Meet Beatriz Gil from Spain

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

I studied Business Administration and started working in Finance, but very soon I realized that I wanted to be at the front of the business. So, I decided to juggle my job with a master’s degree in marketing and Commercial management what enabled me to move to Marketing. Here I got analytical ability, strategic vision, consumer diagnosis and the experience in defining plans. After some years in Marketing I moved to Category Planning, where I got experience in commercial strategy and the knowledge of channels and customer dynamics. Finally, I moved to Sales what is completing my profile with the final execution with customers in the market.

Today I work as the Head for Foodservice Sales in Spain.

Having been in Marketing and Category Planning before, now in Sales I feel I am at the last mile of Mondelēz International’s purpose. I love strategy but it is worthless if you don’t transform it to execution. Sales is the center of the business, I feel I can bring strategy to execution, I can influence to generate value for the brands, customers and consumers and I also can convey my motivation and business passion to a team. That’s why I love working in Sales.

I really think that the more complete a profile is, the more powerful it is, that´s why, after being in Marketing and Category Planning, I wanted to move to Sales.

The obstacle I found was that I did not have any experience in Front Sales so the options to get an opportunity were difficult. The more versatile you are, the less specialist you are and the more difficult it is to get considered for an advanced role. When the moment of truth comes, opportunities are often given to those who have proven experience.

To finish with this dead-end road, where you don’t have experience so you don’t get the opportunity to start having it, the company gave me the option of starting managing a customer on top of my responsibilities at that moment and, no doubt, I said Yes! For a couple of years, I was juggling with both things and although it meant quite a big effort, I could prove that I could do a good job in Sales and finally I had the opportunity.

Apart from the fact that I finally had the opportunity, this has been a big learning and the confirmation that the way to get what we want in our career is the combination of perseverance, tell others, look for new ways of doing and will power and effort.