. I'm particularly enjoying it.

Andy: 29:52

Okay. So that's brought us up to the point where you move to Tesla so tell us little bit about how that opportunity came up or how you made that transition.

Jonathan Whitby: 30:04

Yeah, so I think I've been bad, but they're at Audi so this is Audi journey. Well, Volkswagen are 17 years I was with him for so we

Andy: 30:13

did go through we went through that pretty quick, pretty quick.

Jonathan Whitby: 30:15

Yeah. Right. So, you know, it really grew with the brand so I you know, out here, we're just just starting to, to be a big of a BMW Mercedes, we're like 234 times the amount of cars that we were selling when I first started with them. And you know, when I left in 2015, there was you know, huge behemoth so great to be a part of that and seeing that grow up. I think I just got this little not without just disillusion with the whole motor industry, to be honest, I got to a stage where, you know, enjoy the ins, customer interactions, and extolling the virtues of how great the cars were getting frustrated with its competition is great, but competing with the dealer is 10 miles down the road, not not not BMW or Mercedes, their main competition. And all the margin been eroded the cars and just just the pressure was on to sell GAP Insurance and polish. And that's that was, you know, I guess, par for the course it's coming back round the other way. Now, I know that but I think I was just getting frustrated and disillusioned with that. So and then also tie that into me. The first child in 2008, second one in 2011. And they were both was the door to them restoring school working week while every other weekend, days off in the week when they're at school and I'm thinking I need to change something here. So not really do anything about I think I need to get out of the industry altogether. I'm not sure what that looks like. And then just started a blue got a phone call from Tesla, just to say, look, we've got vacancies in the north. You know, we've just been in the UK for about 12 months now. Would you be interested in having a chat? I do nothing about Tesla honestly. Then apart from you know the Roadster story and I guess a bit few murmurings in Audi about electric cars. It's not really going to happen, but you know, just be aware of it, that kind of thing. But then, I thought I was I was in a headset mindset was in the place. I want to get a new role. Yeah, well, I've talked to them. So I did spoke to them about it. And we had a chat with Georg at the time, he ran around the UK. And obviously did loads of research then, you know, online and got got the mission and got how it was going and got quite inspired from Guild and then seven interviews later, he offered me a role, which was well initially I think it was the Knutsford store so Knutsford is like a football

Andy: 32:47

town. Yeah, markets

Jonathan Whitby: 32:49

are locked up football, it kind of golden triangle of South Manchester, a lot of the footballers live and so they had a store there then and they were hiring for a manager for that store. And you're also had in the mix, a new store that we're building in, in Stockport southern Well, in between Stockport and Manchester itself, like a bigger car dealership type place.

Andy: 33:12

Let me ask you if I can, let me ask you some questions about that. So you're, I'm sure very inspiring. And in the interview process, how will you feel as this was getting more and more stages? You said seven interviews. Were you wanting it more or less as Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 33:31

absolutely once after that first one, I mean, do the research research into it thinking this is you know, this could really go place the time Sasa we're losing millions and the whole industry was what still is what was it was against them and it was you know, it was gonna fail and was never an environmentalist or in it for the for the green reason but quickly you know, when you start reading about it and or the things or the you know, the co2 emissions etc quickly got we're very engaged with that. And then the cars are super cool, right? You're getting driven a car and it's dead far like fast cars is like the fastest car. So enjoy that and just how different it was and how different they did it. And it's just not like any car sales dealership at all just the way and the tiles etcetera was just just Yeah, it was great.

Andy: 34:17

So for you, you were going to go in at a store manager level so this will be your first opportunity running your own store. Yeah. And you you talked about the targets being different and the sales process being different. So say a little bit about that. Yeah, and how it was different.

Jonathan Whitby: 34:34

Yeah, I'd say one thing last I remember the last interview I had with you all and offered me the job and shook hands and great and really really pulled in lots of it actually was just walking out as I was at Columbia and I just one more thing that you're gonna pay me right I'm not even discussing money sounds like Yeah, so just like what you already figured it out anyway, started it Yeah. So later but yeah, just that engage with it all. It was fun.

