Every small step forward is becoming an accumulated success
Carl started working for IVISYS nearly 2 years ago. He manages the sales team in Gothenburg and along with his team, he is defining the sales process after understanding the customer needs. He wants to help customers by improving productivity in the warehouse, helping them save from defective pallets, and increasing safety for the workers.
What is the best thing about your job?
When Stefan hired me, it was only the two of us, working with sales. And I was given the opportunity to define our sales and go-to-market strategy which was a daunting task. Ever since we have learned about the different challenges of the consumers, and it has shaped the way we work today. And this never ceases to amaze me what our system can do in practice across the industries we work with. Today, we have are slightly a bigger team sitting in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Chicago which brings so much value to what we do.
What did you learn by being present in the market where pallets are extensively used?
That there are severe and frequent issues relating to pallets across many industries, hampering the adaptation of automation and driving distrust between supplier-clients, pallet pools, and recyclers. I am confident that we are part of improving the complete supply chain of finished goods while enabling the increasing shift toward automation.
How do you stay up to date?
Communication with clients and stakeholders in the pallet industry – there are a lot of intricacies that are difficult to learn on your own.
What success feels like at your job?
It varies from day to day. Seeing the team grow their skills and mindset is very fulfilling as also making a great pitch, demonstrating our value proposition to our clients, closing deals, and improving ways of working. It’s almost a cliché but every small step forward becomes accumulated success as we look back over the progress, we’ve made in the past 2 years.
What is the most challenging when working with sales? That things take time. Even when a potential customer is excited about our solutions and are eager to get started, the process of getting to the finish line is a long one. We help to accelerate that best as we can by articulating our value proposition based on the clients’ circumstances, offering end-to-end solutions allowing for peace of mind in operation.
What are the key ingredients for leading a successful Team?
It’s a multifaceted question that can be interpreted in many ways – leading an already successful team or building a team that becomes successful. Let’s assume it’s the latter which I have some experience in. We’ve had the opportunity to build a team of great people, each contributing with their own set of experiences and skill sets.
Ingredient 1. Hire people that are competent or have the drive and attitude to become competent.
As what we are doing hasn’t been done before there’s no cheat sheet to turn to when things don’t work out as planned. The entire team must contribute to building both the questions and answers to reach our goals. For this, it’s important to listen and weigh the input from the team members carefully, especially when it does not fit with your own perceptions.
Ingredient 2. Encourage each voice to be spoken and heard
As part of our work is cold out-reach, it is easy to get discouraged by not reaching people, being rejected, or misunderstood, having bad timing, or whatever it may be – it’s an inevitable part of what we do. We work with meeting rejection with curiosity to understand if we reached the wrong person rather than our solution not being viable for the company. This requires persistence and it’s fundamental to our success – we must live and breathe our strategy.
Ingredient 3. Curiosity, persistence, and perseverance
As much of a discouragement rejection and roadblocks can be, the connection you make with a person that resonates with your message and solution is at least ten times as good. Celebrating even small wins is crucial to stay positive and encouraging behavior aligning with our strategy and long-term goals.
Ingredient 4. Have fun and celebrate wins.
What was the most learning or groundbreaking experience at IVISYS? Please share if there are any. I’d say it is a humbling experience to face the combination of having a stellar value proposition, creating a new market, and having been an unknown brand. This has also cemented my belief that a great sales organization can generate a lot of value – the product closes itself but does not sell itself as the problem has been seen as unsolvable.
What gives you energy in daily life?
Good sleep – which is sometimes challenging with an infant, spending quality time with my family and friends
How would you describe a good weekend?
A few hours in the hills riding snow racers with my oldest daughter and cooking up a nice simple evening dinner with the family.
Favorite activity/hobby to do?
Having a few beers with friends, playing music, and wrenching on the everlasting car project
Any favorite getaways?
Nah, I usually travel enough for work. I do however like doing something intentional when traveling for work, like finding a gem of the restaurant like Jakob (our sales executive) and I did last week visit a client in Oslo. Other than that, being at home is great.
