How does a snowboarder land a career in sales?
At Veeam, sales is the engine that drives our success. There’s industry-leading training, inspirational colleagues and an award-winning product. And that helps a lot. But what type of person does really well at sales?
We asked Adrian Boboc, our Inside Sales Manager in Benelux, to let us in on his secrets. “I’m actually a very passionate snowboarder, he begins. “I’m a little bit of an adrenaline freak. This is what keeps me going at Veeam. I like to challenge myself, and of course to challenge others as well to go beyond their limits. So, I think it’s something that relates to my passion and I can apply that in my work.”
For Adrian, it’s about being as competitive and agile in his professional life as he is in his personal one. During his first few weeks, his boss asked him if he spoke Spanish. Adrian said he did, but it was only conversational. All the same, his boss offered him the chance to do a presentation at a summit in Madrid in a fortnight’s time. Adrian was competent in half the technical side, and had just two weeks to polish up his Spanish and learn about the rest of the tech.
That proved to him how flexible and adaptable you need to be for a sales career at Veeam. The following year he was offered an even bigger challenge - managing the Benelux team of around 30 people. “This was a natural step up for me,” he says. “And I’m happy that after less than two years, this was pretty much observed in Veeam and it happened.”
There’s progression in every sales career of course, so we asked Adrian what makes it all so different at Veeam. “I think the fast, challenging and agile environment that you’re in and being part of a market leader makes Veeam pretty unique. What you would expect from a business that’s on top is maybe to relax and say, ‘We’re market leaders,’ and become a little bit arrogant,” he says. “But here I don’t feel that. I feel that Veeam is actually going for the next thing. So, we’re good at that, let’s see what else we can do and what’s the other thing we can be the best at.”
He continues, “You don’t get this feeling that, OK, I’m in a huge corporation where it’s difficult to change stuff. You still feel somehow that it’s a start-up in some aspects, so you can move fast, but still have the power of a big and solid organisation.”
Adrian and Veeam seem like the perfect match. He also went on to share with us what kind of people he thinks do well in sales. “I’d say they should be very ambitious, highly energetic, eager to grow, open, genuine, kind and willing to share.”
It turns out that they really do need to be ambitious, too! Adrian says, “With my team, no-one told them, ‘OK, you need to do that. That’s the next step in your career.’ We actually asked, ‘So what’s next for you?’”
If sales is the next thing for you, find out more about our Veeamazing roles here.