Andy: 35:00

Do you know why that's really interesting? Because you said earlier, you made a sort of casual remark about greedy salesperson. That's the sort of thing that I was looking for. And in on this occasion, you hadn't even thought to talk about the money until the you'd already accepted the job. Yeah, yeah. The other aspects. Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 35:20

I assumed that I was going to be no worse off. And really one of the the challenge and yeah, and yeah,

Andy: 35:27

so this look different. This thought you'd got tired of the traditional motor industry disillusion by, and this looks significantly different. So say a bit about some of the differences.

Jonathan Whitby: 35:37

Yeah. So I think, I mean, it's changed now. But I mean, literally, back then it was like this new stores come in, like, some cars coming years ago and hire some stuff and sell some cars. And I'm like, Okay, what what have I got? What's the what project we've got to hire people? How much profit margin we need to make in each car. So just don't forget, you don't get involved any of that. You just got to sell like, four cars a week or whatever, you know, just cell phone calls a week? It's fine. You know, that was it? And now Okay, what about finance? Now, we don't want to do in finance. So painted in finance, we want to try and get cash customers if we can. But if you do, we've got a couple of partners who do it, am I going it's just completely alien. To me, you know, where's finance was a real profit. Profit centre in the car dealerships it was, you know, not something they were interested in, all they wanted to do was sell cars and sell finance, even now, I don't know what you're selling finance was just a tool for our customers to be able to afford to buy the car. And we weren't interested in making any money out of it at the time. Sure, they are now, GAP Insurance, Polish, we don't any of that, if you want to do it, there's people who did it, we're not interested in it, we just want to sell some cars. And I'm like, this is like, this is amazing. And you also just hired a few people went through that process with some help from HR, I remember just, I was used to anything I wanted to do I make a decision, you have to jump through so many hoops. And they'll roll with with the with the brands and then with the you know, with your franchise to get a decision made. And I'm gonna give it to your to stop asking me all this stuff you think is the right thing to do? Just go and do it. And if it doesn't work, does it? Well, you tried it right. But just you don't need to keep bugging me every 10 minutes to ask me this these things. Okay, so that was yeah, it was just day and night experience and, and the autonomy to do what I wanted to do within a certain, you know, certain elements.

Andy: 37:26

Thank you, John. And the other thing I think is intriguing one to ask is, my impression was there weren't a lot of automotive people in Tesla, you were one of the few

Jonathan Whitby: 37:37

Yeah, yeah. I mean, even when I left, it wasn't that many you came from that background? But yeah, one of the few, I guess, and I think that's why,

Andy: 37:44

how did you get it? How and they rang you how that seems quite unusual, because there was a lot of enthusiasm for hiring people from completely different walks of life Apple Store, or a lot of different, you know, we've had guests on here, like Ross Forder, and others, and they've come from different backgrounds. So why do you think they sort of picked you from the automotive? Yeah, I'm

Jonathan Whitby: 38:07

not sure. I think they worried that mix. I think it's good. I mean, when I yeah, when I first started, I was one of I can't think of anybody else it was from from the car and come straight from the car industry. That's why Yeah, I wanted to actually there were a couple and it was David Kennedy and baby. Yeah, so he was and then John Luke was as well. So yeah, he started at the same similar time to me just before me. But I think it's good to have that next because there's great things and you know, don't get me wrong, the motor industry is fun to do some great things and the processes they go through, gets a bad rep unfairly a lot of the time. And so he's trying to pull out some of those great things they did. And bring that into into it's like tech software tech sales. Really, that's that's how I think Tesla sort of how they say we're a, we're a tech company, we're a battery company, you have to make cars, but we were selling cars. And there's a way of a way that people in the UK and around the world were used to buying cars. And we needed to, you know, be sympathetic to that. So be successful to try and bring some of that into some of the Tesla's processes, which were which, which were good. And I think, maybe I helped with that without transition. And

