Meet our CRO, Jack Coles

FaultFixers has come a long way since its inception in 2017. We’ve secured an Innovate UK grant, developed and launched some amazing new features and grew the team from one to seven. 

In all of our success, Jack has been a massive driving force for helping make all this happen and we’re proud to announce that Jack has been promoted to CRO. 

We take a moment to sit down and chat with Jack to find out more about his journey from Sales Executive to now FaultFixers CRO. 

Tell me about landing your first ever gig? 

To be honest, looking back I made some very interesting career choices...that eventually led me to where I am today.

After graduating from Hull University in the midst of a recession, I struggled to find work so made the move to Manchester with a few mates, eventually landing a role as a Sales Exec for a small accountancy software company.

It was an interesting first day, with the one day’s training consisting of basically “ask loads of open questions!” I am glad sales training has moved on since then!

A year and a half later, I made the decision to move to London for increased job opportunities and the desire to explore LDN! I was lucky enough that a few friends had already made the move and put me up in a small flat in Tooting. 

I then did some temping for a bit before landing my first big break at an events company called UBM (Now been acquired by Informa) 

UBM was an amazing experience, having an awesome team, tonnes of training and the opportunity to learn and improve my skill set. Still close with some people from there to this day.

I'll never forget walking into the office for the first time for an interview as the building was huge and being super nervous.

Did you expect to be where you are today back then? 

No, back then I was just desperate for a job! There are little moments you look back on and reflect on how much you have grown. At uni, I did a summer gig with a friend who is also a sales leader now, where we would go door to door for a company to complete NHS surveys.

Eventually, this led to my current role at FaultFixers, working with a bunch of driven and creative individuals working towards making maintenance teams more awesome ;)

Is Sales something you had always been interested in?

I was always interested in business/marketing, particularly in the psychology behind why people make decisions. (I did my degree in marketing) and I still find it fascinating to this day. 

From there I took a side job one summer selling tickets and it went from there.

What did you have to do to get to where you are today? 

I think my career really accelerated around 2017 when I started taking control of my own self-development. 

I was lucky at the time to work under a leadership team/company that believed in my abilities and pushed me to achieve higher goals that I wasn’t sure was possible. 

Additionally, they created a fantastic culture which allowed me to learn skills that I hadn’t had the opportunity to do so (I went from never having interviewed someone to interviewing a candidate for a director in 6 months)

From there it spurred me to take a very active role in my own development and of constant improvement. My process/tips are:

• Read 30 minutes every morning on a subject I am trying to improve/learn
• Consume webinar content - I love Saleshacker/Revco webinars
• Actively take on courses which improve you
• Review your development on a monthly basis and refocus as required
• Build yourself a leadership circle of individuals you can discuss challenges with

There is so much content available to help you improve so I urge everyone to take an active role in their own development!

Do you have any advice for someone who is looking at starting a career in Sales? 

If you have a coachable, curious, growth mindset you can excel at anything in life!

What was it like when you first joined FaultFixers?

Starting at FaultFixers I spent a lot of time working in Tom’s kitchen creating/testing the first steps of our SDR process!

The early days were a lot of testing/puzzle-solving/hustling! Very enjoyable as you feel you are making a meaningful difference to a company, much more so than if I was at a large corporate. However, we also had our low points, such is the nature of a start-up.

Being in an early-stage startup gives me energy, trying to figure out what the next area to focus on with limited resources is so much fun! 

Any big plans for the future at FaultFixers?

Always - we are about to launch a large product update in May which is exciting as it will improve functionality for our clients and having grown the team from 2 - 8 in the last 3 months, we still have tonnes of room for growth.