Employee Spotlight: Luke Abbott, Business Development Manager

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Luke started his journey with Pod Point as a Sales Executive/Administrator before being promoted to Team Leader. Eventually, he moved to a brand-new role as Business Development Manager for our newly established Automotive team, looking after Pod Point’s relationships with our dealership network.

Hi Luke! Tell us why you joined Pod Point.

Before joining Pod Point, I was already working in the electric car industry selling EVs for BMW. I definitely wanted to stay within sustainable and future technology, and moving into somewhere like Pod Point gave me the opportunity to be a bigger cog within the machine where you actually feel like a significant part of the company.

And how did you get to where you are now?

I started as a Sales Executive/Administrator and was promoted to Team Leader. But my current role was effectively created for me. Pod Point has always had fantastic relationships with OEMs and vehicle manufacturers, who themselves have close relationships with their dealer network. But there was nothing tying Pod Point to the dealer network. My background working within automotive retail sales was a perfect fit, and so a role was created that suited my background and my skills.

What motivates you to do the work you do?

My role is within our business-to-customer side, and I still really enjoy the fact that every chargepoint we sell means another person is driving an EV - that’s another person that’s switching to more sustainable travel.

My background working within automotive retail sales was a perfect fit, and so a role was created that suited my background and my skills.

What’s it been like working with multiple teams across the business?

My role has lots of touchpoints within different departments, especially the Homecharge team where I feel like an honorary member, but I also work with the Software team and QA testing for new features.

Do you think the culture has changed since going remote?

I think it has. When we were in the office, there was a close bond between people in the office, but we still had a large number of employees working remotely like our field teams, which are made up of Pod Point Experts spread across the whole of the UK and regional sales people etc. What’s fantastic is having now switched everyone to remote, it feels like we are far more connected to everyone as one big company. Now, everyone is in the same boat, so there’s a lot more effort to include everyone and ensure that the Pod Point culture is felt wherever you work.

Have you or the company learned anything since becoming remote?

Literally within a month of going remote, the company realised we could have done this sooner. The flexibility that people enjoy, the fact that we switched so quickly and we’re continuing to improve on sales despite everything shows that working from home wasn’t a limiting factor. We’ve also retained people that we might otherwise have lost. I’ve got colleagues that were commuting into the office daily who are now working 100% remotely, and I don’t think they would have stayed working at Pod Point had we not switched.

Having now switched everyone to remote, it feels like we are far more connected to everyone as one big company.

Amazing! Now it’s time for the fun stuff. We’d like to know:

If you had to pick one, which EV would you be and why?

I would probably be a MINI Electric because I enjoy city living, am not that tall and am also originally from Oxford.

If you could do any job in the world, what would it be and why?

When I was young I either wanted to be a fast-jet pilot or an actor, so maybe a starring role in the next Top Gun film would tick both boxes!

If you were going on an EV road trip, which 3 songs would 100% be in your music playlist?

R.E.M - Drive
Woodkid - Run Boy Run
Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place

And there you have it! If you’d like to join Luke and the rest of the team at Pod Point, we’re constantly growing our company with talented people like yourself. To find your future role, head over to our careers page and browse our current vacancies. We look forward to working with you soon!

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