Andy: 39:17

yeah, so you were you find yourself with a lot of autonomy. Yeah. So Gilgal was saying you don't have to ring me every few minutes. If you think it's the right thing to do. Do it. And if it goes wrong, fine. You've tried it. Just do something else. Yeah. Were you talking to your friends, your former colleagues from from from Audi at this time and sort of having some interesting conversations about the different world that you you'd come into? Were they

Jonathan Whitby: 39:44

Yes. Yeah. I mean, yeah, well, I think when I initially said I'm leaving, the author was bonkers for that reason is absurd. You know, electric cars will never take off. Tesla's losing millions and millions and millions will be out of business this time next year. I believe. I'll just get a job. Unless again, there wasn't really much of a risk, I've got to give it a try. But actually once it started taking ground and I think at the time, there was a story in Knutsford. There's one in Birmingham, and probably three, three or four in London, I think Manchester is still number seven, it's starting to take off a bit, then Model S, Model X came out in 2017. So a year after we kind of opened the doors, or 18 months after we opened the doors, and you know, Model S was getting some great press, we were really, really punching above our weight with with Model S sales. If you looked, you know, our main competitors, seven series S Class obviates that competitor, I think it was early days before model three. We outsold all those together, you know, with Model S and Model X with not much charging network out there. electric car, which people were sceptical of zero advertising, we couldn't advertise anything. And they will underground, you know, and it was, so it wasn't an easy and easy sale. But we really, you know, hard work, really, and just getting out into the local communities and businesses and getting the cars out and doing loads of events and just getting the cars exposed in the UK.

Andy: 41:12

Yeah, so you didn't have many stores out there. But you would go out to where the customers are. Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned we talked a little bit about your what you brought, what were you finding in terms of the people who you were hiring, who were attracted to come and join?

Jonathan Whitby: 41:30

Yeah, we did. I mean, we used to do, I mean, back in, so we, at that point, then we went through a big expansion plan. So I guess helps them the recruitment of some of the stores in the north and eventually got that role working after the North UK. And we just go and do a recruitment day, we just let's go and hire a store team in a day I saw yesterday, because it was so quick. So we just have like 20 people come into our hotel. And we just go through a recruitment process with those people. And at the end of it, we say it may be a few second interviews. But we've gotten the lion's share and the people nailed down there. And it was people with different backgrounds. I think that was a great thing. Recruitment people we had were fantastic. And we still are winning. They were certainly when I was when I left. And we'd have a great, great set of people who really wanted to do well, who were really invested in Tesla, then and you know, unless you were passionate about the brand, you wouldn't you wouldn't even get to one of those interview days. So it changed a bit right. Tesla was getting it was getting a name for itself.

Andy: 42:33

So they'd already been through a few rounds before. Yeah, a few rounds.

Jonathan Whitby: 42:36

Yeah, a few rounds of the recruiters. Yeah, yeah. And then we put them through the paces on that day, but it was really, we just want people work ethic. It's hard work, you know, right? You've worked there. It's just crazy hard work, certainly at certain times of the year. And one of the people who didn't want to notify, we're okay. working till midnight, some some days, really tried to paint the rolls down, you know, this is difficult, you know, it's detail and put them off. Yeah, almost put them off. And from the rolls. And really, though some great parts of it is really rewarding. But you know, there's some some, you know, not so great parts as well. And this is what they are. And we got, we didn't we didn't lose that many people, we have some, you know, fans still have some fantastic people in the business. And it's quite humbling really, to work with them and actually achieve the things that we we achieve in such a short space of time, but you know, down to their dedication. And

Andy: 43:32

do you ever had you ever worked anywhere with a similar spirit?

Jonathan Whitby: 43:37

Never know. And I will never will again, I don't think I think maybe it's a point in time that the brand and the cars taking off the environmental issue wasn't as prevalent then, you know, shoot now, obviously, and you know, the mission is working. Tesla's mission is working now. But it was a few people really bought into the mission. And I'd say honestly, when I first joined, it wasn't a wasn't what I am now. And, you know, got

Andy: 44:05

to so that mission, yeah, would you say it was the mission that was driving that level of effort?

