Meet John Kilburn

Thirty years in the motor trade means John’s answered plenty of tough questions — but now it’s time for the important ones in our ‘Get to Know’ series!

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Who are you?

I’m John Kilburn and I have been working for Titan for over 7 years now, which in all honesty has absolutely flown by.

I’ve been in the Motor Trade for 30 years which confirms the old adage that once you’re in the Motor Trade, you can’t get out, but I’ve honestly really enjoyed (nearly) all of it.

I am born and bred in Birmingham, England and now live just outside the city in Stratford-Upon-Avon.  I have been married for 25 years now to my wife Fiona and we have 2 daughters who still cost us money weekly!

I started working in 1986 at Cadburys before moving to a local firm called Kalamazoo in the print factory (yes this is before computers – I am that old) and then had various roles before getting into IT sales in the Motor Trade.

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What do you do?

I am the Sales Manager for Great Britain and Ireland and my work includes sourcing leads through initial meetings and demos to the main goal of a signature on a contract.

I also work on installs when needed and love being in the thick of it when we put a new client live.

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What do you love most about your profession?

I have been in sales for 30 years now and to this day the buzz you get when someone shakes your hand on a deal is unbeatable.  You could have been working on this deal for a year, hundreds of emails, phone calls, questions, plenty of meetings and back and forth conversations.  The fact that you get the person/people to trust you and believe in you is a great feeling, especially when you know that you are being backed up the product you are trying to sell. I really could never do anything else now.

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What do you most like about working for Titan?

This is an easy one to answer for me.  Our UK Head Office in Warwick is 10,500 miles away from our Australian Head Office in Brisbane. Our day is their night, our winter is their summer etc, etc, so we could be seen as somewhat of an outlier.

But no, this is the great thing about TITAN. We never, ever feel alone over here and we get the full support of every department as if we were sitting in the next office.  

Take the example of a recent install where we needed 10 staff to cover 10 locations of a group that went live.  The guys, without hesitation, put their hand up to come over and work for potentially 6-8 weeks to help us.  Some of them stayed even longer to help with further training and updates and the back-up we have had from the dev team in Vietnam through the support manager in Brisbane just shows that no matter where in the world a TITAN customer is, we all work as one team to ensure success.

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What’s the best piece of advice you have for anyone in your profession?

I would say to do all the research you can on the potential customer before you talk to/meet them. To be able to sit in front of a stranger and talk about their business, their company history, recent news etc., immediately garners trust and for me, trust is one of the most important things you need to build in order to be successful.

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What is your superpower?

I reckon it's my ability to be able to speak to anyone, regardless of role, from the cleaner to the CEO and find some relatability in them all.  

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What are we likely to find you doing outside work?

I love to socialise with my friends and go out for good food and the odd beer!  I love to watch sport and I play golf badly. Travel with my wife or friends is a big thing and I enjoy a European city break and holidays further away. I also enjoy reading and am still a gamer, although I’m too old and slow for the online shooters these days!

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Tell us a book we should read, a film we should watch, and a podcast we should listen to.

Film – I love a classic great like Gladiator or The Green Mile.
Book – I really enjoy sports books/biographies and a couple of the best are ‘The Miracle of Castel di Sangro’ about the rise and fall of a small football club in Italy or the biography of Andre Agassi – the way he fought his way back to the top 3 times during his career is inspirational.
Podcast – Blue Rising.  A new podcast from my football team, Birmingham City.

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In three words, sum up what makes a great team.

Trust. Unity. Resilience.

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Thanks John!

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