The Many Faces of Our #AilleronExperts

A round of applause for another #AilleronExpert who is sharing his knowledge in our series. Are you curious about what the Lead Generation team does or what outbound and inbound mean in sales? These are among the topics we covered with Tomek in our conversation. We promise — it’s a fascinating read.

1. Tomek, you’ve been with Ailleron for a relatively short time. From a candidate’s perspective, can you tell us what convinced you to join the #AilleronExperts group?

Sure! What particularly convinced me was the domain knowledge and the work with the largest banks in Poland and around the world, as well as the fact that Ailleron implements innovations and the latest technologies in collaboration with its clients. I won’t deny that the very good reputation in the community and on the market also influenced my decision. The Friendly Workplace award certainly wasn’t given without a reason.

2. You’re part of the Lead Generation department within the Sales team. Tell us what your department does and what your responsibilities are.

The Lead Generation department consists of several people involved in broadly defined efforts to build interest in our services among potential clients in various markets. This happens through developing relationships and trust, as well as networking activities. It’s difficult at first because we’re strangers to these clients, and trust is the foundation of successful business relationships and a key factor influencing purchasing decisions. That’s why making a good first impression is so important. In the team, I’m responsible for the entire process and for building the strategy.

3. You mentioned that outbound sales is one of your strong skills. Can you tell us what exactly this process involves and give us some practical examples to help us understand it?

Sure! Outbound literally means “going out.” That’s also the strategy behind this approach — we “go out” to clients and take the initiative to establish contact and build relationships based on, among other things, shared interests, exchanging experiences, and market and industry know-how.

4. So outbound activities include things like direct messages on LinkedIn, newsletters, and forms that collect contacts? Am I understanding this correctly?

Yes, but it’s worth clarifying this a bit further. While outbound activities on LinkedIn and at industry conferences are fairly obvious in the financial industry and B2B services, the traditional view of the newsletter doesn’t always work for us. Each of our business units, responsible for a specific solution and services — for example, Financial Technology Services, LeaseTech, and LiveBank — runs its own mailing campaigns or creates specific contact forms as part of particular initiatives and the specific business needs of our audience. Such activities can cover both outbound and inbound. In our company, it’s the marketing specialists who are involved in mailings and creating forms that let us “capture contact” with clients interested in our offer.

5. There are quite a few of these processes and approaches in sales. As you already mentioned, inbound is the counterpart of outbound. So what makes outbound stand out, what are its advantages, and why is it worth using?

A smoothly running machine is inbound and outbound complementing each other. Through outbound activities, you can establish business relationships directly. This way, we indirectly generate inbound traffic — clients who come back to us after some time because we’ve “anchored” the Ailleron brand somewhere along the way.

The advantages of outbound definitely include a proactive approach that allows us to reach selected people instead of waiting for their initiative. It also offers the ability to focus on priority markets and segments, as well as an opportunity to promote the brand and increase its recognition. It makes it possible to test different approaches and adapt them dynamically, which leads to continuous improvement of the process.

6. Where did the idea for this career path come from?

From the very beginning of my career, I was involved in broadly defined research — first in recruitment, but it quickly turned into sales research. Research is one of the essential parts of the outbound process, along with data analysis, monitoring, and statistics. I really grew to like this part, complemented by contact with clients. It’s a bit of a combination of introverted and extroverted traits. My journalism studies, which put a strong emphasis on interpersonal contact, definitely helped me, and that ultimately set my career path.

7. In your opinion, should a person working in business sales have any specific traits that make it easier to find their footing in this industry?

Of course. In my opinion, it definitely has to be someone who enjoys engaging in interpersonal contact. Sales is all about constant contact and building relationships. The second important trait is patience, because sometimes you have to wait for results (especially in the outbound process), but in the long run, perseverance definitely pays off.

8. What would you advise people who want to grow in sales in the IT industry?

The IT industry is a very dynamic environment that changes from day to day. Something that was relevant on Wednesday won’t necessarily be relevant on Thursday. You definitely need to take an interest in it and stay up to date with trends. This also applies to the sales process itself and its channels. I also encourage taking part in webinars and training sessions on selling IT services and products.

9. And after work, no more work talk. 😉 Tomek, what are your passions and activities that help you rest and reset after a full day or week of work?

I like playing tennis (mostly with my fiancée), watching tennis matches on TV, diving into Scandinavian crime novels, and going for walks with my two-kilogram Yorkshire Terrier. Beyond that, I spend my free time reading about and analyzing innovations related to my daily work.

Tomek, thank you for the interesting conversation and for giving us an insight into the world of sales.