Jane Nicholls
Sales & Account
Manager
In my line of work I often get asked how I ended up working in
sales and event management, and my answer is always met with
surprise! I'm an honorary Yorkshire woman as I was born and raised
in Kidderminster in the West Midlands, and after moving to North
Yorkshire at the age of 15, I got my career path underway by
reading a degree in Physical Geography at the University of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Not tempted by teaching, I did office-based
work for a year after graduating, and then I landed a great job in
Leeds where my task was to start up a small business sourcing
nurses for the NHS from overseas, and to turn a profit within a
year! A very tall order especially as I have no background in
nursing or the NHS. However with just a month to go before the year
was up, I secured a contract and six nurses were placed from Spain
into a hospital in Manchester, thus meeting my objective and cause
for celebration! This job gave me the opportunity to develop my
skills in sales and business development, and I was ready to make
the move away from nursing recruitment into a more developmental
role.
I was able to make this move when an opportunity arose at the
Jorvik Viking Centre in York, and throughout my time there I was
responsible for generating income from the corporate hospitality
and group visitor markets. Through collaborations with other York
venues that had been classed purely as competitors, I was able work
with them and witness an increase in the groups income of over 20%
in the first year alone, and better still this increase was proven
to be a long-term upwards trend.
After two years and what felt like my thousandth trip around
the Viking City, with all the sights and smells, I felt it was time
for me to take my career to the next level and I joined York
Museums Trust. My role with them was another concept start up much
like my recruitment role, and I created products that were
credible, sustainable and varied, with the Museums and venues being
marketed as excellent spaces for conference and banqueting, and
also for weddings. The sales income has increased by just under
300% during my 4 years with the Trust, however my proudest
achievement was being nominated for, and being awarded, the 2006
Tourism Award in Customer Care.
I'm very excited to be joining the HIC as their new Sales and
Account Manager, and see big challenges ahead such as battling with
strong competition in what is widely acknowledged as an
increasingly difficult market. I feel that this is now my
opportunity to put every skill I've developed over the years into
practice, and prove to myself exactly what I'm capable of. As you
can see, I like a challenge which is possibly why in my spare time
I attempt DIY in my house, although certainly not to the same level
of success I've been fortunate to witness in my career so
far!
