Fiona's time so far with the i name it dream team!

Having spent several months during the Christmas season as a temp on the shop floor of the Prime Group, I was delighted when Tina offered me a position within the office environment of the company due to my interest in administration. I have always been interested in administration and customer services so I was excited to start learning new skills and developing my customer services knowledge.

As I had already spent some time working at the Prime Group, I had already got to know everybody and I felt very welcomed going up into the offices as part of the I name it team, where I had a new desk and computer waiting for me! During my first couple of months in the offices, an opportunity came up called the Print Futures Award and Tina was very keen to put me forward for it. The Print Futures Award is a scholarship scheme funded by the British Printing Industries Federation, Unite the Union and the Printer’s Charitable Corporation and its aim is to help fund training for people involved in the printing and graphic arts industry. Tina got the written application form for me to fill in and I sent if off thinking I would never hear anything back as we were both convinced the award was more of a printing skill based award rather than something concerning my role within customer services. However, a month later I received a letter stating that I had been shortlisted for the interview stage and I would have to go to London to meet for an interview with leaders from all the contributing parties.

I couldn’t wait for my interview but I wasn’t sure what to expect as the letter said it was more of an informal interview; however, I was still nervous about what questions I was going to get asked.On the day of the interview, I made my way down to London, revising the whole way on what I thought I might get asked, I was more excited than anything! When I finally arrived at the BPIF headquarters in Farringdon, I was called into a room with four men who represented the three corporations that had organized the award. They all seemed lovely but I had started to feel anxious that I might not perform well in my interview because I desperately needed the award as it would be so helpful to fund the training I wanted to do which was otherwise unattainable. I felt like I was in the board room on The Apprentice!

During my interview, the main point I tried to portray was the idea that the printing industry needs efficient administrative and customer service skills and this idea is very often over looked due to the concentration being on the manual skills. I was very enthusiastic and focused during the interview and I came out hoping I had given the right impression.

It was very nerve racking waiting to find out whether I had been successful. I got the phone call one day after work, several days after my interview .Terry Ulrick, the organiser of the whole event, had left me an answer phone message saying he was happy to tell me I had been successful in achieving the Print Futures Award and I would have to be attending an award ceremony in London along with other successful candidates. I was ecstatic! I immediately rang Tina and informed her of the good news. This meant I now had £2500 to spend on training for my current role within the I name it dream team.

I am now attending an evening class at the NCN Adams College studying a CIM introductory certificate in marketing. This course is perfect for me as it fulfils all aspects of what my job role entails as I learn about business, marketing and customer relationships. I am also planning on embarking on the CIM advanced certificate in marketing next year and then continuing on to do business and marketing at a diploma level.

I have really enjoyed my time at the Prime Group so far and it has given me so many exciting opportunities and opened lots of new doors for me. I hope to keep progressing here as I love working in such an interesting industry where everyday is different and satisfying.

Pro 9 Exhibition - Fiona's first exhibition with i name it.

When Tina first told me I would be going to the Pro 9 Exhibition with her in Amsterdam, I felt both excited, and nervous. It had been less than 6 months since I had started as an office junior within the I name it team and I hadn’t imagined I would be going to work abroad at an international trade show! I couldn’t wait!

As I had never been to an exhibition before, I was very eager to start talking to people about our products and I couldn’t wait to see what other stands people would be exhibiting there too.Not only did I see this as an opportunity to get our products known across the European Market but I also wanted to learn new attributes about the promotional merchandise industry and how to get the best out of exhibiting at such a big show.

Fortunately, there was a British Pavilion area where all the UK exhibitor stands were based; this initially made me feel more comfortable because everybody was really friendly and helpful and I met lots of new people. As it was the first day of the three day exhibition, we decided to arrive early at the RAI centre and get our stand set up so we were organised for when customers started arriving.
We were wearing orange t-shirts so we were very popular with the Dutch. As the hall began to get busy, I watched Tina stopping passers by and I listened to her telling them about how great our products were and how they are more than just a calendar, but an innovative and effective marketing tool.It didn’t take me long to get into the swing of things. I couldn’t wait to speak to my first customer and before I knew it I was also enticing customers and explaining to them the concept of taking personalisation to a much deeper level by including unique dates within their calendar and also our birthday scripting idea. Everybody was fascinated by, what they initially thought of as “just a calendar” when we explained to them about how our products are completely niche to the promotional products market and that our ability to use variable data printing can be used throughout all of our products to deliver something exclusive to their customers. There was one man that even commented on our calendars as “the best product he had seen all day."

As the exhibition progressed, I found myself becoming more confident about talking not just our products, but other solutions that I name it can offer. Tina and I didn’t let anybody walk past our stand until we had spoken to them about our products and we were both happy with the positive reaction we were getting from everybody.I could not have imagined the exhibition going any better and I have noticed a huge boost in my confidence towards selling our products so it was a great learning experience for me. At the end of the exhibition we had a huge jar full or business cards which we have since sent samples to and had an amazing response! Pro 9 was definitely a success for I name it and I hope next year will be even better!

Visit www.pro-ep.eu.com to find out more about the Pro exhibitions!