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So how does she feel working within an industry which is male dominated?
“To be honest, I’ve grown used to it,” explains Amy. I chose to go down the sales route when I got fed up with all the travelling as a cruise ship dancer and decided it was time to get a proper job! “The promise of good fortune led me into telesales at Xerox where I realised I had a talent for selling and from then I joined Canon’s Graphic Industries sector. “Yes, the teams I work with tend to be male-dominated but I have never had any really bad experiences and in this day and age you get treated like another member of a team. Even when things become a little difficult, if you have faith in yourself and
the confidence to succeed you can put up with the odd comment or general banter and give as good as you get. You have to be thick skinned to work in sales anyway, particularly when you first start and you have tough targets to reach and new contacts to
make. “I did feel anxious when I first moved into the London sales region. I had been given a great opportunity by a senior manager and it was a real chance to prove I could do well. There are a lot of very successful sales people in London and I wanted to
prove I could compete with them and even beat some of them! “I got over this initial fear in two ways, firstly by thinking to myself ‘I can do just as well as you lot!’ but also by recognising the need to learn more about the territory before simply diving in, out of my depth. By talking to my colleagues,
rather than avoiding them and showing a willingness to share their local experience I not only became an a respected member of the team but started to realise my own success,” Amy continues. Do you find that customers treat you differently because of your gender?
“To be honest times have changed and there are far more decision-making women in business than before so I’ve never had a major problem with this. Yes, there are still some ‘old school’ chauvinists out there and I’ve certainly experienced
patronizing customers, but in the past I’ve also worked with people like this too! If you are a good sales person, irrespective of gender, you adjust your style to engage the customer with your proposition and win them round.” Would you recommend a sales career to a girlfriend?
“If you mean would I recommend Canon, since that is where I’ve spent most of my career, then yes of course I would. Canon has a strong learning and development programme for its sales teams and although targets can be tough, it rewards its sales
people well with great incentives. “What could be better is clearer parameters for career progression. It is sometimes too easy to stay at the same level within your job because there is little to encourage you to take the next step up, particularly in sales. Sure, you can go for a
sales manager role but if you are doing well as a sales person, why would you want to leave that behind to face the added pressures of dealing with team issues? I may be wrong, but certainly more needs to be done to make sales management more attractive
or at least educate the sales force in the opportunities that might be available. “I appreciate that you also have to be the one to make the right noises if you want to progress further and certainly this has paid off for me when moving between different sales’ patches. There are a lot of experienced people in our organisation many
of whom are only too pleased to share their advice, so it doesn’t hurt to test the water in another part of the business, simply by talking to colleagues in areas that you might be interested in. It’s certainly paid off for me!” Amy Sinclair currently works out of Stockley Park as a member of London West CBC sales team. She lives in Twickenham and has a degree in ‘Dance and Sports Studies’, her favourite dance is the Lindy-Hop and she rather likes Robbie Willams too!
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