My workdays are 8 hours from Monday to Thursday, so I start the weeks with a lot of energy because I have 3 days to do everything that helps me to be more active from Monday to Thursday. It is very important to know how to disconnect, stop, exercise, read and get some fresh air, to counteract the hours I spend sitting in front of the computer the rest of the week. On those days I take the opportunity to take a look at what has happened, reflect on any problem I have had and review to turn it around and do it differently the following Monday. I don’t spend 3 days thinking about it, simply in the moments that I stop and walk or I’m looking at the ceiling of my room before getting up, it comes to my mind, and I think about what I would do if I had another chance. And that chance always comes, that’s the luck, every day we have the opportunity to improve, to change it, to fall down and to get up.
Lately I’m focusing a lot on being more effective in my work, on what I’m missing to do it better. When you have been working for many years and you have everything under control, the time comes for self-criticism. Younger and new people come along and give you another vision, new technology and new tools. It is time to recycle yourself, to ask yourself if what you are doing can be better. That is my current point. Sometimes, when questioning everything, there are those who feel uncomfortable, the insecurity of those who think that it is better to leave everything as it is. I don’t have that thought, I don’t have those fears. I like to think that I always have something to learn and look for ways to grow. Sometimes it’s just to be faster, sometimes to help other areas, or simply because I’m never satisfied.
The start of the day
My day starts with a 20-minute meditation. I do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6:55 to 7:15. I’ve started months ago and it really helps me focus on how I’m going to tackle that day. Not only personally, but also at work. There I determine, rather, I try to determine the goals of the day. I repeat, I try, because many times it goes wrong. Writing a diary also usually helps me, and my agenda where I have what I have to do that day. Important mission, and sometimes impossible, to fulfill what I have written down, and not to deviate. Do not admit more tasks, without the important ones of that day are not done. Another important thing is to leave room for unforeseen events and emergencies.
So the first thing, rather the second, is to review if I have something from the previous day, and do the urgent. I review orders that I mark as very important and inform my colleagues who have requested them.
I work and give support to the commercials, currently to Miguel Izquierdo and Lola from GGCC in Navarra. I do the processing and follow-up of their sales. Specifically of the orders, both communications and IT. The goal of all of them is that they go well and fast. That they reach the Operations department correctly so that the orders are perfect and there are no incidents in the implementation. And in their subsequent invoicing.
My tools
Every day I use more and more tools, and I like to see that we are updating many of them. That we are using robots, AI, but always with tracking behind people. In addition, I always discover new ones that help me on a daily basis. The bad thing is that I don’t have access to as many as I would like.
A very useful one is Order to see all the information of a client, its fixed and mobile fleet, or Ciberun to see the Ibercom communications part (switchboard, RAI). The importance of these tools is that they give me essential data to launch orders. Also commercial key where are the procedures and products that we sell. It is very difficult to be an expert in all of them, so when something different comes up, I have to study to become an expert and get it out. Nothing can be left unprocessed.
And tools to launch orders, SALESFORCE and midas, are the main ones. Behind these tools there is a super team that I need to communicate with. And that part is becoming the most important.
Communication tools with the rest of the areas have become essential. Teams seems very powerful to me. Meetings, calls, file sharing, and screen sharing to talk about an issue, most of the time is more important than the rest of the tasks. Because managing transactions well is becoming the way to get them done right, billed right, and on time for the customer. When this is the case, the objective is achieved for the salesperson, for me and, although others do not know it, also for the rest of the company. Because we live off our customers.
The best moment of my day
There are several good moments. One of the best moments is when something goes well and they thank me for it. The recognition of a job well done. When Ibon, Miguel and Andoni (after-sales managers, sales and pre-sales engineering) tell me that the order has gone well and that I have helped them to get it out. I have to say that being part of something makes me very excited. And the best of the best is when you manage to straighten out an order that has gone wrong. To redirect the situation and find the solution to the problem and the person who solves it for me. Someone who is not part of my team calls me because someone else tells them that I can help them. That’s a rush and I go home on a cloud.
Of course, drinking my tea with lemon and lots of sugar with my colleagues is also one of my best moments.
My tricks
I have several tricks to organize myself. One is to give myself time in my day to place orders or follow up without interruptions. I give myself time for unforeseen events and if none arise, I take the opportunity to review procedures, tools, take a Universitas course. The truth is that I start the day trying to organize the objectives of the day, and to fulfill to the maximum that is more than a trick, it is a way of working.
In the end, the important thing is to spend the day as well as possible. Have a day that you feel satisfied with. If you get the orders done, if most of them go well, if you have helped a colleague and learned something new, I will have had a good day and all I have to do is leave the office feeling proud. Obviously there are many days that are not like that, but it’s like life, the good times outweigh the bad. And with the bad ones you usually always learn something, even if I don’t realize it at the time.
The realisation of ALL that requires COURAGE produces HAPPINESS.
