Learning from others: sales is all about personal contacts

Mohammad Taregh Zadmard works in sales at voestalpine Stahl GmbH, and believes that building networks and learning from them are a key part of his job.

“The working day always starts early. It’s the best time to get the paperwork done, before the start of a typical sales day which is full of phone calls and meetings,” explains Mohammad Taregh

Zadmard, describing everyday life for an account manager at voestalpine Stahl GmbH. But actually he has two tasks to fulfil: as an account manager, he looks after his own customers, and as part of the operative sales team he’s responsible for well-known automotive manufacturers. Mohammad is used to this type of flexibility: in May 2018 he started spending half of his time in sales, before becoming fully sales-focused in July. And even when working in Product Management & Segment Marketing, his position prior to this move, he succeeded in completing his Master’s degree on a part-time basis.

Building customer relationships

However, the move to sales has always been his goal, ever since joining the company in 2016. “Although, of course, I wanted to become familiar with the position I was originally assigned, and it was also easier to combine with my part-time Master’s degree.” That would have been very difficult when working in sales, says Mohammad, because in sales flexibility is more important: “You have to be more flexible and agile than in marketing, because the priorities are different. When the customer needs something, then that comes before everything else. Marketing places a greater focus on research and studies, while in sales you trust more in people and their assessment of how things are developing.” You have to build up relationships, and that’s the exciting part.

Achieving goals

He sees the situation at voestalpine as very similar: “Because we’re such a large Group, you’re constantly meeting new people and learning about new areas,” explains Mohammad. “You talk a lot with colleagues and can draw on their experiences to learn something new every day. You never really stop learning.” He completed his Master’s degree in Global Sales & Marketing after receiving a merit-based scholarship, and now he is looking for new ways to develop his skill set further. He is even taking part in the voestalpine Sales Academy which offers a professional development program for employees: “You want to achieve something, both in, and for, the company. And the best thing is that the company really draws on its employees’ competencies, while at the same time you can communicate your own goals, and they’ll be taken into account.”