Full name:
Ashley Jay O’Reilly-Meredith
Age:
I’m 30
Job title:
Sales Executive for the South West region.
How long have you worked at BSW?
I’ve been at BSW for one year now.
How would you explain your job to people outside of the company?
I strengthen & maintain relationships within our customer base. I speak with Timber buyers across the South West & Wales to push sales and aid them with their seasonal purchasing. I also contact architects across my area to help promote our attractive range of added value products, such as IRO Timber and Alchemy composite decking.
How did you get into your role?
I had been working in a builder’s merchants for a while and knew the ins and outs of how things worked so I wanted to explore the other side of the counter with a supplier, applied and here I am today.
Walk us through a typical day at work:
After a cup of strong black coffee, I check my emails and have a quick look through LinkedIn to see what’s happening within our sector. I then spend the day contacting my customers to speak about their future purchases and we’ll go through their current orders and branch sales figures as well, before the pandemic I would spend a lot of time out and about meeting our customer’s in branch to see if there’s anything we can help with, but 2020 has moved a lot of that interaction online so I’ve became a pro at Zoom.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve worked on at BSW?
I’m still in the early stages of my career yet but at one point I had contacted an architect and spoke about our IRO product range, I’d seen his portfolio of work and just knew that IRO would have made a great addition to his projects. He subsequently placed an order for a large amount of IRO that is currently being worked on. It took me a little while to get through to the order stage after sending over data sheets and explaining more about the product, so that’s probably the coolest thing I’ve worked on so far and it’s a great feeling to see a sale start from scratch right through to the finish and I can’t wait to see the finished project.
If you could invent anything, what would it be?
100% a time machine, who wouldn’t want a time machine.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
It has to be the opportunity to speak with different people every day and I love going out to see customers and really getting to know them during more normal times.
What’s your favourite Movie?
The Joker
Who’s your favourite superhero and why?
This is going to sound really ‘nerdy’ but it’s an unusual one – Doctor Fate from the DC Universe. Some of the original story lines for this character are really interesting plus the design of the character is very unique and he looks amazing.
What else do you do outside of work?
I like to spendy my time keeping fit ad active, I have a young family, with two boys so there’s always plenty of time spent outside, running around.
In fact, we’re always outside in all weathers and like to go out exploring around the Cotswolds near where I live. I also support my local football team Swindon Town, which I’m sure I’ll get plenty of stick about – if I ever get some downtime, I’ll spend some time reading comic books and gaming out on the PlayStation.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m unsure at the moment, I’m very early into my BSW career and still learning the ropes, so who knows what the future may hold.
