Why sales first

Two years closing four- and five-figure caravan deals is a directly transferable trade. Dealerships hire on attitude and track record, not qualifications — every trainee ad says so. Driving pays £12–15 an hour whatever you do; sales pays £35k+ within a year if you're any good, and you already know you are. Driving is the stopgap. Sales is the job.

Still outstanding — the best-paid verified role hasn't been applied for

Holdcroft Nissan, Hanley — Car Sales Executive, £50,000 OTE uncapped, company car, no experience bar stated, verified live and open until 27 September. It isn't on Indeed, which is why it got missed: Holdcroft recruit through their own ADP portal at holdcroftmotorgroup.careers.adp.com. The tailored CV and the cover letter citing their 1966 Hanley founding are both already written and sitting in the applications folder. That's the one to do next.

The numbers are in — and they're the best thing on the CV

Every document now leads with what you actually did in 2025: 155 caravans sold, around £2.7m of retail value, at an average unit price of £17,500 — and a best month of 25 units against a target of 21, which is 119% of target. Underneath that sits the line most sales managers will care about even more: around ten warranty and accessory sales a month — extended warranties (£209–£959), E-move motor movers for single and twin axles (£859–£1,970), Tyron Safety Bands (£170) — the dealership's higher-margin revenue.

That last point is the one to say out loud in an interview. Anyone can shift units when a customer already wants one. Attaching high-margin extras to two-thirds of your deals is the skill a dealer principal actually pays for, because that's where his profit lives, not in the metal.

Now verified against the commission scheme itself. The documents show the dealership's published bonus tiers topped out at 150 sales a year and 21+ units a month — and you cleared both. That's why the CVs now say you "cleared the top tier of the dealership's published annual bonus scheme" rather than just "beat target": it's the employer's own definition of top performance, not self-assessment, and it's checkable on a reference call.

Three housekeeping notes. The £2.7m is 155 × £17,500 — arithmetic from your own figures, so be ready to show the working. The references section now reads "available on request", because the old CV printed two people's personal contact details. And one small mismatch to be aware of: your contract job title was "Caravan Sales Person" while the CVs say "Sales Executive" — normal practice and not a problem, but if a reference check queries it, the honest answer is that Sales Executive describes the role and Caravan Sales Person was the contractual wording.

Why these businesses, and not just "any shop"

Every door on this list sells something expensive that people think hard about buying — a caravan, a car, a kitchen, a hot tub, a digger. That's not a coincidence, it's the whole filter. A £20,000 considered purchase is sold the same way whatever the product: build trust, handle the doubt, arrange the finance, close it gently. You already do that job. A kitchen showroom owner doesn't care that your last product had wheels; he cares that you've sat with a nervous couple spending their savings and got them to sign.

They're also nearly all independents and family firms. That matters more than size: at a family business the person who can hire you is on the premises, and can say yes on the spot. At a national chain, your CV goes into a portal and dies. Small firms also don't advertise — they hire the person who happened to turn up. That's the crack you're walking through.

Do this route first — before Burton, before Derby

Everywhere else on this page, you're a salesperson asking to learn a new product. Here, you're a trained caravan salesman walking into a caravan business. You know the brands, the layouts, the damp checks, the season, the buyers, the finance, the handover — and you're SAF approved. These owners spend months trying to find someone who already understands the trade, and most of them have never advertised a vacancy in their lives.

The two-in-one: Don Amott Leisure Kingdom and Hilton Garage share the postcode DE65 5FJ. Two of the biggest doors on the entire list, one car park, fifteen minutes from Burton. Start your whole campaign there.

The full tally — 107 verified doors

Motor trade 34 · leisure trade 28 · big-ticket home and garden 28 · machinery, plant and trade 19, less two firms appearing on two routes. Every single one was checked against its own live website or an active dealer listing on 30 July 2026 — no directory scrapings, no closed businesses, no guesses. Where a business is appointment-only or corporate-owned rather than independent, it says so in the row.

Six businesses on this list are already hiring (marked in teal): Hilton Garage, AvailableCar, The Potteries Motorcycles, Stafford Motorcycles, plus Spinney and Holdcroft from your application pack. Do those as applications, properly, before you do them as cold calls.

