Kelly Pearce – Discovery Agent
Having lived and worked in Bristol, Kelly and her fiancé relocated to Weymouth to be closer to friends and family. With the move, came the opportunity for a brand-new role and a brand-new challenge. Joining Gungho as a Discovery Agent at the end of March 2020, Kelly finally found the career she had been searching for. Here, we find out how her first three months have gone and what it’s really like working at Gungho.
Where were you working before Gungho?
I had been working in Insurance and progressed well in my career. When I moved to Weymouth, there didn’t seem to be as many professional opportunities as Bristol. I really wanted to find a challenging role with career progression. Whilst I didn’t have direct experience in RegTech, I had worked in call centre environments and I am very experienced on the phones, so the role felt like a really good fit.
What was it like coming into a completely new industry?
You actually pick it up a lot quicker than you think you will. When I started in April 2020 it was during COVID, but thankfully I was able to have a couple of weeks of socially distanced training in the office. We did a lot of work on product knowledge, systems, calling and overcoming objections. Training is on-going and we have lots of opportunity to listen and learn from experienced agents.
14 weeks in, I feel like I can talk the talk now! I know that I still have lots to learn but that’s one of the best parts of the job. It’s really interesting to be taking on new information and expanding my expertise. There are so many different calling tactics and products to learn about and I’m enjoying challenging myself each day.
Talk us through a typical day…
It starts with coffee obviously! We have a team meeting every day to talk through the campaigns. The team meetings definitely help with building comradery. We then get logged onto Salesforce.com and plan our calls. At the moment, our team is working on making calls into Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). To help the team focus, we narrow down the work flow to a particular country or a particular industry – this helps us to be much more precise in our calling and conversation. It’s amazing how our client’s products apply to lots of different industries. Most weeks, I will be focused on calling financial institutions, casinos, gaming companies or more general corporates.
During lockdown when we were all working from home, we were able to chat on teams and had incentives and quizzes to keep us all motivated and connected. Now we’re back in the office we’re able to share our successes and help each other hit targets.
Speaking of targets, what are they like and are they achievable?
We have a team target, so it feels like a team effort. Everyone is supportive of each other and we’re working towards a shared goal. I’ve always done ‘selling’ in one form or another throughout my career and when you believe in the product it’s easier to talk to people and have conversations. Even when there is a difficult day, the products we’re talking to prospects about are designed to help them and are regulatory, so they have to have them. It makes the conversation much easier.
There is no doubt that COVID-19 has added a layer of difficulty in terms of getting through to people to book appointments. It’s slightly more challenging to get through to the right person but I overcome that by building excellent rapport with gatekeepers.
What’s the best thing about working at Gungho?
I’d say definitely the people. Everyone is so friendly and so welcoming, we’re like a family. It’s a lovely environment to work in and not like a usual ‘call centre’ culture. We’re treated as adults and not micromanaged as can be usual in a targeted role. We work Monday to Thursday, ten-hour shifts and have Fridays off. With a three-day weekend I get so much more done and I’m able to really enjoy the weekend. I have the time to do things at home and spend time with friends and family. I’m really glad to have found the role at Gungho and look forward to a successful career here.
