10 QUESTIONS WITH…
Each issue, we ask a flooring industry professional 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Gail Alcock, Product Director for Flooring at IDS.
account sales management and to my current position of Product Director… phew! It did take me 20 years.
Q3 Q4
Q1 Q2
What was your first job? I worked as a freehand gilder
within the pottery industry …very arty!
How did you get into the industry?
I became a part-time receptionist at the head office when my daughter was young.
Then, worked my way up through internal sales, external sales, key account sales management, national
What has been your proudest moment?
In work, hearing a young colleague say that they wanted to be like me and achieve what I have – to learn from the beginning and work towards their goal.
If you could hire any one person to be part of your
team, who would it be and why? If I was to choose from the celebrity world, it would be a confident person with a big smile such as Julia Roberts or Will Smith. People buy from people, so a confident smile opens many doors in the line of sales.
Q5
What’s the best advice you could give to
someone new coming into
the industry? Three bits of wisdom: Get to know your customers, their
business and requirements. Know your competition.
Own up and learn from your mistakes as we all make them.
Q6 Q7
Q8
If you could be any character from film or
TV who would you be? Lara Croft because she's intelligent, confident, beautiful, fit and rich.
What do you think are the positive and negative
aspects of the flooring trade? The positives are the range of flooring products that cater for all levels of budget and project aesthetics. The big negative is that specialist fitters are a dying breed. We need to keep recruiting and learning so we can continue to design and fit fabulous floors.
What do you think the future holds for
flooring design? Floor design can have endless possibilities but the future for floors is their ease of maintenance and benefits of the material and installation. Time is precious to all, especially after the year 2020 has turned out to be.
Q9
If you weren’t in flooring, what career
would you choose? I love working and talking to people so it would definitely be within the teaching or care sectors.
Q10
Dave Francis, Sales Director, Kellars
asked: Who has influenced you
most in your career and why? Sounds corny but my MD, John Bagshaw. He took the time to recognise my ability when I was a receptionist and gave me the opportunities. I love what I do (most days ) and I am very thankful to be part of a great team of people.
www.idsurfaces.co.uk
Check out next month’s issue to see what Gail asked our next industry professional…
38 | 10 QUESTIONS
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