I would love to learn more about life at Coca-Cola and what day-to-day life is like...

No 2 days at Coca Cola are the same. In my role as sales representative in away from home we tend to start the week with a virtual team meeting we’ll discuss our aspirations for the week. We will then go off and complete our calls visiting a range of customers in different environments

What exactly do Field Reps do? Your roles sound so varied and rich.

Katie- what do you find your biggest challenges are? Thanks

Field sales reps are there to support customers. Our main aim is to help them sell more pop. We want to ensure they are selling the correct range for their environment for example in a bar or a pub ideally would be selling glass bottle or postmix. To help with the sell out we want visibility in the outlet so that people know what they are stocking so on bar point of sale getting drinks listed on menus

Sorry, Katie was your question to me about the biggest challenges? Did you mean in terms of the teachers who teach the new qualification?

My biggest challenge is speaking to the right people. In this role we don’t tend to make appointments. I have a territory with 335 outlets and I visit each of them once every 4-6 weeks I follow a plan that is set for me so sometimes decision makers aren’t available. You have to find ways around this.

Ah very interesting. What is the career progression like from there and what kind of background do you need to have to do this kind of role?

Thanks Katie. That's really helpful. Do you find the commission/bonus' are achievable?

Career progression is open ended at Coca Cola. I am currently working towards a role in wholesale but we also have new business which take care of bars and restaurants, we have the grocery channel and then regional accounts. They are the next steps from sales representatives. No background specifically required. They look for potential rather than experience. Personally I believe you need a good attitude and be able to build great customer relationships and not be afraid

I always hit at least part of my bonus if not all. You need to set clear plans to achieve it and if you work smart and not hard then yes you should hit your bonuses. I’ve worked for coke for almost 5 years and I’ve never not hit

My apologies Kirsty B I can see now that the question was from you (another person in this chat) to Katie.

Sorry for jumping in on your chat!