Vajk Barabás, our Chief Sales Officer has been leading our domestic and international sales team at Haris since October, 2020. His dynamic and creative work style contributes immensely to the rapid growth of the company.
What position do you work at Haris? How long have you been working for the company?
I have been working at Haris since October 2020, leading the domestic and international sales team as Chief Sales Officer.
What fields have you worked in before? How is your current job different from the previous one(s)?
Taking this job, I haven’t deviated from my career path, as I’ve only worked in sales and marketing before. I’ve been a commercial director and a brand manager at multinational companies, where I’ve come across a lot of well-established processes and structures. 4 years ago, however, I left the corporate world to work for innovative startups. I was responsible for sales at these companies with high growth potential, working mainly in the field of augmented reality and mobile application development. In my current position, I have more responsibilities, than ever before and I lead a larger team. I also cover more areas, but I’m glad to do so because I’ve always defined myself as an all-rounder type of person, who feels comfortable being in multiple roles and areas.
How difficult was the integration thanks to the Covid situation?
I consider myself lucky, because even though my onboarding process was only partially offline, I had the chance to participate in an all-day strategic team building during the first few weeks. It helped me in getting to know my colleagues, so it became easier to keep in touch with them online after that. Apart from the current situation, Haris Digital itself has well-developed processes for operating flexibly and remotely.
What exactly do you do at Haris on a daily basis?
My team and I are responsible for strategic lead generation, reaching out to potential customers, visiting clients and sending outbids.
In addition to these, we collect customer feedbacks on a daily basis, so we can constantly develop our product based on them. Our goal with this is not to offer our potential customers a boxed product that has not been changed for years. In the field of team management, my task is to manage and mentor the sales team, and also to create sales strategies for entering international markets.
What is the biggest challenge for you in your position?
Besides the COVID situation, one of the biggest challenges for seed startups, including Haris Digital, is to sell their products. Since the innovative product itself is constantly evolving, it does not yet have strong market awareness. Thanks to this, it’s actually the most difficult to reach potential local and international customers. However, after one personal or online consultation, sales is already converting pretty well, which shows how enormous the demand of the market is.
How do you improve yourself?
I read many sales strategy books, as well as books about the stories and challenges of other startups written by their founders. In my opinion though, “on the job” learning is the most important and develops you the fastest.
What is the overall goal of the sales team for next year?
Our goal is to find untapped opportunities and set foot in the Hungarian market and the surrounding countries. However, our biggest goal for 2021 is to break into the U.S. market. This requires an incredible increase and the number of customers needs to be multiplied. Fortunately, all the conditions are great: we have an amazing and well-prepared team and there’s high market demand.
How would you describe the corporate culture and leadership style?
Both the company and the management are characterized by positivism, encouragement and helpfulness. Everyone is open to give and ask others for feedback. Haris has a constructive company culture, that helps to create a regularly tuned, comprehensive direction.
What is your personal goal at the company?
My personal goal is to develop great partnerships with our clients, that lay foundation for long-term cooperation locally and globally. Since I don’t have a technical background, I believe it’s important to embrace a universal technological knowledge, which I can apply with any potential client having different processes and machines.
What do you like most about Haris and your job?
I’m very glad that we can contribute to the continuous development of Haris with our opinions and ideas. What I especially enjoy, is meeting companies I haven’t heard of before, located in small towns in the country, and finding out that they produce amazing, world-class quality products. I also like the variety in my work, as we work with many companies in very different industries, such as plastic manufacturing, automotive industry, producing porcelain or metal products.
Dog or cat?
Definitely a dog, but I currently own two bunnies.
Beer, wine or a spirit?
Gin-tonic
Bicycle, public transport or car?
I use public transportation within the city or ride my bike in warmer weather. I choose a car when I go to the country or visit a client.
Shirt or shorts?
Personally, I prefer shorts, but when I have to meet clients I obviously put on a shirt and a suit.
