In this month’s Employee Spotlight, we shine a light on Global Sales Manager and company Director, Raimond Coneliano.
Name & position? My name is Raimond Coneliano, my executive role is as Sales Manager of our team of 150 sales people globally. I’m also a company Director which is less fun but equally as important.
When did you start at Redox? Being a family company I’ve always been around the business but back in 1995 I finished school on a Friday and started at Redox on the Monday. My first job was changing the batteries in the foyer clocks and watering the plants around the office – being a Coneliano didn’t mean skipping the queue it meant you had to work twice as hard and start from the bottom.
What was your biggest achievement thus far? My most satisfying achievements have not been the biggest sales records but some of my early personal sales successes, even now I think about them often. I was assigned to a very large food customer, I spent close to a year in discussions with them, cajoling the R&D department, ticking off all the requirements, costing re-costing our offers and finally one day we got the first order. On the order sheet the buyer wrote “This order is testament to your dogged determination, now would you give me a break for a couple days?” I was so proud of that order I kept it pinned up to remind me that giving up is easy but good things come when you have patience.
What do you love about your job?
The people, the interaction. I am a bit of a loudmouth, talkative and very social person so sales was perfect for me. I still love learning about what our customers do with our products and the difference they make in their businesses.
Redox has been very successful, what do you put that down to? I think it’s relatively easy to run a successful small business, the hard part is scaling that up. A lot of Redox’s success is because of our systemised approach to every aspect of business, a good example of this is our commitment to developing our own CRM/ERP (Customer Relationship Management/Enterprise Resource Planning systems) which we call Redebiz. It is expensive but has allowed us the freedom to customise things to suit our team, our clients and suppliers needs in a way that no one else has matched.
What makes a great salesperson? We have a diverse team, from different cultural backgrounds, young graduates, experienced old school chemical veterans the whole gamut. The one thing that separates the good from the great is curiosity and passion, if you have those two attributes it doesn’t matter what your IQ score is or how slick your presentation skills are. A great salesperson understands the client in a deep way and is passionate about ensuring they receive the best service in a personalised way.
How will Redox weather the COVID19 pandemic? We’re really lucky to have more than 7100 active customers from a wide range of industries and to date many are largely unaffected which is great. A family saying is that when you have the strongest boat you want the storm to come, Redox is incredibly well financed with a great team of dedicated people so I believe we will prosper as we always have.
How do you unwind? I’m passionate about travelling so the current pandemic is frustrating, but it has given me more time to concentrate on gardening, reading (mostly sci-fi and economics), catching up on films, podcasts and spending time with the family.