Careen:
Head: Sales
Hi Careen, what does your role involve?
ooba is a mortgage origination company. We facilitate the home loan application for the home-buyer, so we’re the go-between between the home-buyer and the bank. We ensure that we get the best deal for the customer.
As the Head of Home Loans Sales, I’m responsible the growth of our sales in the home loans division. We have home loan sales consultants all across South Africa who work with our customers, with estate agents and with the banks.
My main focus is on assisting the Provincial Sales Managers, like Justin and Linda and Etrecia, on a daily basis. This includes understanding the opportunities in the marketplace as well as how these can be used to grow and gain marketshare.
What’s the approach to sales at ooba?
We have a value proposition for both real estate providers and the consumer.
Our value proposition for real estate agents: we make sure that we’re in control of their deal and we make sure that the deal happens for them so that they have a sale.
Our value proposition for the consumer: we make the process of applying for a home loan much easier and we make sure that they get the best deal.
What’s the workplace culture like at ooba?
As a management team, we want to ensure that all our people enjoy working at ooba and have fun doing so. We have various activities in place to support this, including sales functions, awards events and recognition ceremonies, an annual conference, and an annual over-seas incentive trip for top performers.
How is the home loan sales and financial services industry changing?
We’re seeing quite a shift in the marketplace. There are various new platforms that are coming into the financial services industry, including the new banks (like Time Bank, Zero Bank, Discovery Bank) and digital media (like digital adverting and digital self-servicing platforms). There’s more direct-to-consumer platforms entering the market competing for business.
The more equipped ooba makes itself to deal with the consumer online then the better we’ll manage these changes.
What are the career opportunities at ooba?
ooba is a growing company, so there are career opportunities in our home loans division as well as our other divisions (such as insurance). There’s career opportunities for people both from a growth and succession perspective.
In our home loans sales division, the opportunities for career growth include, for example, someone might join us in an Assistant role (where they help a Home Loans Sales Consultant in their day-to-day work), then as they develop, grow and gain more knowledge over time they might be promoted into a Sales Consultant role themselves.
Some Sales Consultants get the opportunity to move into management positions and in our management team a Regional Manager (like Vivienne) sometimes get the opportunity to become a Provincial Manager. Also, there are administrative career roles and opportunities too.
Thanks for sharing, Careen!
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