A Candidate Day in the Life of a New Business Executive

July 8, 2018
Marketing Team

Background

My role as a New Business Executive at We are Futures, a unique youth engagement agency, is my first job since graduating with a degree in Psychology.

As a young person myself, the values and ambitions of We are Futures really resonate with me, and the benefits of being part of a small organisation with a genuine social purpose were a great match. Inspiring Interns helped me to find a small but ideal company for this stage in my life. Now almost 10 months into my role, here’s what a typical day looks like (although no day is the same!):

8:00-08:15: Admin

I ease myself into the day with basic admin, checking my calendar to understand what lies ahead and clearing my email inbox.

8:15-08:45: Social Media

Whilst I have a New Business focus, I manage the agency social media accounts and spend a short time every morning traversing the web for relevant articles to schedule for the day ahead in line with our youth-focus and current Marketing & Sales campaigns, awareness days or shouting about our fantastic work with young people.

8:45-11:00: Direct Sales Activity

A fair portion of my time is spent actively contacting new and existing prospects/leads via phone and email dependent on at what stage of conversation we’re engaged in. This will range from conversations based off our team email marketing campaigns to reactive conversations based off trends and activity we see happening in business.

11:00-12:00 Desk Research

Our Marketing & Sales method includes highly personalised approaches to particular prospects, requiring deep desk-based research on a businesses relevant youth-related activity and potential angles where we could help ensure they are making the greatest impact.

12:00-12:30 Marketing & Sales Meeting

I may spend some time with my line manager, the Managing Director, the CEO and the wider team reviewing the latest new business opportunities or sharpening the messaging or reviewing our current marketing campaigns – ultimately ensuring that we’re sharing our experience to constantly appraise and develop our approach.

12:30-13:00 Youth Network

I co-manage the relationship with our Youth Network members, who connect us directly with the dynamic world of under-25s in a variety of ways through the aspiring, dynamic individuals who co-create and activate our programmes to our wider research groups, this Network helps us stay relevant and continuously build our understanding and insights. Earlier in its development, I spent time with my CEO and a colleague creating our unique proposition for the network and presented this to the company Board!

13:00-14:00 Lunch

I take myself away from the office to the building’s more casual, communal areas, and outside if the weather permits, to take some time to enjoy my lunch and relax.

14:00-14:30 Admin

I may spend time logging purchase orders for suppliers or meeting room bookings, logging company credit card expenses for focus groups or office training workshops and/or clean up files in our shared drive.

14:30-16:30 Proposal Work

I’m usually drafted in to clean up the design, carry out desk-based research and create bespoke case studies for proposal documents.

17:00-17:45 Case Study Review

Reviewing our plethora of case studies for all previous and current work to ensure they are as sharp and impactful as possible whilst reflecting the latest developments with regards to our current work.

17:45-18:00 Admin

I spend the last moments of the day reviewing what I’ve achieved and amending the week’s tasks accordingly, based off competing priorities, which is especially important due to ad hoc tasks from inbound calls/emails/colleagues/social media notifications!