My first job led me into the world of sales!

Today, I won't share sales or marketing tips. Instead, I'll share my personal experience in sales and why I want to share it. The reason is simple - we all study sales theory but lack practical application. I believe sharing my experience will help you understand the sales process and build strategies, even when things don't go as planned. My goal is to inspire you to believe in your strengths, face obstacles, and sharpen your skills.

My sales journey started in 2006 when a valuable professional contact invited me to join a project. He had the idea and funding, and I had a passion for sales. We decided to create a company that supplied consumables for printers, despite the market already being dominated by large players. Although it wasn't easy, our experience taught me to make informed decisions and overcome obstacles.

My business partners and I were already committed to an idea, and giving up was not an option. We founded our company REFILL LLC and ordered a batch of cartridges from a European brand. However, we still had to figure out how our product would compete with established global brands in the local market.

Although I lacked experience in sales, I studied various theories and literature on effective communication and persuasion techniques, such as the teachings of D. Carnegie. Additionally, my background as a simultaneous interpreter was useful.

With this knowledge, I created a clear plan for our market entry strategy and action plan, which included:

- Conducting market and competition research

- Analyzing our product and comparing it to our competitors

- Creating a presentation for our product that highlighted its advantages and included statistical data from several experiments

- Collecting information and building a database of potential customers

- Categorizing potential clients based on their level of interest

- Communicating with potential clients to understand their needs and identify how we could solve any issues they had with existing products.

We accomplished all the processes in less than a month before receiving the first batch of cartridges. To understand the complexity of this task, I would like to mention that in 2006, there were no sources of information about companies and the market in our country, although there was the internet. Therefore, we had to collect data about all potential clients from the Almaty Yellow Pages directory, which was a huge undertaking.

By the time the first batch of cartridges arrived, we had already established relationships with several large clients who were interested in trying our product and expressed their willingness to cooperate if we met and exceeded their expectations. I still remember the day when I was waiting at the reception with samples of cartridges for my first meeting with a client, who was the head of the procurement department of a foreign bank in Kazakhstan. The negotiations and presentation were successful, and I managed to convince the client to try our product for free, leaving them a sample cartridge for trial printing.

The feeling of delight and excitement was indescribable when we received the first order for our products a few days later. Following that, we had meetings and negotiations with other potential customers, including audit companies, insurance companies, banks, etc. These customers were all in our carefully crafted Ideal Customer Audience (ICP).

It has been a little over a month since we started our first order, and we already had several other customers in our active database. I was thrilled when we closed the month with a trading turnover of over 100K in KZT. While this amount may seem insignificant to some, in the realities of our market conditions and fierce competition, it was a triumph beyond money!

After a couple of months, sales became an established part of our work process, and business developed on its own. I continued to work in this direction until I decided to pursue my childhood dream of going abroad. This experience became a kind of call to start acting, and I took the first step by leaving for Turkey in 2008. This journey helped me understand the world, myself, and my capabilities better.

This story is not only about my experience in developing myself professionally, but also about inspiration, faith in myself and my capabilities, hard work, and overcoming difficulties on the way to achieving my goals. I am grateful to Uwe, my mentor and business partner, who supported me, believed in my strengths and capabilities, and helped me find my calling. Thanks to him, I became even more passionate about professional development in the field of sales and building my career in this direction.

"I hope my story will help you in finding yourself and not giving up on your path toward your dreams or goals, while staying true to your values and personality. Wishing you all good luck and success in discovering your core and finding your dream job!"