Jan, how did your career at OKIN Facility start and was OKIN the place where you started your sales career?
It was in 2009 when OKIN, in cooperation with my previous employer, participated in a tender for Vodafone. I was given the opportunity to see how OKIN works and started working closely with the previous head of the Czech business. Coincidentally, some time after our cooperation, OKIN was looking for a new salesman for Moravia region. I applied for this position and won the selection process. At the beginning I was responsible for the Zlín region and later on my responsibility expanded to the whole Moravia region. Next to it I managed to reach other regions as well. Today I lead a great sales team in the Czech republic.
I got my education in the field of construction and before OKIN I was active in sales with focus on construction industry. It was the area where my sales experience began to develop. I was able to capitalize on much of this experience in facility management.
If you should compare OKIN's service portfolio offered when you started in 2009 and today, where do you see the biggest difference?
OKIN grew out of technical administration, but the cleaning division started to take shape when I arrived. Subsequently, with the growing demands and wishes of our clients, security services and inspection divisions started to form which are now part of our in-house services. By following the market development and clients' wishes, we gradually started to offer additional services and activities. Recently, the biggest changes in the offered services are technological and high-rise cleaning. IoT and energy management activities certainly fall under this category as well.
Is OKIN different from thirteen years ago?
It certainly is, but only in a good way. I got to know OKIN as a larger family business and today it is the market leader in facility management and a leading provider of these services. Not only OKIN Facility, but the whole Okin group is moving in the right direction. It is a natural evolution of our success.
Jan, what do you enjoy most about being a salesman?
Contact with people, working with numbers and psychology of potential clients. The way to a positive outcome of a business meeting. Clearly also the variety of activities that facility management offers. The business of facility management is simply not one-sided.
So is business in facility management more challenging?
It is more time-consuming and has its own distinctive features, thanks to the diversity of its portfolio of services. I can compare it to the construction industry. When you sell blocks, bricks or even cement bags, you are selling a product that you can touch and judge the quality of it. With services, it's more complicated, the human factor and the client's ideas come into it. You have to be able to convince the client that you're a pro and you want the best for them. You're selling a service that's kind of elusive and can be evaluated from different angles.
How is business done in facility management?
Based on my opinion, in facility management it is primarily a question of teamwork. If someone is a solo player, they can't succeed in the long run in our business. We are selling a service that is the result of a team work.
What is your sales team like?
First and foremost, it's a group of people that I'm proud of. Its composition has evolved over a long period of time and we have basically arrived at the ideal shape. Everyone sticks together and pulls together. I know I can rely on them at any time.
Do you have any tips or advice that helps you in business dealings?
Be attentive, patient and know how to listen. Be able to create the right atmosphere in a business meeting. And again, most importantly, be able to listen to the client. Then business goes better and smarter.
A good salesman is born, you have to have talent and aptitude. I guess everything can be learned, even business, but you have to have the right business genes.
What are you proud of since you came to OKIN?
It's a few things that we have done. The composition of our sales team, which has gone through some evolution. The expansion of our service portfolio.
And I see winning several large tenders as another point. These are contracts that OKIN has had for more than 10 years. First of all, these are manufacturing companies. The manufacturing segment is one of several areas where OKIN Facility is a strong player in providing integrated facility management services. These include our major clients such as VÍTKOVICE STEEL, Ball Aerosol, Dräger and Česká zbrojovka (Czech arms factory).
Our other portfolio of clients is in the field of light industry, automotive, healthcare, food processing, commercial and administrative facilities. And our specialty is the so-called network contracts (Albert, Dr. Max, CCC, etc.), in which we are very successful.
Can you tell us what new challenges OKIN is facing?
As part of the rebranding process, we are finalizing new business materials and stabilizing the staffing of the Czech sales team. We are continuously working with operations on onboarding new orders and focusing more on the so-called active business, i.e. finding new business opportunities and potential clients.
Last but not least, we continuously participate in tenders in which we seek to win new projects within the provision of facility management services.