Manage relationships
However, without the right promotion or position, and without the right level of interest from our customers – the people who actually sell the products to everyday consumers – we’re not going to realise the potential of even our most successful brands. And that’s where you fit in.
It’s the job of our customer development team to persuade our customers to position our products, put up new displays, participate in special promotions and take the risk of buying lots of stock of something new and unfamiliar. And when we say customers we could mean supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol stations, newsagents, chemists, restaurants, hotels - the list goes on. It’s a fast moving and exciting place to be, but working here takes a lot of skill. You need to manage relationships with retailers and wholesalers – building business in the long term and dealing with day-to-day issues as they arise. Essentially, you need to influence a whole range of people.
What will you do?
Getting saucy snacks, popular detergents, and much-loved face creams to the right shelves and the right customers is a complicated business, involving a number of different roles:
Customer Business Development
In Customer Business Development you work with a certain type of customer – anything from multinationals like Tesco and Asda/Wal*Mart to independent retailers like Londis to cash & carry businesses to the smallest cornershop. In Unilever Foodsolutions, one of the world’s leading foodservice teams, you may work with a diversity of customers from the Hilton Group or Green King to the Ministry of Defence; in fact, anywhere that serves food outside of the home.
Whoever you work with, it is all about relationship building, developing promotions, negotiating and understanding consumers. You’ll be responsible for a number of things, such as improving our turnover, profit and market-share through negotiating prices and margins; ensuring customers have the right products in the right place in sufficient quantities; persuading retailers to carry new products and in-store promotions, maintaining our status as preferred supplier; or working with colleagues in Marketing to develop promotions, and with Supply Chain to create product supply efficiencies.
Category Management
A category is a portfolio of products irrespective of brand: for example the hair-care category includes all our shampoos, conditioners and styling products. So here, you’ll take control of one such portfolio and develop a deep understanding of the products, consumers’ habits, the market place and the products’ competitors. You’ll then advise customers on which products to stock based on their local demographic, work out how to maximise the sales and profitability of a category for the customer, and consider how to reflect consumers’ purchasing habits in our products.
For both of the above roles you’ll join our European Customer Management Foundation Course, which covers business planning, category management, merchandising, promotions, supply chain and complementary marketing disciplines. You’ll enjoy up to four placements, which are likely to include customer business management, category management, marketing and secondments to retailers or supply chain.
What have recent trainees done?
- Assessed the snack market by analysing consumers, stores and competitors.
- Managed a project to increase the availability of stock in-store – saving the business £0.5 million.
- Managed the instore launch of the new Flora pro.activ milk and yoghurt range.
Who is it for?
The kind of people who thrive here get on well – and instantly - with others, can handle tough situations, and are highly motivated. Could it be you?
Meet us
We always encourage our people not to take our word for things, but to find out for themselves. So, here's your chance to discover more about what it's actually like working for us, what's most challenging about the programme, and what makes our people tick.
To find out more about our people click on their names to be shown a detailed profile.
Could this be you?
- Do you enjoy building professional relationships with people?
- Are you good at asking questions to find out what someone wants to achieve and what makes them tick?
- Do you get a thrill from winning?
- Do you enjoy working with others to create a solution that's good for both of you?
- Are you entrepreneurial and resilient?
If your answer is yes to the above, please click on the link to apply!
