Archie joined the Furza Academy without any commercial experience, having finished a Spanish and business degree. Eight months into his role at Loxa he has booked 147 meetings, closed 12 contracts and has been promoted to Commercial Manager, where he continues to run the full sales cycles from first contact through to close.
147 meetings booked
60 of those meetings personally run by Archie
12 contracts closed
Promoted to Commercial Manager in six months
Loxa is a full-stack MGA built for modern commerce. The London business designs and manages insurance programmes that plug directly into retail and digital customer journeys, taking on everything from regulatory setup and product design through to integration and insurer capacity.
Scaling a proposition of that kind depends on a commercial team who can explain a technical product to the right audience and create conversations that would not otherwise happen. Loxa partnered with Furza to bring early-career sales talent into the business and develop it properly from the outset, rather than competing for experienced hires in a tight market.
Like many graduates, Archie left university without a clear direction, taking labouring work while he applied for roles. The prompt to look at technology sales came from a conversation on holiday with a friend's father, a founder and CEO.
“He told me tech sales was one of the best ways to start a career, and that the progression was faster than most people my age realise. It stuck with me.”
The fit made sense on reflection, as Archie had held a public speaking and drama scholarship at university and was already comfortable talking to people and thinking on his feet. He is also candid about being money motivated, which is rarely a disadvantage in a commercial role.
By the time Archie applied to Furza he had already been through assessment days with other providers, passing their processes only to be told that no roles were available, so his expectations were low. The Furza process began with an online assessment, after which he was assigned Gabby as his talent executive and invited to an assessment day that changed his view of the sector.
“The assessments were much better than anywhere else I'd been. They got the best out of everyone in the room. You could actually put your best foot forward rather than just getting filtered out.”
From that point the process moved quickly, with the assessment centre on a Friday, a first interview with Loxa the following Monday and a final interview at the start of the week after, both the contract and the training were set out in full before he committed to either, so he knew exactly what he was joining.
Every Academy candidate completes extensive training in Furza’s Manchester office before starting in role, covering the foundations of outbound prospecting, qualification and commercial conversation. Archie credits two elements of it above the rest.
The first is the calibre of the training team, with Ahamed and Tom acting less as instructors than as mentors, and in his words closer to life coaches. The second is the cohort model, which after several months of job hunting alone gave him a group of peers moving into comparable roles at the same time.
“Starting alongside other people in exactly the same position sets you up properly. It's reassuring in a way I didn't think it would be.”
His favourite module was questioning, covering mirroring, active listening and the discipline of working past a first answer to the real one. He still uses the notes and playbook he built during the Academy in his day-to-day role.
“That's not an exaggeration. They're open on my desk and I use them daily.”
Archie booked his first meeting on his first day in the business and a second on his second day, clearing the monthly target of 20 booked meetings from his first full month onwards. His first promotion arrived at three months on the strength of that record. Across his time in the business he has booked 147 meetings in total, personally run 60 of them and closed 12 contracts, with the balance shifting from booking volume to running his own conversations as his remit widened.
At five months his remit widened so that any deal he booked, he closed himself, which put him in charge of the full sales cycle inside his first half year.
“That was the big one for me. It meant I was running the full sales cycle before I'd been there half a year. Most people wait a lot longer than that.”
He was appointed Commercial Manager at six months. Asked what has driven the pace, he starts with the training, on the basis that the Academy gave him a method to work from rather than one he had to invent under pressure, and the questioning and qualification work in particular has carried into the conversations he now runs end to end.
Beyond that he points to the product, which he enjoys knowing well enough to speak credibly about the problems it solves, and to the autonomy Loxa has given him to work in the way that suits him. He also credits his manager Jamie, an experienced sales leader who has become a second mentor alongside the Academy team, and continues to develop in his own time through the books and podcasts Ahamed shares with the Academy.
Archie is straightforward about being competitive and about what he wants from the business over the longer term.
“I want this company to be hugely successful and naturally I want to be a pillar of it.”
With European expansion on the horizon he intends to be part of it, and beyond that he is targeting a move into go-to-market leadership and ultimately a Head of Sales role.
We asked Archie what he would say to someone in the position he was in a year ago, with no particular plan and no commercial experience
“Go straight to Furza. Then go somewhere you can learn as much as possible and stay curious and open minded. Be incredibly coachable. Accept that you have no experience and that the people around you know far more than you do, because most of them genuinely want to help. Then have the self-belief to go and do what you actually want to do.”
Furza finds, trains and places early-career talent into sales roles with fast-growth technology companies. Candidates do not need previous experience or a commercial degree, only the willingness to be coached and the curiosity to keep learning, because the training, the placement and the ongoing support are all part of the programme.
Applications for the Furza Academy are open now, apply today.