meet the experts – Maxime Marcotte

‘At ynvolve, we don’t work by the book.’

He sleeps very well, thank you very much. But if there’s one thing that makes Maxime Marcotte stressed at night, it’s The Market. What will happen, what will change? And how can he adjust quickly to keep his clients satisfied? ‘In this line of work, you have to be ahead of everything constantly. That’s quite a task for someone very anxious to do his job as well as I do, especially in an extremely unstable industry. It changes all the time. You can’t sit back and relax; you have to keep on pushing, talk to new companies, and meet new people. The market is moving constantly, so we have to keep evolving as well. But don’t worry, that’s actually what I love about this job: none of my days look the same.’

Maxime was born and raised in Quebec City, Canada, but moved to the Netherlands five years ago because of his Dutch girlfriend. Like many of his co-workers, he knew nothing about IT when he started at Ynvolve. That was not a problem – you can learn about IT on the job. Maxime was reluctant for another reason: ‘This industry did not appeal to me at all, and I had another job offer as well. I did not grow up with tech stuff; I could turn on my computer, and that was basically it. That feeling changed when I interviewed. I immediately fell in love with the company, the mindset, the people. And when I started training, I fell in love with the tech stuff as well.’

Still, how do you start as a young sales rep without knowledge? 

‘People might see a typical salesperson as very confident, very outgoing. I was the opposite of that at first. I’m not shy, but I don’t like to talk about what I don’t know. So, I wanted to learn first. Feed me information, and then I’ll try to make sense of it. Then we’ll talk, then we’ll see what happens. Knowing next to nothing in those early days, that was hard. Yet I learned and found out that I could solve a problem for a client. Then, I was able to help a bigger client. And so forth. I learned one case at a time, thanks to the support of my colleagues. They gave me feedback and told me what I did wrong or what I could do better. So next time, I did do better. They took me along the way with them – as I do now with new employees.’

It’s not the only thing that Maxime likes about working at ynvolve. ‘I came from a financial background and was used to structure, to doing things by the book. At Ynvolve, we have a different approach. If there’s a problem, we will go around it and find a way to solve it. You can get as creative as you want if it helps you to fix the problem. I’ve never had that kind of freedom working for a bank or any other company. At Ynvolve, we don’t work by the book; we go all the way to keep our clients happy and help them reach their goals.’

Bye-bye to the insecure guy.

‘True. There’s still a lot I don’t know; getting deep into configurations is not my thing, and it never will be. But I know stuff now, which gives me a head start on the competition. The rest comes down to trust and connecting with people. Not only by sending them emails or talking on the phone but also by meeting them in person. To get people on board – and have them stay– you need to shake hands and have a cup of coffee now and then. You create real bonds with people if you actually see them. Not to convince them, but to show them you’re more than a salesperson.’