Phone numbers marked "via website" are firms whose sites block automated reading — the business is live and verified, you'll just need to grab the number off the site yourself. Ten minutes of copying on a night-admin session.

Learn these six numbers cold — before any rehearsal

A salesperson who fumbles their own figures is a salesperson who didn't hit them. These need to come out flat, fast and without looking up:

Say it as one sentence, ten times, until it's boring: "Last year I sold a hundred and fifty-five caravans — about two point seven million pounds' worth — averaging seventeen and a half grand a unit. My best month was twenty-five against a target of twenty-one, and I was adding about ten warranties or accessory packages a month on top."

Then practise the follow-up you'll definitely be asked: "How?" The answer is not "I worked hard." It's the specific thing you did — the video walkthroughs that let you close buyers who never visited the site, the Auto Trader listings you ran yourself, the fact you were finance-approved so you could arrange the lending in the room instead of handing the customer to someone else. Have that answer ready; it's the one that gets you hired.

Sparring rules — for whoever plays the manager

Pick cards secretly and play them straight. Vary the difficulty: warm one rep, rude the next, bored the one after. Rudeness should climb over the sessions — session two should be harder than anything he'll actually meet.

Score each rep 1–5 on four things: eye contact · brevity · the ask (did he actually ask for something?) · recovery (voice and posture after the knock-back). The fourth one is the entire game.

Debrief with two questions only: "What did you do well?" then "What threw you?" No pile-ons, no re-litigating every line. One rep gets filmed on a phone per session; watch it back together once, in silence, then run it again.

Termination was 27 July 2026 at 09:30. The deadline is therefore 26 October 2026 — three months minus one day. Tribunals have very little power to extend it; "I miscounted" is not an accepted excuse. That's just under thirteen weeks from today.

Before a claim can be lodged, ACAS Early Conciliation is compulsory. Notifying ACAS is free, done online or by phone, and it pauses the clock while they're involved — the conciliation window is now up to twelve weeks. So notifying ACAS early buys time rather than spending it, and it does not commit him to suing anyone. It is the single cheapest thing he can do to keep the door open.

For an ordinary unfair dismissal claim he needs two years' continuous service. The reform everyone's heard about — cutting that to six months — was passed in the Employment Rights Act 2025 but doesn't commence until 1 January 2027, so the old two-year rule applies to him.

The contract settles the continuity point, and it does so in the employer's own words. His February 2026 statement of terms says: "Your previous employment counts as part of your continuous employment, your original start date was 12/07/2024." That is the employer confirming in writing that continuous service runs from 12 July 2024 — so the re-papering of his terms in February 2026 broke nothing, and two years' continuous service completed on 12 July 2026.

And the last day is now confirmed: 27 July 2026. That is two years and fifteen days of continuous service. The qualifying-service threshold is met, with room to spare — no need to rely on notice extensions or on the 2027 reform. An ordinary unfair dismissal claim is available to him on that ground.

The second WhatsApp export supplies the trigger and the timings, and they're stark:

That gap is the case. The handbook — which the contract says forms part of his terms — promises investigation of the facts and a chance to state his case before disciplinary action, the right to be accompanied, and a right of appeal. None of that fits inside 115 minutes.

And the conduct has to clear a high bar. The only item on the gross misconduct list this could arguably touch is "deliberate damage to property" — which the employer would have to prove was both deliberate and serious. Anything less than gross misconduct means the handbook's own rule applies: "you will not normally be dismissed for a first breach of discipline."

The undocumented warnings point cuts his way, not theirs. If previous tellings-off were verbal and never written down, the employer has no live warning to rely on — and the handbook treats verbal warnings as spent after three months anyway. That forces them to run this as gross misconduct or not at all.

One more lever: the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary procedures requires notice of the allegation, a proper hearing, the right to be accompanied and an appeal. An unreasonable failure to follow it can increase compensation by up to 25%.

Henry's account changes this again — and this time in his favour

He's now given a full account of the meeting and everything that preceded it, and three facts in it matter more than anything else on this page.

