Women in Broking: Sarah Worthington

SARAH Worthington says she always wanted to work in automotive; early work experience at the BMW Academy cemented that.

When her father questioned how Sarah thought she could progress from working as a pool lifeguard to working at BMW, the gauntlet was laid down for an 18-year-old Sarah.

Sarah held early roles in leisure at Everyone Active and then moved onto David Lloyd Clubs as a Sales Consultant which clearly played to her strengths. That first sales job led to her much desired first automotive position. Sarah explains:

‘I’ve always loved cars. I come from a family that loves Formula 1 and my father had a superbike team so I used to go and watch that a lot as a child. Automotive is very much who I am so I was always going to work in the industry.’

Sarah’s initial motoring role was Corporate Sales Administrator for Sytner BMW Solihull at the age of 20. While At Sytner, she also juggled finishing her Business degree. Encouragingly, Sarah found the dealership environment a great place to work:

 ‘I’ve always been made to feel equal – both in dealership and broking environments. My success has been rewarded based on performance and I would say that it has always been very fair. Success in my sales figures is what led me to where I am today and the fact that I exceeded males in a sales environment meant that I earned respect.’

During six years at Sytner, Sarah worked her way up, holding positions including MINI Corporate Business Development Manager and lastly, BMW / MINI Corporate Sales Manager. That is when she met Select Car Leasing. 

Sarah was given the opportunity by Select Managing Director Graham Conway to start up its corporate channel and she took the role of Corporate Sales Manager in March 2020. Yes, just before lockdown, which Sarah describes as ‘not an ideal time to start a new position’. But that certainly didn’t stop her.

Until Sarah joined the business, Select had been principally focused on personal contract hire – she was given the task of building the corporate proposition from scratch. Fleet solutions is now a core part of the Select business and includes fleet management and salary sacrifice. Sarah has also built a team around her over the last four years which continues to grow. So, how does broking compare with working for a dealership?

‘I love the flexibility you get in broking. It’s brilliant to be able to go to a corporate customer and offer a suite of manufacturers – everything from a Suzuki Swift to a Tesla. We have real flexibility in what we can offer, we have a big suite of funders to choose from and solutions that save businesses money.’

And working business to business is genuinely Sarah’s passion – she describes it as ‘open sales’ because it is so solution based. She says that she loves working with businesspeople who tend to be ‘straight to the point’ and relishes ‘getting under the skin of why a business’s fleet is growing’. 

Sarah describes her role as hugely varied. She oversees fleet solutions sales and supports her team with everything from new tenders to existing customer meetings. She also oversees the sales channel development strategy, ensuring that the offering continues to be competitive. All that does equate to ’a lot of meetings’ which are typically a mix of online and in-person meetings as well as fleet events.

And what advice does Sarah have for women looking to get into automotive?