Jonathan Whitby: 44:11

Yes, spirit. And every everyone without fail was was was 100% in it for the mission and to make the business successful. And not just in the UK, you know, UK was it was a huge part of the European operation and the global operation. We were doing our part in it. And we shared, we communicated a lot with everybody, lots of all hands, keep everybody engaged. This is how we, you know, we're doing and you're doing in your store, this is what you've done. This has been your contribution, and really drove that and it's amazing what can be achieved was with just that dogged determination to succeed, and especially all the detractors and people wanting us to fail just which maybe even what is wants to do even more, you know,

Andy: 44:52

just to prove the naysayers wrong. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So you talked about a moment in time, you know, The where the brand was and the development of it and the growth of the business. And obviously, the business grew rapidly underneath you, if you like, so you stepped into a role as your first store manager role. And onto this thing that's exploding, if you like in terms of scale, and you found yourself then eventually running 25 stores the whole UK for the North, which I know you've told me separately is basically everywhere north of Milton Keynes, which, to people who know the UK would say, well, that's quite far south. That's just north north of London. So you had this big territory 25 stores How did you yourself cope with your role growing your responsibility growing that quickly?

Jonathan Whitby: 45:43

Yeah, I guess. So I've got I mean, I've got this sort of regional job was 10 months in 10 months into Tesla when I got that role. And I think I've done a lot. Manchester was doing great, helped out Edinburgh, getting them sitting there. The manager there that didn't work out to kind of steadied the ship there, help them out. And I went through and grabbing there was people that had been there a lot longer than me more managers been there longer who were in for that regional job. It was always a job that was the recited I think Maria Maria Bobette was already doing a roll in the south. And I just kind of suddenly comes to your look, I know I'm not gonna get this roll, but I think you'd do a good job. I think you do a good roll doing it for x y&z reasons I've already been to Edinburgh. And there was I just got a call one day, regional manager. It's you, John, you're starting on Monday. Now that was it. Okay, great. And it was, we need to build out these other sites we need to build out and you know, go and work with some real estate needs to go find some locations and where we service to do all that. It was fantastic. So did that. And then kind of, it was only really so that wasn't 20 pastores. That was your keys. I know. 10 To 12 stores maybe? Bought they were all brand new ones. It was like fun location. Finding money. Wow.

Andy: 46:53

So brand new teams. Yeah, go

Jonathan Whitby: 46:55

and go. And yes, set them up for success. And, you know, it wasn't perfect all the time. And you know, made some mistakes. But you know, it was great. I was all over the country. Meeting all these great people from all different go to Glasgow, we set the blend up Belfast, Leeds early on, Keynes, you know, all the all those sites, and it was great to be a part of that. And then I guess there were a few changes in management, how we kind of ran the UK to kind of ended up running with Breyer as well, the store store store operation for the UK in the end. So yeah, my last kind of 10 year while I was there,

Andy: 47:33

the whole lot. And you mentioned, you made some mistakes. Is there a mistake that you'd like to share with us? We could learn from

Jonathan Whitby: 47:42

gosh, I think I think maybe just rushing into some things a bit too quickly, without thinking them through. I guess I'm a victim, I guess, victim. The way Tesla's like super fast. Let's get to some some stuff done. And I guess I'm quite, I think something right, should have conferred with other people get their opinion. But here's why. They say yes, let's do that.

Andy: 48:04

And nothing that got you into any trouble. Nothing. Really.

Jonathan Whitby: 48:08

No, no, I don't think so. Nothing's gotten to any trouble.

Andy: 48:11

Because moving fast, and how to use the cliche moving fast and breaking things that wouldn't have actually been seen as a bad

Jonathan Whitby: 48:19

lesson you did? It's twice. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.

Andy: 48:24

What did you appreciate about your leadership? Your girls? Leadership?

Jonathan Whitby: 48:28

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, one of the best bosses I've had and kept in touch with for quite some time after he left. And yeah, we had a couple of dinners. And

Andy: 48:37

how did he lead you? How did he manage you, if you like, in that you appreciate it?