1 · He had no idea what the meeting was about. He was upstairs with Hilary the accountant sorting a stock number when Steve asked him to "come and have a chat." His group chat was muted — he had never seen the video. So he walked in blind, had no chance to prepare, and no chance to ask for anybody to sit in with him. That right is in the handbook, which the contract says forms part of his terms, and there's a statutory right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing too. You cannot exercise a right you don't know you need.

2 · There were never any warnings. None. Not verbal, not written, nothing signed, nothing on his file. The door in March, the swearing, the £99 dispute — all dealt with as conversations and then dropped. That matters because the handbook says "you will not normally be dismissed for a first breach of discipline, except in the case of gross misconduct." With no warning history, the employer has to prove gross misconduct or it has no ground to stand on.

3 · And gross misconduct requires the damage to be DELIBERATE. That's the wording — "deliberate damage to property". The hoop was him throwing basketballs and the chipboard backing giving way; the bracket and ring weren't even broken. The door was excessive force. Both were accidents, both were admitted on the spot, and both times he offered to pay. Accidental damage is not on that list anywhere.

Add that the two "attitude" examples actually put to him were a joke about correcting his manager and helping a couple who walked up to him because nobody else was free — and that on the £99 row Steve had actually agreed with Henry and said Marcus was making it harder than he should have. That is not a picture of escalating, documented misconduct.

I've now moved my view on this twice and want to be straight about it: strong on the timeline alone, weak once the apology letter appeared, and genuinely arguable again now. That's what happens as evidence arrives — but the direction of travel is worth noting.

The video transcript — nineteen seconds that help you

Steve's own words on the 07:35 video, now transcribed:

"Right so I've come in today and someone has broken this. So whoever it is — so whoever it is, please come forward and, like, you know, we can't have anything decent at this place, everything gets fucking wrecked."

"Please come forward" is the important bit. It proves that at 07:35 the employer did not know who had done it. So everything they ever learned about who was responsible and whether it was deliberate was gathered in the 115 minutes before dismissing you — and on your account that was one question: "did you break the basketball hoop?"

Which exposes the real gap. The only gross-misconduct category that could possibly apply is "deliberate damage to property". You immediately said it was an accident and offered to pay. Nobody tested that. Nobody asked how it happened, nobody looked at the machine, nobody established that the bracket and ring were undamaged and the chipboard had simply given way. To dismiss for gross misconduct an employer needs a genuine belief on reasonable grounds after a reasonable investigation — and the one element that mattered was never investigated at all.

His own words describe breakage, not vandalism — "someone has broken this", and a general gripe that "everything gets wrecked". That's frustration about damage in general, not an allegation that somebody deliberately destroyed company property.

On the swearing — useful, but don't overplay it. The director used "fucking" in a broadcast to the whole site including admin and cleaning staff. That's genuinely relevant, because inconsistency of treatment goes to whether dismissal was a reasonable response. But be honest with yourself: a director venting to a group is not the same as telling your manager to "fuck off" to his face within a customer's hearing, and any employer will make that distinction. The fair use of this is narrow — it shows robust language was normal and tolerated from the top. It does not excuse what you said, and arguing that it does will make you look worse, not better.

Where this leaves the money — and the reference

The wage claims are unaffected by all of the above and are the clearest money on the table. They don't depend on winning anything. Four items: £2,700 trailing commission from the 26 June–25 July statement, for sales completed before the 27th; accrued holiday at the enhanced rate (salary plus the 52-week commission average — still unpaid); one month's notice pay, £1,600+ on salary alone, owed unless gross misconduct is actually established; and written reasons, which he can require and which carry a two-weeks'-pay award if unreasonably refused. Together that's plausibly a mid-four-figure sum, obtainable by one precise letter.

Both 2025 annual bonuses were paid — £3,000 in the October payroll and £2,000 in December, both visible on the statements. Nothing owed there. And the 2026 counter stood at 93 units by 25 July, short of the 130 threshold, so no 2026 bonus had triggered. I flagged those as possible unpaid sums earlier; the statements show they were handled correctly.

