mike flanagan

This global, US-based company was the first to introduce water coolers to UK offices. Taken on to develop its West Yorkshire market, I took its activities into the NHS and was responsible for the debut appearance of water coolers for patients and staff on the hospital wards of two of Yorkshire NHS trusts. Other successes included winning contracts through cold calling and leads management with many small to medium businesses throughout the region.

With a business partner I set up the Mandon Store, trading as an on-line menswear retailer. Building on the success of an international customer base, we opened our first standalone shop in 2013, in a stylish quarter of Harrogate. I worked with leading manufacturers in the USA, Europe and the UK to establish an exclusive top end business that featured regularly in GQ and Esquire magazines and in the men's fashion pages of The Daily Telegraph, The Times and other prestigious publications. By cultivating senior journalists and editors my determination and hard work resulted in masses of free publicity for our business--all minus the expense of a PR company. I managed to hit turnover of 120K in my first year despite the economic downturn which hit the men’s fashion sector. Of the top 10 dream leads in our business plan, I secured intro meetings with all 10 and a contract was negotiated by me with eight of these brands.

Brand Gallery was set up as a distribution arm to sit alongside the Mandon Store, acting as a springboard for global brands we identified as fitting our customer base.

On being appointed Head of Sales of this niche brand of T-shirts, I set to work to boost its presence in the UK fashion market. Within 12 months it was dubbed the fastest selling brand in the UK by Drapers’ Record, the industry data and statistics monitor. The key to this phenomenal growth was product placement through TV shows such as Hollyoaks and Coronation Street, selecting the best retail partners and incentivising and training their staff. After our success in the UK we expanded into licensing distributors in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. Turnover increased by over 35% under my direction from just over 900K to over 1.2 million with average weekly unit sales of 1400. This increased turnover and profitability was achieved by selling into premium, industry influencing retailers including a major multiple, and exposure gained through product placement via the above named tv soaps.

As Assistant Manager my inherent appreciation of good retail products and my people-handling skills greatly boosted the firm's profitability. My experience in this specialised world of retailing exclusive menswear to wealthy businessmen and sports personalities developed my abilities in dealing with customers who demanded first class service and first class products and after-care. While appearing a hands off retailer, I developed a sales process for all staff that saw an uplift in sales of 15%. Mentoring of all staff encouraged each one to achieve significant improvements in their sales performance through incentivised selling and motivational talks.

My field sales appointment with this multinational operation gave me responsibility for self-generating all leads throughout much of West and South Yorkshire through cold calling. An intensive sales training course was invaluable in equipping me with the essential skills needed by operators in the fiercely-competitive world of commercial hardware supplies. I became expert in closing new deals, with a high level of retention of business won from competitors. In the national leader board of over 150 field sales reps I was consistently within their top ten achievers generating an average of 30K per month in completed sales.

International B2B high value transfers - I was responsible for managing the secure transfer of high value business to business payments, from the bank's national specialised headquarters in Harrogate. With single transactions as much as £1 billion there was high pressure to ensure payments were managed as swiftly and securely as possible. After only several months I was promoted to team leader to manage six other transfer specialists and oversee their responsibilities.

Activities and Societies: Athletics, Football, cross country

Activities and Societies: Football, Altheletics