Jonathan Whitby: 48:42

Yeah, I think a mixture of autonomy go into it as I go and try out don't be scared of making mistakes to do that. But also, it's a lot, you know, sales, sales is all about process and numbers, certainly those early days driving the numbers. And it's not, you know, 10% of sales is good. 90% is really boring and monotonous. You know, it's, and it's hard that is really driving those numbers actually learn that quite heavily, you know, almost on a daily basis. Sometimes, you know, we would have campaigns do call campaigns to try and, you know, drive up some leads and get some test drives booked in and you know, we'd have really aggressive numbers on that. And they wouldn't be Asian, weekly target daily target, right. By 10 o'clock. You need to have done this. We're gonna have another meeting at like, you know, 12 o'clock quick zoom meeting. How are we all getting on all the store managers? How are we getting on into your into meeting? I think we're quite a lot from him. That way, York

Andy: 49:36

would facilitate those calls even easier. Yeah. So he's the country manager. And he's getting involved during the course they

Jonathan Whitby: 49:46

sometimes call by call what happened with this particular customer? Why? Why have we lost this sale? Not particularly not because, yeah, he was interested in that particular customer, you know, because we want to get the sale and really drill down into that man Do you Do you know your business? Do you know what's going on your business? And you should do and you should know every inch of it. And every, you know, opportunity you've got? Yeah, I learned quite a lot.

Andy: 50:10

And was that different from what you'd experienced? before? Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 50:15

I think so. I mean, certainly, I mean, it was car sales are very process driven. But I think, and I was guilty of it as well, you want to get to the close, but and he just spent too much time on that. And it was just, it was just to get to the bottom, the quickest, and it's just, it's just transactional about money. Whereas Tesla wasn't really there's underground, right? We don't discount it. And that's so much it is. So you have to spend so much more time going through, you know, why the product is so great. Why electric cars are so great, you know, and the electric journey and spend some more time pick education. Yeah, that's it. And it's our sales should be they should be the clothes is just the balls at the end. You've done it already. There's no objections you've overcome them? Or when it's kind of discount? No, it's quite a difficult one sometimes, especially in the UK, because people are used to getting huge discounts on the cars and becoming CEOs, right, what do you do for me, and that's, that's the deal. You know, it's what you see on the screen is what you see.

Andy: 51:11

So you were there. And so when

Jonathan Whitby: 51:15

I left, end of 2020, so far, I joined in August 2015. So five and a bit years.

Andy: 51:22

So you live through the model three, arrival and ramp up. And

Jonathan Whitby: 51:27

yeah, so business changed overnight, with model three arrived, it was, you know, literally 5x the numbers we were doing overnight, where model three arrived with, with watching less people in the same amount of stores and logistically to try and deliver those and give a good customer experience. And yeah, as part of the senior management team who kind of delivered that, yeah, really great experience to see that and, you know, change things, from a sales perspective, going out on a company test drive an hour, hour and a half going through everything to you just book it yourself online, five or six test drives a day, maybe, you know, four or five test drives a day to doing like 10 test drives in our you know, almost just to do that to cope with the demands. Automating a lot of it sending out videos is how the cars work. Please watch this before we come in, in moments as Dr. will be here to help you that then how do we figure out who are the people who just coming in for a joyride, which is fine. And we welcome that because they'll go out, you know, if they can't afford a car, that's okay. And we always said they're gonna have a test drive, come and experience a product about the givens still 10 to 28th about. Yeah, that's how great they are. And some of them will be able to afford it. So we'd welcome them. We're trying to who are the ones who want to spend a bit of time within us, you know, trying to figure that out. And

Andy: 52:40

so that's making me smile, because we've had that story at the beginning of this conversation about people not wanting to sit near the door, because you have to talk to all the service customers. And yet the paradigm here was welcome anybody and even if they're not even a service customer haven't got a car, they can't afford one. They just a enthusiast. Yeah, let them come in. And because of the where the brand was in its history, and you needed people spreading the word, because of course, still no publicity. I don't think Tesla pays.

Jonathan Whitby: 53:08

That's still the case. Now I'm sure if you were just you were into any Tesla showroom. So what I just no way I can afford one of these cars. I'm just really interested in just having a look, do you want to play around and you'd be welcomed with open arms? I'm sure you will be. And, you know, it'd be nice.