And read Steve's reply again, because it matters more than the claim: "I really did like you and from where you started to where you was at, you really did impress me." That is a director who would very likely give a decent reference about Henry's sales ability. Weigh that against suing him. For a 21-year-old rebuilding a career in a trade where everyone knows everyone within thirty miles, a workable reference from Burton Caravan Centre may be worth considerably more than a reduced procedural award.

My honest recommendation, updated: send one precise letter today covering the four items above plus the P45. Notify ACAS this week to protect the 26 October deadline — free and commits to nothing. Get a proper opinion on the unfair dismissal claim now rather than later, because with no warnings on file and accidental damage that isn't on the gross misconduct list, it is more arguable than it looked yesterday. Then put the real energy into the 107 doors — the faster he's earning, the stronger he is in every conversation, including this one.

Route 3 is clear — no restrictive covenants

I've read the full contract and all 425 paragraphs of the handbook. There is no non-compete clause, no non-solicitation clause and no restraint of trade provision anywhere in either document. Nothing prevents him working for a competing caravan dealer, and nothing stops him approaching one.

So the leisure-trade route is completely open — Don Amott, Blackwood, Venture, Spinney, all of it. The only constraint left is the ordinary duty of confidentiality: don't take or use customer data or price lists. Knock the doors with a clear conscience.

Set unfair dismissal aside, because this is the part most likely to produce actual cash — and it needs no qualifying service and no argument about fairness. Unpaid wages and commission is an unlawful deduction from wages matter. The fifteen commission statements have now been read line by line, so this is settled fact rather than speculation.

1 · Trailing commission — the cleanest claim, and it has a number on it. Commission runs on a 26th-to-25th cycle, paid in the following payroll. His final statement covers 26 June to 25 July 2026 and totals £2,700 — all of it for sales completed before he was dismissed on the 27th. Salary is paid on the 27th, the very morning he was dismissed at 09:30. The scheme says entitlement ceases on termination "save in respect of orders obtained by you which have been paid for by the purchaser prior to such date" — and this statement is the employer's own record that those sales completed. On top of that: the four deals he logged in the group between 20 and 25 July with completion dates of 31 July to 4 August, at least one of which had £500 already transferred before he left.

2 · The annual volume bonuses — RESOLVED, both paid. The scheme pays £3,000 at 130 sales and £2,000 at 150 sales in a calendar year. The statements show the £3,000 went through the October 2025 payroll and the £2,000 through December 2025. Nothing outstanding. And the 2026 counter had only reached 93 units by 25 July, short of the 130 threshold, so no 2026 bonus had triggered either. I flagged both of these as possibly unpaid; they were handled correctly. Incidentally, payment of the 150-unit bonus independently proves he sold at least 150 units in 2025 — it corroborates the 155 on his CV.

3 · Holiday pay at the right rate. The contract is explicit that holiday pay is normal pay "plus a daily top-up based on the average bonus and commission earnings over the previous 52 weeks", and that accrued untaken leave is paid on termination. If his final payslip calculated accrued holiday on the £20,000 basic alone, it was underpaid — and since his commission was comparable to his salary, that shortfall could be most of the value again. This is one of the most common payroll errors there is.

The same 26 October deadline applies. Start with a polite, specific written request: "please confirm when the £2,700 shown on my 26 June–25 July commission statement will be paid, whether any commission is due on orders paid on 26 and 27 July, and how accrued holiday was calculated." Naming the figure and the statement makes it very hard to fudge, and this sort of thing is often settled without any claim once someone asks precisely.

His door-knocking tracker is also his legal evidence

If an unfair dismissal claim ever succeeds, compensation is based largely on actual financial loss — and a claimant is expected to have taken reasonable steps to reduce that loss by looking for new work. This is called mitigation, and employers routinely attack it: "he didn't really try."

So the scoreboard he's already keeping — doors knocked, names collected, applications sent, follow-ups made, dated — is precisely the record that answers that attack. A candidate who can produce a dated log of 107 businesses visited and dozens of applications is unanswerable on mitigation. Chasing work aggressively doesn't compete with the claim; it strengthens it. Do the doors, keep the log, and both priorities are served by the same effort.