Meet the Apprentice.

How long have you been an apprentice at Sytner BMW/MINI? I started as an apprentice in October 2020, now 2 years ago! I adopted the role of Product Genius when I first started, assisting both Sales & Service customers get the most out of their products, filling them with full confidence when using certain functions and features. It was a great introduction to Sytner as a whole, especially coming from a background of zero auto industry experience. I have now passed my apprenticeship and am working towards being a fully certified Sales Executive.

What made you apply for an apprenticeship role with Sytner? The idea of a new company car was very enticing! For full disclosure, I thought a sales role would be something that would suit me and my work ethic as I like being customer facing in a fast-paced environment. Doing further research into Sytner, both looking at their history with MINI and their stellar Glassdoor reviews, highlighted the company as the ideal place to start my car sales career.

What advice would you give to someone looking to apply for an apprenticeship? Applying for an apprentice position can feel daunting, especially when moving to a new industry/sector, as there is no guarantee of a job at the end of the process (or that you will like it!). My best advice would be to act as a sponge and absorb as much information as you can. Apprentices are usually in a unique position where their job role is flexible, allowing them to work alongside a multitude of different departments and people, maximising the information you can gather and the connections you can build. The information and connections you build and gather will help you tenfold in your career, whether that be the role you’re training in or elsewhere, as it will give you the experience, knowledge and confidence you need to excel.

What does an average day look like for you? As an apprentice, every day was vastly different as I would be helping a different department/person every day, making my workload very diverse. A typical day included 1-2 hours of sector revision in the morning (latest car news, product updates etc) compounded with 1-2 hours of coursework. I would usually pick up a couple Genius appointments throughout the day, assisting various customer with issues such as Bluetooth or software glitches, or helping out a colleague, such as with a new vehicle handover, or other general product questions. Sometimes I would assist with sales enquiries by showing prospective customers our products and going on test drives with them, before handing them over to a Sales Executive.

My two favourite tasks were genius appointments and collecting cars from other retailers for our stock or for test drives. I felt these activities were where I got to best experience our products first hand, learning more about how they work and carrying the experiences forward into sales conversations.

What is your favourite part about your current role? My favourite part of being an apprentice was being able to contribute to multiple departments. Through my product knowledge and motivation to help others I felt that I was able to be a real asset to the sales, service and technician team during my time as an apprentice.

My favourite part about being a sales executive is the gratification I feel after a successful sales process. The feeling of selling a customer on a car, making the customer feel special on handover, to seeing the car drive away is paramount to any form of work satisfaction.

What is your greatest achievement? MINI host monthly quizzes centred around product knowledge, hosting all the retailers in the country. I won a monthly quiz based on the electric range and was awarded a Mont Blanc pen. That pen has become a symbol of how far I’ve come in my short career, from knowing absolutely nothing about cars to being recognised by the brand as highly knowledgeable on their product.