Andy: 53:23

Yes, it was very much about an education price is not a sales, the underlying message wasn't to sell it was to educate and to inform and to facilitate, I guess, yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 53:34

there is, but you still got to sell the cars without sales targets to do so it was doing that? And what? Identifying who are the people who could who were opportunities, right, you could buy a car,

Andy: 53:44

I realised as I was saying that it doesn't really reconcile with having a call every two hours to work. How many calls have you done? So yeah, that did sound a bit nonsense, though. Both those two sort of things did sort of exist together, together? Is there anything I haven't we haven't talked about during your Tesla years, John, that it would be a great shame if we missed that thing.

Jonathan Whitby: 54:07

So I just I look back on it with with great fondness and one of the best times of my life and learn such a lot. And it's definitely helped me now in my new career. And

Andy: 54:20

what caused you what was the thinking process behind leaving when you did it? I mean, five and a half years is a good good 10 year. So what was your head at then?

Jonathan Whitby: 54:29

I think I just think it's so nice things to have a lifecycle and I got to the end of the lifecycle for me, I think I wasn't enjoying it as much changes in leadership changes in structure. And I just thought, you know what, this could be a good time for me to move on and with good feeling on both sides and things came to a natural, natural end for me, and I think I was, I don't know, I guess potential new roles with the business, you know, as hard as working long hours and conscious that my work life balance wasn't as balanced as it should be. And Now it's time for change. And I didn't know what that change was going to be honestly when it when it decided to leave, but it was the end of 2020. I thought rally at the end of December last quarter get the q4 2020. Done and delivered. Business has been a fantastic place UK business with a fantastic place. I think we'll have to figure it out. 1,000% increase sales increase week on week and when I started doing less sales than was coming in, which is pretty cool. You know, it's tough. That's everyone. It's all down to me, obviously.

Andy: 55:31

Very good. I mean, it's

Jonathan Whitby: 55:33

um, yeah, I don't know. There's loads of stories I guess. I could tell you about Yeah, I really enjoyed the time there. And

Andy: 55:38

what's your favourite story that you tell people about your time at Tesla?

Jonathan Whitby: 55:41

Everyone asked if you were going to Elon Musk, I guess. But you were there when we met you were there in Oxford Street.

Andy: 55:48

As well, as well, when two of his boys were there.

Jonathan Whitby: 55:50

Yeah, that's right. And I I'd been on holiday just got back from Portugal Sunday night. And you're sent me a text at eight o'clock Sunday night saying see below. Can you be an Oxford Street for eight o'clock tomorrow morning. So yeah, I'll see you there. So yeah, I got the train down. And that was a good experience. Just so I guess some of the end of quarter stories are great, you know, getting cars out so big that people do stupid deliveries in the middle of the night. And being part of that preparing cars, some of the delivery hubs that we had, you know, you know, if you just said when I started delivering cars, people just come in, suddenly, cars in bay number four, watch this video, wherever you go, you just just, you know, people would have been horrified. But now it's just it's a normal thing. And people quite like it. And I've been involved in all that and been been helping to make the decisions that we made to make that as smooth and as best customer service as we could, but it's easy for them to do and that was all about us. Just make it easy for the customer journey. It needs to be used doesn't need to be world class luxury. It just needs to be a nice, easy process to do. And I think they nailed it yet. Probably not. It's gonna take some time. But I think there's certainly a lot longer. What further down the road than there were. Yeah.

Andy: 57:04

Thank you for sharing that, John. So when you left you didn't know what you're going to do.

Jonathan Whitby: 57:10

Now I left and I thought I just have a couple of months off. And it was so so it was January 21. And then I found the alternative January's that lockdowns coming in. So Homeschooling with the kids, so I did all that that's quite an enjoyed that, you know, see the kids in the daylight, and I've done that for a while. So although it wasn't a great time, I guess, you know, for for the for the country in the world, you know, with COVID, for me sort of changed and just spending some time at home, really appreciated that and wasn't sure I guess took the time to see what what I wanted to do. And I guess lots of other roles around senior sales roles in other industries couldn't really get inspired by anything. And then I saw the sales geek opportunity and explored that and ended up buying into that.

