As a company that prides itself on celebrating life, everyday, everywhere - there is no better place than Diageo when it comes to a career in sales.

With opportunities to network, explore new untapped markets and utilise your people skills, you can really shape a career that is perfect for ‘you’.

Where Women Work recently spoke with Barbara Carrasco, a Commercial Planning & Activation On Trade Executive at Diageo Iberia and discovered this has certainly rung true for her.

Part of a global team

Growing up in a small cathedral village in the province of Salamanca, Barbara Carrasco had always set her sights on a career where she could be part of a global team. With a degree in Humanities and a Masters in Protocol, Events and Marketing from the University Complutense of Madrid, Barbara worked her first job as an events hostess. Armed with great experience working with Diageo Brands, Barbara didn’t know of the great career progression that lay ahead.

“I’ve worked for Diageo Brands my whole adult life. In 2005, I had the opportunity to join the Baileys team for a year and it was here that I started to improve my sales capabilities, negotiating with both wholesalers and trade customers. In 2006, I started working in the Consumer Events team as Regional Field Marketing, where I worked for 4 years in contact with agencies and activation staff teams. Then in 2010 Diageo called me to start working as a Field Sales representative in Salamanca - and wow what an experience!” explains Barbara. It was during this role Barbara learnt how to work with customers, develop her sales skills and understand how strong Diageo brands are in the field.

“In 2011 I moved to Toledo as On Trade Key Account, leading the sales responsibility with wholesalers, cash and carries, regional retail customers and all the on trade venues in my region. I was there for three years until I had the opportunity of join the Customer Marketing Team, where I’ve now been working for the last few years.”

Brands that you’re proud to represent

Working in Sales can be challenging but Barbara believes that it’s the challenges that make her work at Diageo so rewarding. “Diageo has the best people and the best brands so it's really easy to feel part of this company. You can work on exciting projects and feel proud of the company you work for. Of course it's not always easy and there are many challenges. Competition in the market can be tough so you have to be fast and make sure you work hard for your customers,” she explains.

How to succeed in sales at Diageo

With great breadth of experience, Barbara is confident in the qualities needed for a successful sales career at Diageo. “If you have the capacity to analyse situations, resolve problems in a fast way, empathise and understand customers and you have a persuasive and friendly personality, then a career in sales could be for you,” advises Barbara.

Proud of what she does

Looking back on the numerous projects she has worked on at Diageo Iberia, Barbara remembers one successful sales negotiation in particular. “A day I’ll never forget was when one of my most important customers finally made a large order for Christmas that meant our whole department would reach its targets. I was incredibly happy because I’d worked so hard on the negotiation and I felt truly proud that I’d been able to understand the customer’s needs so well. From then on our relationship became even more solid, enjoyable and fruitful, both for my team and for Diageo as a whole.”

If you think you have what it takes to enjoy a thriving sales career, research the exciting vacancies with commercial teams at Diageo today.

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