Management Motivations: Maximize the value of your time by training while selling

Management Motivations: How Quectel executives lead to succeed

Management Motivations is a new series of articles by Quectel's senior executives that explores their management styles, approaches to the challenges of further developing the company and what drives them to lead and succeed.

Ricardo Simon, regional sales director, Latin America

2. Maximize the value of your time by training while selling

I´m a sales guy and will always be in contact with customers because that is my fuel. Now, I have the responsibility of a large team distributed across a varied and complex region so I focus both on developing and managing my team but never losing direct contact with customers. The key to continuing to do both is managing my time, using the tools we have available to win time, and to keep in contact with customers together with my team. I believe that best way to lead is by example so my team can be encouraged and learn by joining meetings with customers. They can see how I interact and understand what customers want and therefore they learn twice in a single moment.

Showing my team the value of personal relationships with customers is important. These are still important and I truly believe that people do business with people and it’s vital our people represent our company. Ultimately, customers need to trust the people they are in contact with in order to do business with them. To create this trust and bond, personal relationships and constant contact are essential, especially if any issues occur. These relationships can then be the open channel for the customer to contact us to talk through issues and accelerate their resolution.

While I carefully monitor and track the performance of my team with key performance indicators (KPIs) and constant follow-up meetings every two weeks, I like to let them perform their daily work with freedom. I provide them with clear targets and guidance and I’m always available to help and support them but I want them to own their work themselves.

It's also important that I understand the seniority level that each one of my team has so I can prioritize and make myself more present to give more guidance to younger, less-experienced people. This can be a challenge across a large geographical area like Latin America and there are additional issues beyond the physical distance that I need to be aware of and sensitive to.

The first thing is to understand the cultural differences and ways of doing business in each country. This is a basic requirement and is helped by being physically present in each country as much as possible. Before Covid-19, I was constantly travelling and it's really important to be visible and present in each market we operate in, both to manage and help my team but also to maintain customer relationships and understand their daily challenges.

Look out for my next blog in this series: “Never underestimate the value of local knowledge to uncover business opportunities”.