Just wanted to drop a few lines about the last year I spent with SAP and the next step in my career.
In September 2017, I joined the SAP Sales Academy. Long story short, it’s an executive training of 9 months. The time is split between Belgium & California. The objective is to prepare millennials to the position of account executive within SAP. This has been one of the most exciting times in my life. I learned so much about myself, about the business and about other cultures. This is a “one is a lifetime ” sort of experience.
One of the things someone shared with me is about being grateful. Therefore, I would like to tell very simple words to each person that I met, had a chat with, participated to this journey: thank you. The maturity and life lessons I got out of this are just great. Even if I could not engage with customers as much as I wanted, I still learned a lot about how companies work, compete and empower people.
The 3 takeways I would share about this experience are:
– Ask questions, more then ever. Do not assume you know the answer and listen actively. This helps to avoid quid pro quo’s and insures that you truly understand the message sent to you.
– The circle of influence (by Stephen Covey but shared with me by Fred Page).Focus your actions & energy on the possible. Avoid to waste time where you can’t do much. Here is a daily life example I love about this notion. You’re driving your car, someone is doing weird stuff, at some point it drives you mad. The lesson I learned is: avoid the accident, don’t rage & get over it. Those are the things you can focus on.
– Selling in the technology industry is not about the deal nor the money you’re closing but about the business needs/problems you solve. At some point we are all selling pain & fear. Honesty at all time and a close collaboration as much internally as externally are keys to customer success.
On these words, I will close the chapter with SAP.
Ask questions (…) Focus (…) & Collaborate Closely…
In the meantime world keeps on moving such as work opportunities do. It’s never easy to say goodbye nor to start over. Nevertheless I chose to pursue my career within a company that I know very well. 3 years ago, they gave me the chance to transition from the bank into an inside sales position for the high-tech industry. I learned so much out of it and always wanted to push the experience further. Today, I can proudly say that I work as an account executive for DellEMC in Thomas De Loof’s team.
My job is to collaborate together with companies towards topics such as workforce transformation, security transformation, digital transformation and IT transformation. It may look like buzz words. In spite of that, this 4 pillars are the layers that enable our customers to thrive in this era.
Today I am thrilled to be back and I can’t wait to meet my new customers.
If you are curious and want to learn more about this or just have questions, do not hesitate to contact me!
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