We often say Brand New Day is a great place to work—but is it really?
The best way to find out is by asking the people who work here. This time, we sat down with Richard Horn.
Hi Richard! Your official job title is Head of Retail Sales. What does that actually mean?
Richard: “It does sound a bit fancy, doesn’t it? I usually just tell people I manage the Sales team. Together with my team, my job is simply to help as many people as possible open an account with Brand New Day. That’s about as straightforward as it gets.”
Have you convinced all your friends and family to become customers yet?
Richard: “Absolutely!” laughs. “Well… almost all of them. I’m 28 and most of my friends are under 30 as well, so retirement isn’t exactly top of mind for everyone yet. But they’re definitely thinking about it more now than they were five years ago when I started working here.”
In five years, you’ve gone from Junior Sales Representative to Senior, then Team Manager and now Head of Retail Sales. Are you a real career climber?
Richard: “Yes!” laughs. “I can honestly say I am.”
So the next step is joining the Executive Board?
Richard: “That would certainly be nice!”
What’s the difference between being a Team Manager and a Department Head?
Richard: “A Team Manager is much more involved in the day-to-day wellbeing of the team. That’s not to say I don’t care about that—I do—but they work much closer to the day-to-day reality. I try to keep that distance as small as possible.
As Head of Sales, I can come up with all sorts of great ideas, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll work in practice.
A few months ago, I introduced a new process that looked great on paper. Then I joined the team on the work floor—as I still regularly do, because I don’t just sit in meetings all day—and quickly realised it wasn’t practical at all. That’s when your Team Manager tells you, ‘Nice idea, Richard, but here’s why it won’t work.’ They really are an important sounding board.”
Who are the people you speak to on the phone or in the chat?
Richard: “It’s incredibly diverse. One day I spoke to the owner of a successful company earning around €250,000 to €300,000 a year, with another half a million euros in assets they wanted to invest. As soon as I hung up, the next call came in. It was a woman receiving social benefits who asked whether it would be okay if she invested just €10 or €20 a month because money was tight, but she still wanted to save for retirement.
That was quite an extreme contrast. In general, around 40% of the people we speak to are self-employed. Almost as many are employees who already have a pension through their employer but want to build up something extra. That’s exactly where we can help.”
What do potential customers ask about most?
Richard: “Most questions are tax-related. How does the tax benefit work? How does tax relief work? Sometimes people ask what we would consider very basic questions, like how income tax works.
I’d say around 60 to 70 percent of our questions are about tax. The rest are about investing: how does Brand New Day invest, and why should I invest with Brand New Day? That’s where we explain our investment philosophy. We focus heavily on keeping costs low. We can’t control investment returns, but we can control costs.”
How’s business going?
Richard: “We’re on track to meet our targets this year.”
Can you tell us anything more?
Richard: laughs. “Not really. But we’re ahead of schedule.”
You have quite a few working students in your team. Are they really qualified to talk about serious financial products?
Richard: “That’s a great question—and yes, absolutely. Many of them study Economics or Finance, which makes sense because we’re a bank. But everyone follows exactly the same training programme. Some people already have more financial knowledge than others, but anyone with the right attitude can succeed here.”
Even someone studying Fine Arts?
Richard: “Definitely. I actually have someone on my team who’s studying History. He was genuinely interested in learning about personal finance, so we welcomed him with open arms. He’s doing a fantastic job.”
Brand New Day is very clear that it doesn’t provide financial advice. Why is that, and doesn’t it make your job in Sales more difficult?
Richard: “Our goal is to offer customers the lowest possible costs. Providing financial advice would mean hiring certified advisers, maintaining professional certifications and charging advisory fees. That would make our products more expensive.
Instead, we focus on giving people the information they need to make their own decisions. That does mean we’re careful about the language we use. Even slightly steering someone towards a particular choice could be seen as giving advice. So we always stay on the safe side. We explain everything from A to Z, but the final decision is always up to the customer.”
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Richard: “This might sound like a cliché, but it’s the people.
A couple of years ago, that mainly meant the customers I spoke to every day. Helping someone who has no idea where to start and seeing them leave the conversation with confidence—that’s incredibly rewarding.
Nowadays, I get most of my energy from helping my colleagues grow.
I remember one situation about a year ago. It was busy, so I was taking customer calls myself. One of our junior colleagues said, ‘Richard, I’ve got someone on the line and I honestly don’t know how to help them. Could I transfer the call to you?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Would you mind listening in while I handle it?’
We ended up having a great conversation with the customer, and by asking just one key question, I uncovered what they were really looking for. We were able to open an account, and it turned out to be a real learning moment for my colleague. He started using that same question in his own conversations afterwards. Watching someone have that kind of breakthrough is one of the most rewarding parts of my job.”
Curious to experience what Richard is talking about? Take a look at our current vacancies, or get in touch with our HR team for a cup of coffee or tea. We’d love to meet you.
