Business Planner working in the National Flood & Coastal Risk Management, Business Planning & Allocation Team.

Author of the Matilda’s Magical Tails series of children’s books. 5 books published to date in English and German.

I had total responsibility for achieving a challenging mortgage, life and insurance sales target, through motivating and managing a team of staff to provide quality mortgage leads. From these leads I maximized potential sales from the Halifax product range. My main duties were split into three areas, which were sales, motivation of staff and training and development.

For the past two years I have been running my own company carrying out secretarial tasks for various Clients. My main Client has been The OCC Adult Learning, for whom I have worked 35 hours per week running their office in North & West Oxford.

My role was Personal Assistant to the Assistant Headteacher, Head of Years, and the Department for Special Educational Needs. My position was varied as I had to meet the demands and deadlines of a mixture of different personality styles. I also managed the finance of the school canteen, inputting invoices each week and maintaining an Excel spreadsheet of income and outgoings and producing final accounts at the end of each financial year. I also helped to run the first aid department. My previous role within Matthew Arnold School was work experience coordinator, in which my main role was to organize two week work placements for year 10 pupils each year. I also organized an annual careers fair, where visitors from industry and commerce visited the school to give presentations to year 11 pupils, on their area of business.

I had full responsibility for achieving a challenging business target, through developing business via telesales of existing and new Clients and also obtaining referrals. I then visited these Clients in their home or work, to maximize potential sales from the Friends Provident product range. I gave full advice and recommendations on all aspects of their financial needs, i.e. mortgages, pensions, protection and savings and investment.I maintained a high standard of customer service at all times and constantly monitor my personal achievements against my target.

I had total responsibility for achieving a challenging mortgage, life and insurance sales target, through motivating and managing a team of fourteen managers and a total staff of around 150 people, to provide quality mortgage leads. From these leads I maximized potential sales from the NatWest and Gartmore Marketing Group’s product range. My main duties were split into three areas, which were sales, motivation of staff and training and development. My responsibilities in each area were:-Sales• Giving Clients full advice and recommendations on all aspects of their mortgage needs.• Individual mortgage target of £7,500,000 mortgage sales.• Maximise NatWest Life and NatWest Insurance services sales.• Maintaining a high standard of customer services at all times. • Seeking referral business from existing Clients• Holding mortgage surgeries in local companies.• Constant monitoring of personal achievement versus target.Motivation of Staff• Solely responsible for motivating all managers and their staff allocated to me to produce quality leads. These included retail staff, business managers, corporate managers, personal banking managers and branch managers.• I constantly monitored all staff performance against their targets and put into place corrective measures if they were not on track.Training• Training and assessing all managers and their staff in producing mortgage illustrations and presenting these to potential Clients.• I gave regular training to all staff, either individually or during branch meetings to update new products and procedures.• Training staff on how to spot a potential mortgage Client and how to promote the service which NatWest Mortgage Services offer.

I had total responsibility for the running of the Oxford Branch as a self contained unit. My duties included - Motivation of staff to achieve high business targets. Full staff training and development. Maintaining very high levels of customer service, both personally and through my staff. I also interviewed all new mortgage Clients and carried out all mortgage administration procedures in the branch, liaised with mortgage introducers to obtain and retain their mortgage business. I held a secured lending mandate of £1,000,000. I was also a Company Representative of General Accident Life and carried out all financial planning interviews in the branch and was personally responsible for the full financial planning target. During my ten months with Skipton Building Society, my branch rose from bottom in the Company to Top Mortgage Lender, for which I was awarded a holiday in Paris.

My responsibilities included developing business via telesales and referrals, to achieve high targets, whilst maintaining high levels of customer service. I also sold a variety of financial service products to both new and existing branch Clients and on several occasions received certificates for my high achievement in this area. I had an unsecured lending mandate of £4,000. I carried out collections calls and field visits when required.

I spent time in all areas within the Company, covering administration, sales, supervisory, and training positions. On leaving, I held the position of Chief Cashier and Home Insurance Product Manager. I was also one of the main key holders for the branch.