Andy: 58:00

Tell us about that then sales geek. So tell us how this one

Jonathan Whitby: 58:03

Yeah, so sales geek was only about five years old the company. And it is I think quite unique offering I've, I've never come across it. So it's it's an outsourced parts own sales director service aimed at small to medium sized companies. So I guess an owner, owner operator of an SME, grown it organically are still doing everything themselves, their own is doing everything themselves. And they've got to a level where they can't grow the business, they need some help to grow the sales and the revenue in the business need a sales manager or sales director to do that. But they're not at a stage where they can add there's not enough turnover in the business maybe to afford a full time one because the 100 grand for a good one, or there's perhaps line of work to justify it quite yet. Or they're a family owned business. And they don't want to bring anybody in a senior level who's not in the family. So it's kind of fits that that hole in the market there. So kind of way we work is six to eight clients on the go at any one time and in one to two days a month reach each client and where the Sales Director for that business. So it's helping them maybe take some of the heavy lifting of the sales function off them if the sales teams kind of you know, take the management of those teams off them as well to do building out longer term sales strategy. What does that look like? You know, why are you doing the business? Where do you want to be? Where do you want to be? Is it to pass it on to children or sell it in a few years? Let's work towards that. So what I like from a numbers perspective, and then what the actions we need to do to get there but then we'll stay with them and work through those actions together because a lot of people they hate sales see there you go guarantee that you'll be fine off you go isn't the invoice and they just want to do it so we stay with them for 612 18 months how long it takes to work through them and see some growth in their business which I find really rewarding. Also the sales training as well so for bigger businesses, they've got sales teams in place we do we do sales training for those as well but for me, I thought because it's it's a franchise So it's my own business. It's just me. I guess the franchise bit de risks having your own businesses business in a box, almost as people do, and it was successful. So I can see that. What helps there with frameworks and content and things and what's in a support network as well. What's been great. I'm just over a year in now. And still Yeah, still got some clients. There's some great work for them get some good feedback. And it's just great working in the local business community, which I've never really done. I've not done it for a long, long time. Yeah, started literally started from scratch, didn't know any, I've got a couple of mates who have their own business locally. That's it. So really started from scratch, doing the networking and getting some get my name out there and getting people to know me and like me, and trust me, and yeah, it's been a great learning journey and enjoyed it. And I'm got an office now this is, as I say, office, just just down the road from where I live. So it's

Andy: 1:00:52

very good. Well done. Yeah. Relations, and to what extent are you leveraging everything you've done since you were 13?

Jonathan Whitby: 1:01:01

Yeah, everything is in there. And I love it. Because every business is different. I work with sometimes one man bands just to try and you know, maybe just for a couple of months, just set them on the path of the righteous, there you go. And I'll come back to you in six months, maybe. And then, you know, bigger corporations, you know, what corporations, you know, 2025 people, bigger businesses, they've got their own sales teams up in those and they're all different. And I've had no automotive clients. It's not on purpose. But why was it different industries? So I found it really interesting and found it's so rewarding helping these these businesses to grow and get them excited about their business. Again, some of them when it comes to the they're a bit JD been doing it for a while not seeing the growth, and it's just up to it's a cliche work on the business, not in it a bit. And, yes, it's very, very good. Yes,

Andy: 1:01:49

very good point. Very good point. And if I'm looking at you looking at your face and your energy describe this, you're finding it fulfilling?

Jonathan Whitby: 1:01:58

Yeah. I have to say, it took me a while to detox from Tesla, I'll be honest, it was, you know, I didn't do anything for a few months, which is nice. I'm just a bit of time off, just to just charge back up again, for coming into this, just like complete opposite of what I was doing before from a number of people perspective. I mean, I guess, 14 direct reports. 170, in direct reports, it tests at the end, and it's been awful after in HR now. It's just me, literally, I don't report to anybody, no reports to me. And it's nice, again, to stage when we're getting a bit busy now, and I could do with some help, I guess, at some point, but I think that was quite refreshing. But yeah, it just, you know, still a massive fan of Tesla, I've got I've got a model Y, you know, look, look the cars and still follow it. But I guess you know, you did, that that drug you were on for five years. And being part of that mission, you can't just turn it off. So it took me a while to detox from that. But I'm in a good place now in a good place. And it's enjoying doing this. And yes, there's lots of legs in this. Yeah, I think it's definitely bigger opportunities around the area. So yeah, enjoying it.

