We’re catching up with Mel Smyth, one of our Strategic Account Managers, who recently won the title ‘Best Relationship Manager’ at the 2024 Car Finance Awards.
Mel delves into her role within Santander Consumer UK, giving insight into position as a Strategic Account Manager, where she works closely alongside our retailer partners.
What does your role consist of?
I’m a Strategic Account Manager at Santander Consumer UK, a role which I moved into in March having spent 10 years prior to that as a Business Development Manager. The two roles have a lot of similarities, but where previously I had been working predominantly at site level, I now work with some of our largest group accounts and manage the relationship at Director or Group F&I Lead level.
My primary role is to ensure that the aims and priorities of their business are supported by our products, services and people. Day to day this really varies but could mean looking at retention and renewals, conducting commercial and compliance reviews, looking at how we can grow the business to benefit both client and SCUK, or working on internal projects to constantly improve our offering.
What is your favourite part about your role?
I’m a people person, so it has to be the individuals I work with. This role means I need support from so many internal colleagues and teams that it is a great opportunity to get to know other areas of our business. Equally it is great to build relationships with the external clients – from my main contacts, to their key support functions, you are involved with so many layers of their organisation.
What is your Santander history?
I started with Santander Consumer UK in November 2013 on the Trainee Regional Manager graduate scheme. Being totally new to the industry (and on day one not even knowing what PCP stood for, let alone what it was!) I had a lot to learn, and the 6 months of intensive training we went through with all our internal departments gave me a great foundation into the industry.
In the decade I spent working in our core sales team as a BDM, I made some great relationships and constantly learned more about the industry. In recent years I have taken on more responsibilities and coached junior colleagues and have now moved into our Strategic Accounts team to further develop my career.
It is a fantastic company to work for, and a culture that really supports its colleagues to grow personally and professionally. We are afforded opportunities outside of our day job to join committees and projects, to give back through charities we support, and encouraged to learn from mentors and senior colleagues to get to the next level in your career.
I Move Together by… working with our Dealer Development Managers, BDMs and CRM team, to fully integrate our Gateway 3Sixty renewals platform into our dealer groups. With extensive support from colleagues that are experts in this field, we find ways to engage showroom staff and encourage use of the system, demonstrate how it could benefit their business and increase sales, and providing training and resources to see actual retention grow.
See all of our awards here.