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Next we will hear from Eero, who tells us about his job as a sales manager in MyNextRun. Work in the MyNextRun sales team is international and diverse.
I am in charge of selling the MyNextRun registration service to Finnish running events. In addition to this, I am also responsible for different kinds of add-on revenues and their development. This entails, for instance, preparing and selling marketing partnerships to event organizers and running-related brands. Both brands and events are interested in the international market and because of our significant position in the running market we can guarantee them wide visibility among runners, both in Finland and around Europe.
My workdays vary quite a bit, but I try to divide the days quite routinely according to my different responsibilities. My working days are also strongly influenced by the customers’ schedules. That is why my schedules have to be flexible and they often change throughout the day. Working in a fast-growing startup company offers you new and surprising tasks, for instance within development, which makes the work extremely interesting. Most of the meetings and negotiations with customers take place over the phone, but sometimes we meet face to face. Contracts and terms are confirmed via e-mail.
Our sales team currently consists of six people and we are directing our service particularly to the European running market at the moment. Two members of the team are Finnish: I am responsible for the Finnish market and Niklas for the rest of the Nordic countries. Michael from Australia and Pieter from Belgium concentrate especially on English-speaking customers in Europe. Claudio from Italy is focused on conquering the Italian market and Fabian from Mexico is mainly in contact with Spanish customers. As you can imagine our team is very international, due to both its members and the customers. Different cultural backgrounds bring their own flavour to sales and native level language skills are often required in certain markets. Although there is a lot to do and our goals are high, the atmosphere in our team is relaxed and we find time to develop our work daily. We have great team spirit and we also often spend time together outside of work.
The best thing about this job is working with different people, both your colleagues and customers. Sales has an interesting psychological aspect to it and the starting point is always to find solutions to the customer’s problems. What makes my job a little easier is that MyNextRun already has a strong position particularly within the Finnish market, where our service is well-known. Our service is excellent and makes things easier for both event organizers and runners. However, selling the service should never be taken for granted and that is why we are constantly improving our service to better meet the needs of all the users.
While working with different kinds of people is the best part of this job, it is also the biggest challenge. Your own views and the customer’s views on the qualities and benefits of our service do not always meet. Expressing things clearly and efficiently, to both event organizers and brand representatives, is something that can always be improved. Smaller events often feel that our service is not useful for them as they are used to doing a lot of manual work for the event. It is a challenge for me to show them that the size of the event does not matter, but that we can help events of all sizes, from small village runs to the biggest running events in the world.
Succeeding in sales does not necessarily require strong previous experience, what is more important is that you have the right kind of attitude, a passion for solving problems and a desire to improve yourself. Interest toward the sport industry is always a plus. In part the service sells itself, but one has to be prepared to face all kinds of reactions from people.
