Corporate relocations specialist

By MARK STORY

Name: Brent Fitzsimons

Age: 42

Job Title: Regional corporate services manager

Employer: Crown Relocations

Pay: Entry Level $45,000 through to $80,000 plus for senior role

Qualifications: No minimum academic qualifications but graduates and those with a sales and marketing background are encouraged to apply. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University and a post-graduate qualification in Marketing from the University of New South Wales.

Career Prospects: Regional branch or senior corporate manager here or at a Crown branch overseas. Senior sales and marketing or general management roles either within the freight, logistics, and shipping industries or beyond.

Q. What do you do?

A. I'm responsible for managing and developing Crown's corporate services programme in the northern region. I work closely with our corporate services staff, the business services sales team and our national relocations operation to maximise sales opportunities. A typical day could see me involved in anything from creating and presenting executive boardroom presentations, providing awards to sponsored sports achievers, chairing strategic sales meetings, managing internal improvement systems and protocols, mentoring, managing and training team members, producing and presenting tender bids, monitoring and managing issues resolution through to maintaining a suitable mix and number of sales calls.

Q. Why did you choose this job?

A. What attracted me to this industry after 10 years in the hotel business was the sheer variety of work. I enjoy working in a team environment and find my colleagues extremely stimulating. My present role really lets me communicate at all levels, from discussing strategy with management through to meeting a new arrival into New Zealand or discussing a delivery with an experienced line-haul driver.

Q. What skills do you need to do your job?

A. You need to establish and maintain strong personal credibility and well-developed customer service skills. My role requires a high level of planning and organisational knack, the ability to think rationally and the confidence to back your own judgment. To become a regional manager you need to be able to guide, counsel and continually develop team members to achieve stated corporate objectives.

Q. What is the best part of your job?

A. I get a lot of satisfaction from watching other team members succeed. The variety of daily activities makes for a stimulating working environment. I also really enjoy collaborating with team members on joint sales presentations, issues resolution and social activities.

Q. What is the most challenging part of your job?

A. The biggest challenge is managing the expectations of the person moving, the corporation who has asked for the person to be moved and the expectations of Crown. It can also be hard motivating a potential corporate client to agree to meet with you when there's been a service failure which, as a representative of the company, you have to front up to and resolve. We're a lot more than just a removals company so changing people's perception from removals provider to a relocation services provider is an ongoing challenge. Successfully managing and completing a range of processes from fully integrated in-house relocations, managing visa procurements, origin home sales, flights, temporary accommodation, orientation tours, destination home and school searches through to partner career support services, and moving client's possessions is also challenging.

Q. What sort of training do you get?

A. As a member of the Crown Worldwide Group, we get access to the Crown University education programme. We use a variety of training methods such as e-learning, structured classroom, seminar-style, and one-on-one sessions.

Q. What would you tell someone contemplating a career in this industry?

A. They'd be joining a fast-paced global industry that calls on all your life skills. As a result, people need to be geographically aware, preferably well-travelled, excellent communicators, empathetic and great listeners. Those who aren't goal oriented might struggle as it's important to deliver on realistic targets and other performance objectives.