Not many people can say they’ve stayed with the same company since graduating college, all while amassing an extensive resume of experience and accolades. But that’s exactly what Erin Platus has achieved during her 17-year sales career at Cox.
“I’ve never looked outside of Cox; I want to retire here,” she said. “This is the only place that I've ever been, and I know how good I have it.”
One reason Erin has decided to build a long-term career at Cox is because of the company’s culture of encouraging continuous growth and development: she has been able to move into new roles across different parts of the business and become a director of sales.
Here, Erin talks about how her sales career evolved alongside Cox’s automotive division.
Shifting gears
When Erin was deciding her major college, her dad gave her a great piece of career advice: pick a path that can lead you in many directions, so you’re not limiting your choices later in life.
“He told me, ‘I think you’ll be more satisfied long-term with having many different options,’ and he was really right because that’s what has really served me in history of my career,” Erin said.
She got a business degree in marketing with an emphasis on sales and landed her first job as an advertising consultant at a trade magazine, Auto Mart, which at the time was part of Cox Automotive. Within a couple of years, she was tapped to join the team at Autotrader.
“I thought it was going to be really hard getting into the to the corporate world, and it wasn’t,” she said. “It was just a very natural fit.”
Cox’s growth continued to open new doors for Erin’s career trajectory. While others take to job-hopping for career growth, Erin was able to make moves internally, taking on new roles at some of the company’s newest additions, including vAuto and Dealer.com. After gaining experience across different parts of the auto business, she returned to Autotrader, where she is now a sales director.
What makes career mobility at Cox special is that you can experience even a startup-like environment with the backing of a large enterprise, Erin explained. Some of the roles within smaller and newer businesses at Cox taught her how to be more resourceful as a salesperson.
“I think that was really important for my career in general,” she said. “It also helped me become a better leader.”
Better alignment
Erin has seen how all the different parts of Cox Automotive come together and work seamlessly — not only as a suite of software products solutions, but also as a team.
Erin saw firsthand the value of collaborating with other teams at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual convention, when members of the product team members were able to connect with customers and sell more than the sales team.
“That was that was really eye opening; like, ‘We need to be connecting with these guys more often,’” she said. “It helped me understand more about the product and get more excited about the product helped me feel like I had more control and more buy-in about the company because I was helping develop it from a sales perspective.”
Now, as a sales leader, Erin encourages her team to collaborate with one another and with other teams across the business. To foster that sense of teamwork within her own sales team, Erin makes it a point to celebrate and acknowledge when people are contributing and supporting each other.
“If you’re not sharing, if you’re not asking for help, if we don’t have that culture of trust, then it doesn’t work,” Erin said. “A lot of our products go hand-in-hand and knowing how they all work together gives us an advantage as well.”
A culture of growth and balance
When Erin swaps work stories with her friends, she hears how other companies don’t actively encourage conversations about career mobility.
“I’m really grateful that it is the complete opposite here,” she said. “That’s one reason to come here to grow your career and what makes Cox a great place to be.”
Erin joked that you “can’t escape a conversation about your career trajectory” when you work at Cox — it’s ingrained in the culture and it’s an ongoing conversation between employees and their leaders.
“Everything is about how to get to the next level, whether that next level is a promotion or developing a skill,” she said.
Right now, Erin says she’s focused on development within her current role while enjoying work-life balance as a mom of two small children.
“Working from home is a lot more flexible, so if something came up, I’d always be able to adjust my schedule around that.”
Erin is enjoying this stage in life, and she knows that her boss has her back whenever she’s ready to take the next step in her career.
“I know that in a couple of years, that conversation will change to, ‘What position are we going for?’ and that is very motivating for me to be able to always look forward,” she said.
