Women in Broking: Nickie Conde

LAST year Nickie Conde passed a big milestone – a quarter of a century in automotive. And much of that has been working with the broker market. 

So, how did Nickie get started in automotive? As a freshly qualified English graduate, she was unsure of her career path – other than being extremely clear that it wouldn’t be teaching. Post university, Nickie moved home and took a temporary job with Ford Rental to ‘tide her over’; it was the start of something big, because she never has never left the motoring sector since. Nickie explains why:

‘For me, it’s not about a passion for cars, it’s the brilliant people and characters that keep me here. It can be hard and fast paced, but it’s good fun too. I always do my job with a smile on my face, no two days are the same and you never know what will come next. Broking is where my heart lies – I wholeheartedly recommend it!’

Nickie’s temporary stint at Ford Rental ended up lasting eight years as she progressed through the business ending up as National Corporate Account Manager. From Ford, Nickie moved on to working for leasing companies. First up was seven years at LeasePlan, where she held Account Manager and Relationship Manager positions. And then came almost a decade at Alphabet, which Nickie cites as a ‘real career highlight’ as she helped set up its broker channel from scratch. 

Then last year, the position of Broker Sales Channel Lead for Arval UK came up and Nickie says she just had to apply for the role which was ‘as if I’d written my own job spec’. The position includes all the elements she loves, as well as a great company culture. Nickie relishes the variety – she is regularly out on the road seeing brokers, she gets to enjoy the buzz of the Swindon office and also has the flexibility to work from home. 

Throughout her career, Nickie feels she has been well supported by managers who ‘pushed her to do more than I thought I could’. Which also might be why she unexpectedly ended up in sales:

‘I was actually quite shy when I started out – my younger self would never have believed I would work in sales! I view it more as a relationship management role – if you can ‘do people’ you can ‘do sales’. Women tend to do really well but they don’t always put themselves forward as they think they aren’t ‘salesy’ enough. As an industry, we need to encourage more women in.’

When Nickie started out in automotive, she says ‘you could count the women at industry dinners on one hand’, but the balance is better now. Four out of five of her current team are female and she feels the broker channel across many funders has good female representation. Nickie is delighted to see the progress of the industry over the years, commenting:

‘When I started in sales in the early 2000s I did come up against people who didn’t give myself or other female colleagues the respect that we deserved – I’m pleased to say those individuals are now few and far between. I’ve been very fortunate with the teams I’ve worked in, and I have to say that it has often been male colleagues who have been my biggest champions. It’s great to see women championing other women in this industry but we shouldn’t neglect the men supporting women too, of which there are many.’

And finally, any nuggets of wisdom for the next generation of women in automotive?