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About Faeez's Experience!
How my 2 decades of sales experience has been refined in my current role at Pearl Lemon. A company that wants to see me grow and progress. Sales is by far the most important part of any business that not only wants to survive but flourish in any economic conditions!
Who I am
My name is Faeez Samsoodien, and I come from multiple industries ranging from Finance, Banking, Motor, Tourism and Energy. Most of my roles were in business development/sales development/sales background with a strong tie into client service and relationship building. I worked as a full-time professional until Mid 2016 which is about Seven years ago when I decided to open up my own establishment in a small coastal town on the East coast of South Africa in the travel and tourism industry. I truly haven’t looked back! Unfortunately due to a global pandemic I was forced to close my operation in 2020. It taught me so much and I carry those learnings with me in everything I do today. Having closed my doors I needed to think out of the box to survive and found International remote work as the only answer to my common dilemma (During the hard lockdown), managing to work on a couple of projects that allowed me to live a comfortable lifestyle and provide for my loved ones. I E-met Deepak for the first time late in February this year, and he made me jump a couple of hoops before giving me the nod. For instance cold calling for 2 hours and providing a playlist of all the recorded calls I did, for the first time ever in my life used Voice Notes on WhatsApp to answer interview questions that were also sent to me via voice notes to be considered by the rest of the Outbound calling team (Which consequently is the preferred communications channel for the PL Group). On the 1st of March I started what I hoped to be a long term relationship with Pearl Lemon Group. My role as a Sales Development Representative seemed quite junior, based on my 2 decades of experience but proving sustainability and showing growth in a tough global economic crisis has assured me that I made the right choice by joining the Pearl Lemon Team. It’s also gratifying to feel valuable while being in a position of continuous improvement and skill-honing, mainly when your development revolves around tools and services that are legitimately helping hundreds of companies worldwide. Working remotely is the new norm and I am glad to say that the one positive that came from the pandemic is that I get to be a part of a global team that targets international markets that has taken my skill set to the next level. I suppose a challenge I have had to overcome was being hit with a multifaceted calling environment that focuses on different services that are offered at Pearl Lemon as well as calling on behalf of different clients that also offer a range of products and services that are vastly different for every project. What has helped me even though I am really good at acquiring new knowledge, is the excitement of the variety of channels available to me which I could adapt and make my own.
Working with Deepak and the team these past couple of months has enabled me to contribute to the growth of External customers as well as the growth of Pearl Lemon. These services offer our clients new business opportunities as we put their services in the direct attention of valuable decision-makers and influencers on the B2B/B2C front. This has all taken a lot of hard work and perfecting a script/pitch doesn’t happen on the first call, with resilience and determination along with guidance we don’t really stop developing our craft until they reach their full potential, and even then, we keep challenging ourselves. The very first couple of months, the calling team met everyday to review our two best calls from the previous day. Actively looking for ways to improve and make good calls even better and turn them into great calls.
Another thing I love about my relationship with Pearl Lemon Group is that due to Deepak’s never-ending curiosity and commitment to progress, even the sales training, available to all who are interested (for free on youtube). 119 days worth of effective tips and tricks to get your sales skills as sharp as possible, guaranteed to get you results if you put in the effort and implement the knowledge shared so freely. What really inspires me is the actual on the ground experience and pool of knowledge here. What Pearl Lemon has done is take their own learnings in building a successful brand and found a way to record/reproduce these proven methods that they themselves have developed/believe in and implemented it into their offering. We find that many professionals typically share common goals and pains. As a team, I admire the fact that we in the Outbound team are dedicated to figuring out how we can actually help another company grow and book new business opportunities into their diaries to make sure new business deals consistently flow through their doors. This is an approach that most of our clients appreciate. They understand that our success revolves around theirs and not the other way around. Of course, not everything is sunshine and daisies, and this level of success comes with its challenges. We come together as a team, put our expertise to good use and find a winning solution. Whether it be trying a new script, looking at the calling list or changing the targeted roles we always find a way. The support I receive from management, piers and colleagues is just phenomenal. The cold calling team have decades of combined experience on the phones, Jay our Team lead is a master at putting scripts together and making sure that everybody knows exactly what the KPI’s are. She makes sure that we are sufficiently prepared for whatever project we have to call for, by leading the charge she is first to call for the project, making sure that the calling lists are accurate, loaded/imported to Crazy Call ready to be reachout to. Ion reviews our calls in a group sitting making sure that we know how to handle objections, identifies any gaps in the pitch, perfects what open questions would guarantee engagement from prospects and also fine tuning the script to be of maximum impact. (In his words “what is the burger”) – Our outbound team consistently delivers on the amount of dials as well as the required leads needed to be generated, I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to work with.
I usually start my work day at 9:30am Monday to Friday and end off at 7:00pm not because it’s expected from me but because that is what suits me best. I can arrange my day to exactly what allows the maximum results for me. At Pearl Lemon, we focus on actual work, tasks, and deliverables that truly matter versus rigid processes that allow for excessive bureaucracy rather than actual progress. This has shown me that you shouldn’t have it any other way. I have recently joined the Pearl Lemon Catering Team and I now actively seek opportunities on Add to Event, Poptop as well as Bark. This means I can do catering outreach in the morning and focus on External calls for our clients in the afternoon or do it the other way around giving me the opportunity to plan my own day.
I have aligned my values of attaining client service excellence to that of Pearl Lemons ability and willingness to put our clients first and this really sets our brand apart. So much so that when we review our calls, we have the ability to change direction and gain better success with a different version of our sales pitch or change our targeting. I’m so proud to be a part of a team that keeps getting positive reviews weekly by companies we work with and professionals we interact with, even if we don’t end up working with them for long. At Pearl lemon there are no “sales tricks”, and no “closing tools” just experience backed by practice and support. Ensuring that the work we do for a company helps them grow and reach their goals!