We are always proud and happy to introduce the newest members of our HICO family. This time we present to you new Senior Sales Solution Expert, Fabian Volbers – a hard-working sports enthusiast and cat dad – his other full time job. 😉
Who is Fabian Volbers?
I was born and raised in “Ruhrpott”, a region in western Germany known for its history in mining and heavy industry. More specifically, close to Dortmund, which you might know from hosting the best soccer team in the world. As of right now, I live close to Dusseldorf.
For stress relief, I enjoy working out to the degree of participating in weightlifting competitions. The Corona break has set me back but I am getting back there.
I enjoy laughing. I enjoy painting miniatures. You can always reach me if you want to talk.
What does your daily life look like?
Every morning, the first thing I do is I greet cats and fix their breakfast.
The workday starts with mail and planning out the day. On most days unexpected customer topics (clarification needed or request for a proposal) throw out the planning at 09:30. The working day includes a lot of relationship building activities, calling customers and staying in touch via mail.
I spend my lunch break cooking and eating with my girlfriend whenever possible.
This flow continues until the evening when I do a final Mail check before going to bed, if any urgent issues arise for the morning.
HICO Journey
Well, this was an interesting little journey. I have joined HICO 01.07.2022 after Bastian has reached out to me on LinkedIn to have a chat. We did so and I was invited for a second meeting to do a pitch. Not knowing anything about Truechart, I managed to get a hold of Jürgen using some excuse for a meeting. He provided me with the key messages and it worked.
So far, I like the mentality of: “What speaks against this idea? Let’s try it out.” Instead of “Why should we do this? Let’s wait.” I like how HICO brings the right people together. The right stakeholders on the customer side and the right experts on the HICO side, at the right time.
I look forward to learning about a new field, the BI environment. 😃
Challenges in industry
The greatest challenge is creating urgency to act. When presenting solutions, e.g. IBCS, customers are wowed. “Hey, why do we not have this?” Too often budget restrictions, plenty of other stakeholders, changing priorities lose the drive to act.
To counteract this timing and context are highly important. Staying in touch and finding the right point in time. Context to catch as many stakeholders as possible, with an individualised story: “How can you benefit in your position? And how will you suffer if you do not act?”
95% of employees complain about their hardware being too slow.
A job well done is growing the revenue of an existing customer. Land is small and continuously expands.
Prospects trying to syphon knowledge from knowledge experts to then go to a cheaper provider is quite an annoying trend at the moment.
Back to the future?
Recently I have read the survey by Mercuri International, a world leading sales training and innovation company. I find their findings quite true, where they state that: Customers will put more pressure on the suppliers to provide solutions instead of individual services.
Customers expect the suppliers to deeply understand their market environment and be tailored in their wording and examples. I really enjoy following the content by Mercuri International.
“Rapid Fire Questions”
What is the most interesting job you’ve ever had?
First Response Paramedic
Name someone whose work/life you find inspiring.
Jay Cutler
What is one thing you learned during this year that you are most proud of?
When setting up your own garden, you need to be very aware of light and water requirements of the plants, before you start mixing them together. Sounds obvious, however lacking a green thumb, I am currently on version 3.0 of my garden. 🌻
If you could visit one place on Earth, where would you go and why?
Iceland, for the cold and the history.
Favourite movie?
Lord of the Rings
Favourite TV show?
The Mentalist
Advice
It could always be worse. This does not mean that you should not be upset or sad at times, instead it means to look forward.
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