1, 2, 3, [...] 10. Almost 10 moths have passed since I started to work for one of Pakistani company in Karachi.
Coming to Pakistan and joining this particular company was one of my best decisions ever (after joining AIESEC). This company helped me to realize what kind of sales person I am. I used to think, that I can be or I should be a good sales person, but working for different companies in Lithuania I was struggling with realization of my goals and ambitious. Finally when I joined Wavetec, a company which operates internationally, I realized that my strength in sales is to work in distance. Unfortunately I'm not that kind of guy who can go from door to door and offer services or/and products to the customers or B2B.
Even my company is quite old (nearly 20 years) but only ~10 years started to focus on new product portfolio which turned Wavetec in one of the leading electronic queue management and information display systems (LED) supplier in Pakistan, Middle East and Africa is on the way.
I started to work in this company as national sales executive and was given few accounts to handle (RBS and Standard Chartered Bank). However I was disappointed with my role because I still was not confident in product knowledge and had limited freedom (for example, didn't have car to visit clients and etc.). So after several discussions with HR and CEO was decided to move me to international sales department (after 2 months working on national sales). And from that day on I started to enjoy my job. I was accountable to one of the directors of the company and both of us were working on African region. As it was new region for company, I had to pass quite boring and sometimes annoying tasks: researching about markets, calculating market potential, preparing documentation, browsing hundreds of websites and looking for potential distributor in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Libya, etc. African region is complicated... In some cases it reminds me Pakistan culture. Whenever you start approaching company which might be potential for distributing your products, they get so excited about the idea of partnership, but when it comes to financial questions - seems that they swallow their tongue and disappear. Africans, the same as Pakistanis, never say no (or at least they tend not to say that). Such attitude makes communication, believe me, really complicated.
However, after 5-6 months working for African region I learned a lot about our products, about company policies, logistics, supply, payments terms, pricing, product integration into different market segments, such as: banks, telecoms, hospitals, governmental institutions, etc. With this confidence and experience I was given a new region to handle. Central Asian market is considered as one of the growing ones (despite financial crisis, etc.). Countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other -stan countries are rich of natural recourses and it is their one of the driving keys. International companies and banks are opening head offices in above mentioned countries and it is a sign for us step in as well. Because of my Russian language skills I was given responsibility to develop business in that region. Responsibility is huge. I have authority to make decisions about distributors, make marketing materials, travel to particular countries and meet my partners, I have my own budget with planned incomes and expenditures (I took budget template which was used in my MC term. Senior management was impressed - thank you, Rytis!).
I started to work on Central Asian region in beginning of July. According my plan I'm already exceeding expectations - business opportunities looks very promising. Well, but the time runs really fast and my internship is going to the end. 2 more months left to go. And here comes dilemma I need to solve: should I stay till the end of financial year (2010 June) or should I go back to Lithuania.
Seems that company likes me and they trust in me whatever I do. They are listen my suggestions and willing to support me. However, the country and city I'm living in makes me a bit depressive. I believe if I would manage to deal with my fluctuating depression - I could stay for another 7-8 month.
The fact that I became more and more aware of company structure and work flow makes my role more respectful. Even I don’t have associates but people on the same line treats me equally and sometimes I feel that they act as they are accountable for me. It is really good feeling being respected for who you are and for what you do. It is one of the motivations for me to stay.
The time is still running. Decision is coming soon. Stay tuned!
P.S. Question / Answer session as always in ‘comments’ sections : )