Andy: 1:03:01

I love that you're clearly finding it very fulfilling and rewarding to help your clients and you're also using an awful lot of your talent, intelligence, creativity and capability. And all that experience from Yeah,

Jonathan Whitby: 1:03:15

that's it. You're right, there is, you know, we have a framework that we kind of work off for us up for the first couple of sessions, then we just just go with, you know, where where the business needs to go. Let's go there and dial back to it sometimes, but it's great. Wherever some so many passionate business owners out there, it's and small businesses and SMEs and it's yeah, it's good

Andy: 1:03:36

idea. I'm sure they are, you know, anyone who's running their own business. I imagine. They're they're pretty passionate about it. Or vested. They literally invested. They're engaged. And they're hard working. Yeah. Yeah. Good. John, that's been been wonderful. Thank you very much for sharing your journey with us. And is there anything I didn't ask you? That I should have asked you?

Jonathan Whitby: 1:04:04

So no, no, I think it's been good. Good to catch up again. Good to see you again, Andy. And, yeah,

Andy: 1:04:10

likewise. So thank you. Thank you again, John. And yes, let's stay in touch. Yeah, bro. Thanks, Andy. You've been listening to Career-view Mirror with me. Andy follows. I hope you found some helpful points to reflect on in John's story that can help you with your own career journey, or that have those you lead parents or mentor. You are unique. And during my conversation with John, you'll have picked up on topics that resonate with you. A few things that stood out for me. Were what I just love being able to follow the journey from the market stall, to now using all his skills and experience to help business owners develop their sales. They chose a levels for reasons that weren't right for him. And therefore he found them difficult and ultimately he failed as a result, him clearly being a motivated and hardworking employee when he got to the insurance business and being promoted into a team leader position early on in that role, recognising the importance of further education, perhaps helped by his mother being a primary school teacher, and securing a place at Manchester Metropolitan University to study business and finance, transitioning from going out selling photocopies knocking on doors and the vast majority of the time being rejected to being in a retail environment where customers who are looking to buy literally walk up to you, and how easy that seemed to him, because it's of course, all relative, noticing that the business manager in the dealership was earning more. And so moving in that direction, having the ambition to keep moving around and looking to move up to be a General Sales Manager, becoming disillusioned with the industry and finding the approach at Tesla refreshing joining when others thought he was crazy, but him thinking it wasn't such a big risk because he could always get another job. His role growing along with the business at Tesla, him bringing some automotive industry experience into the mix, and being successful. Finally recognising that it was time to go and after enjoying the time homeschooling his children during the pandemic, investing in his own business and using a lot of his talent, intelligence, creativity and capability to develop that and finding it extremely fulfilling. You can contact John via LinkedIn, and we'll put links in the show notes to this episode. You can also contact him via email, and we'll put his email address in there too. We publish these episodes to celebrate my guests careers, listen to their stories and learn from their experiences. And I'm always genuinely interested in what resonated with you. Thank you to all of you for sharing your feedback. Thanks also to Hannah and Julia, who as part of the Career-view Mirror team here at Aquilae works so hard to deliver these episodes to you. This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by Aquilae Aquilae. His mission is to enable fulfilling performance in the auto finance and mobility industry. We use our very own fulfilling performance paradigm. To help you identify what steps you need to take to enable fulfilling performance in your business. Contact me directly. If you'd like to know more my email is andy@aquilae.co.uk. If you want to know more about fulfilling performance, you can listen to episodes 6061 and 62. There are short side mirror episodes that explain our mission and its origin. And remember folks if you know people who would benefit from hearing these stories, please show them how to find this. Thanks for listening