Nasoni Havea

5.30 AM 
Wake up time! Every working day I have my 6.00am group HIIT gym class which is a mix of weights and cardio. Day in and day out, this session is a no-brainer, setting me up for success in the day to come. 

7.00 AM 
With my gym session all finished, now it’s time to iron my clothes, shower, and look sharp for a day of solid mahi. 

8.00 AM 
At Mainfreight our team is our most valuable asset. With my role focused on sales, it is important to me that I positively present myself and that I greet my team with a ‘good morning’ first thing. The next stop is to visit my old mate: the coffee machine, for my morning caffeine hit. 

8.10 AM
Emails are the first item on my work agenda. Anything that requires immediate attention gets addressed there and then. From there I start going over the previous week’s PAT (positive action team) meeting minutes in preparation for any updates or information I’ll discuss in our sales team meeting.

9.30 AM 
The sales pod, which includes our claims, admin, and accounts team, meets in the boardroom for our weekly PAT. The purpose of this meeting is to go over our progress with sales pipelines and address any projects or initiatives for existing customers. 

10.00 AM
Back to my desk to clear my inbox, and I start ‘posting’. This is the invoicing process where I check over ratings from the week prior and approve charges that will show on our customer’s weekly invoices. This process is vital for accurate customer invoicing, but also for my Branch Manager as at the end of each Monday, he reports the branch’s weekly Profit & Loss (P&L) to Mainfreight New Zealand’s General Manager of Transport. The weekly P&L is crucial for keeping track of branch growth and success by comparing the week that was, to the same week the previous year. 

11.30 AM
Posting is done and my inbox is cleared. I then look over my final proposal for a tender competing with a large prospective customer which has their national distribution centre located nearby. I ensure that the documents to be presented have been proofread by my regional Sales and Branch Manager, and I submit the tender once done. Now it's just a waiting game - waiting eagerly for a favourable response. 

12.15 PM
Lunch time! Lunchtime is my favourite thing about Mainfreight. Most of our branches have a cook who prepares a cooked lunch every working day, and sharing a meal is a massive part of our company culture.

1.30 PM 
I have my first customer meeting for the week which is a monthly catch-up with one of my largest accounts. Consistent account management calls are crucial for building a rapport with key contacts and ensuring quality is maintained. Discussion topics are often around the Delivered In Full On Time (DIFOT) performance, and other business development matters. In this meeting we discussed overall business financials, looking at patterns in trade lanes and where they foresee more growth in sales for the new calendar year. 

2.30 PM
The second meeting of the day is a big new business opportunity. A cold call a couple of weeks ago led me to discover that this opportunity was a hot prospect, so I booked a meeting with the Supply Chain Manager. For this initial formal meeting, I had a few key points in mind that I put on the table. The meeting was very positive and I came out with an opportunity to present rates and a full proposal which I will work on submitting by the end of the week.

3.30 PM
Back into the office, and the key is to get my meeting notes into our sales portal. We have always been told: “if it isn’t in Mainsale, it never happened”. The trick is to get the notes into Mainsale right away while the thoughts and scribbles in the diary still make some sort of sense. Getting comprehensive notes into the system is also important for future account managers to leverage. 

4.00 PM 
I check in with the rest of the sales team on how their day has gone and if I can be of any assistance. One of the reps in my team is a recent addition so I ensure that we do joint sales calls together for exposure to customer interactions and to gain some confidence in being able to sell supply chain solutions. Our new Account Manager and I have planned two joint meetings tomorrow morning with a couple of my old accounts, where I will introduce him as their new Account Manager and go over some expectations. It is an important stepping stone to stay involved, buddy up, and guide the new reps who are less experienced in their early stages as sales reps. 

5.30 PM
I put on the high-vis vest, get down to the operation, and walk the floor. This is where the knowledge of your customer’s freight profiles is built, by seeing it in the flesh! More important for me personally, is building relationships with the drivers and store team - got to love a good handshake and a yarn with the team for morale! 

6.00 PM
I have cleared my inbox and looked over the P&L with my Branch Manager. We go over improvements to make operationally that will in turn help the branch financially. I am now off home to cook dinner for my partner and I'm thinking a good Thai green curry could be on the cards! 

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