Tweet
'If clients seek out my view on a project of theirs, it means they value my expertise and take me seriously'
We meet at a French restaurant on a warm, mid-summer evening in London's Covent Garden, at the sales manager's suggestion. He's a big guy, easygoing, in his mid-20s. Born and educated in continental Europe, he has been living in London for six months. As a starter he orders foie gras, followed by a burger with fries, and for dessert a double macchiato with a glass of brandy.
"The company I work for offers data management services for financial transactions. For instance, when a company is put up for sale, somebody has to go through its records and statements to figure out how much it's worth, and to make sure that there are no hidden surprises. This sort of forensics is called due diligence. It can take up to six months or even longer than a year, and is performed by bankers, accountants, consultants and lawyers.
"My company offers a service at one particular point along that trajectory: often part of a company's records are unstructured or not categorised well enough for due diligence research, and sometimes documents are so confidential that a company will keep them as a physical document in a highly secured room.
"We are very good at collecting all this paperwork and structuring it in such a way that the specialists can get to work right away. The CD we compile with all of a company's records and contracts at the end of the deal is encrypted, of course, still you really don't want to lose that.
"Companies have secrets; they don't want one customer to know what they charge another. If they negotiated a special deal with a supplier, they don't want their competitor with the same supplier to know the details. Many companies keep their labour contracts confidential, the salaries they pay, the size of employee's bonuses … When a company is put up for sale, it must open its books to prospective buyers – they need to know what they're buying. However, some parties pretend to be interested while they only want to snoop around their competitor's records and statements. So the selling party has to decide which potential buyers are serious and thus worth showing all of the records, or most.
"Breaching confidentiality would be the No 1 taboo in my line of work. The other day I was in this bar when on a table next to mine somebody was discussing a deal in progress, out loud and in detail. If I had acted on what I heard there, that guy would have been ****ed. This is one of the reasons we invent codenames for deals. I enjoy thinking about these very expensive and busy and important bankers convening a meeting to brainstorm about a codename. Some banks prefer cartoon characters, others Greek gods or anagrams, when they rearrange the letters of a company's name to form a new word. Often they like to keep some element of logic. When there are four contenders to buy a certain company, they would perhaps name them after the four Dalton brothers in the Lucky Luke comic strip.
"What happens, too, is that they name the deal after the company's biggest enemy – then outsiders are going to hear that name in confusing contexts and be baffled. Call it corporate teasing. Since the company I work for is involved in a lot of deals we can sometimes help with a good codename, or alert clients if they are about to take a name that is already being used for another deal. Imagine the potential for confusion if at one time there are two major deals happening across the sector with identical codenames?
"For the past few years I was operational manager, meaning I oversaw the whole process of data collection. I am still deeply involved in every account – as I have made the sale so I am responsible to the client. It can be intense. In the old days I would work Monday through Friday from 8.30 in the morning to midnight. Weekends would be better, and none of us would work past 6pm unless things had to get done. No, I didn't have a girlfriend in those days.
"Success for me? You probably expect me to say that the best moment in this job is when a really big bonus comes in. Of course that's great. But, in fact, the moment I enjoy my work most is when clients ask me for advice. I am in sales, I sell them our services. Then if they seek out my view on a project of theirs, it means they value my expertise and take me seriously.
"The key skills to succeed in sales? You need to know exactly when certain companies will be put up for sale, and then you have to put in your proposal at just the right time. I spend a lot of time talking on the phone, following the industry news on specialised websites, taking people out for coffee or dinner. It is a delicate business, sales. You don't want to overdo things by taking people out to an incredibly expensive club or bar. Coffee at Starbucks is acceptable but you don't want to take them for fish and chips either."
Joris Luyendijk
guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
More...
