25th April 2024

Vicky Wolanin

Eight-and-a-half years ago, Vicky Wolanin joined the Scania Financial Services (SFS) team. Today, as our Sales Manager – Retail, Vicky works with our UK team of 12 Business Managers looking after the needs of our customers and dealers nationwide.  We caught up with Vicky to find out more about her and her role.

What did you do before joining SFS?

“I worked for HSBC bank for five years, but was then made redundant.  I found a job with Scania at Normanton, working in the Customer Contact Centre.  After six months I successfully applied for a position as a Trainee Accounts Manager with SFS.  From there I progressed to Account Manager for our North region, after which I went on to manage our team covering the North, East and Scotland regions, plus our franchised dealers Haydock Commercials, West Pennine Trucks, Graham Commercials and Road Trucks. Scania is great if you’re looking to develop your career, and encourages staff to progress should you so wish. I did, and benefited once again when the opportunity to manage the team responsible for all Scania’s captive dealers came up.  That was followed by a restructuring of our operations which led to me being appointed to my current role of Sales Manager – Retail.

Tell us about your job

“In a nutshell, my job is to deliver our sales strategy to our sales team and help them maximise our performance in terms of securing asset finance deals and providing insurance opportunities for C&C Insurance Brokers Limited, (C&C), for whom we are an Introducer Appointed Representative.  In doing this relationship management is key, both with our customers and our dealers,  Whether the conversation is about products, rates or resolving any issues that may arise, our focus is firmly fixed on our customers; we always seek to derive the best outcome from their point-of-view.

“I don’t have a typical day, that’s for sure.  For example, I’m about to spend two days travelling and meeting customers with our sales executives, followed by an admin day at home before I come to the office to meet one of our independent dealers and have a series of meetings with colleagues within SFS.” 

What’s your favourite part of the job?

“My job is a frontline role in many respects and I love the variety it brings – overseeing the activities of our team and working with them, our dealers, our franchised dealers and our customers.  Helping to develop solutions and solving any challenges that come up make it a really rewarding job.”

How would you describe the culture at SFS?

“Everything we do revolves around Scania’s core values of Customer First, Respect, Team Spirit, Responsibility and the Elimination of Waste; in short, the Scania Way.  The benefit of this is that we all have a very clear path to follow and I’d say that during my time with Scania, the culture has been getting stronger and stronger; today, we’re very much a unified team.  While SFS is a relatively small business where everybody is quite close and we all know each other, we are also part of the larger Scania family, which today we refer to as ‘One Scania’.  And you know that cohesive family feel really does run throughout the entire Scania organisation.  We all treat each other the same and everybody works together – it's a great place to work.”

How do you find navigating a predominately male industry?

“I don't find any issues. I mean, everybody's treated the same. Whether you're a man or a woman if you're the right person for the job, you're the right person for the job and you're accepted as that. That’s how it’s been in my experience.”

What changes have you seen in your time with SFS?

“There have been a number of key changes in terms of product development, our relationship with C&C and developing our customer-centric approach with flexibility at its core. Behind the scenes there have been major system upgrades, designed to benefit us, our dealers and our customers by simplifying processes and procedures and future-proofing the business. There have also, of course, been some personnel changes, but in saying that we also have a lot of long-standing employees and stability within SFS.”