These 5 business lessons are helping me until today

By Business Lease | www.businesslease.sk

As a company leader, I am thankful for the previous experience from the sales department. These five most important lessons from this period are helping me until today.

You must know your product really well

Deep preparation has always been the basis for my success. It was even more important when I started to work as a sales manager for leasing company. I had no knowledge about cars & leasing, but sales-drive and motivation were part of my body. I was studying all available information in the evenings like a student at school. As a saleswoman, I had to do everything by myself, from arranging meetings, through calculations of operational leasing, credit check process to preparing and finalizing the contract with the customer. It was a very good experience to run the whole process from the beginning until the end. My customers expected to receive always a perfect solution from me. First positive results came very soon. Within my current role, I am now utilizing this knowledge. I understand how things are connected to each other. I can support my team as I was in their feet in the past, too. I did hundreds of meetings, offers, contracts. Now my role is more strategic. Many times, I am applying helicopter view to see all influences within our business. In case we need to change the strategy, we can do so quite quickly as one strong team.

You have to get rid of fear

When I started leading my first team of people, I could not imagine allowing them to work from home. I somehow needed to have a complete control over them, to see when they entered the office, when they left, when they did meetings, coffee etc. I was afraid that otherwise the work would not be done. At that period, my previous Dutch boss asked me: “Lucia, what is more important for you? Results or having people in front of your eyes during whole day?” I answered results and got rid of this fear of control. In Business Lease we have culture where everybody is working hard and if the work is done from home or from office, it is a choice of every employee. We believe that this high level of trust and independence is supporting our business results.

The body can handle a lot

I took up the position of Managing director at Business Lease just after returning from a maternity leave. My son was 6 months old when I returned for full time. Since my husband was also working, we hired a full-time babysitter. I was surprised how difficult it is to have a child and work at once, especially when my job is about important decisions and I haven’t had a good night sleep for almost two years. This was a very challenging period, but again, what I experienced during the sales period worked for me also at that time. The body can handle a lot. Prioritization of tasks and proper time management were my daily routine.

A business opportunity is always there. Just find it

When I did face-to-face meetings, I found out one important learning. When a potential client declined the offer, I always tried to understand the reason. And when I understood the reason, I often managed to come up with another solution, which we would not have mentioned otherwise. In my opinion, it is a fundamental mistake when the sales guy is not able to identify a business opportunity. People many times forget to ask right questions, listen to answers, find the space and come up with the right solution. Sales guy always needs to be in the proactive state of mind. Always hunt for the opportunity, call rather than send emails. Thanks to my previous sales background, I can help my team to perform. And many times, this work needs to be repeated. Sales is hard job and only the best ones can succeed.

And that brings me to the last lesson:

Keep challenging yourself

The first phone call. The first personal meeting. The first team managed. The first director position. And then the first company I am running completely. My career consists of challenges that I have consciously placed in front of me and they kept pushing me forward. This includes also MBA studies during full-time work which I finished in 2016.

And finally, one bonus lesson – ask for and listen to feedback. Without regular feedback, it is very difficult to move forward. I am always open to feedbacks coming from my colleagues, customers, husband, boss. With accepting feedback, it is also important to accept mistakes when I do some and take responsibility. I also allow my people to do mistakes, but I require to learn from it and find a solution.