An Interview with Lighting Sales Consultant Andre Kibbe

Amid the calm and appeal of the San Fernando Valley lives Andre Kibbe, a devoted lighting gross sales marketing consultant at Alcon Lighting. His journey started in Pasadena, the place he spent his early years surrounded by household and childhood reminiscences. These roots instilled in him a way of belonging, and his love for Southern California stays sturdy right now.

Andre’s journey into gross sales started practically ten years in the past, on a day that might mark a major turning level in his profession. He stepped into Alcon Lighting on February 9, 2015 to interview for an ecommerce gross sales place, stuffed with pleasure and anxiousness. His first style of success got here inside a number of months—but it surely wasn’t the financial worth of the sale that resonated; as a substitute, it was overwhelming aid and a newfound confidence that washed over him. A $30,000 order appeared monumental on the time, a beacon of hope amidst a interval of self-doubt. He recollects how that second remodeled his anxiousness into motivation and dedication. By every interplay, he discovered the significance of constructing belief, believing that efficient salesmanship is rooted in real connection. He found that being responsive and genuine not solely eased his self-doubt but additionally nurtured belief along with his shoppers.

Andre was lately interviewed close to his residence in Woodland Hills, the place he talked about his childhood and his motivation and drive to excel within the lighting trade.

Query: The place do you name residence?

Andre Kibbe: I dwell in Woodland Hills, although I’ve lived in Southern California most of my life. The primary home the place I lived was in Pasadena, and my earliest reminiscences are in Pasadena. Then [my family] moved to Altadena, and I lived there till I moved out at 18. 

As an grownup, I lived within the coronary heart of Pasadena—proper off Colorado. My fiancée lived in Woodland Hills, and I used to commute. After we obtained married, I moved again to Woodland Hills.

Query: Do you want residing within the San Fernando Valley?

Andre: Yeah, it’s nice. I primarily moved right here to hitch my spouse. It’s quiet. It’s calm and there are good eating places, theaters—good facilities. There’s the Village, and there’s Topanga Plaza. We most likely go there weekly.

Query: Do you recall your first lighting gross sales marketing consultant expertise?

Andre: My first sale most likely got here inside every week or two of being right here. My first day at Alcon Lighting—if I keep in mind appropriately—was on February ninth, 2015. The primary huge sale was a $30,000 order, which was most likely three or 4 months into the job. That was thrilling. Inside my first 12 months, I had my largest single sale ever, which was like $330,000.

Query: What do you keep in mind about your first sale?

Andre: It was extra aid than something. I used to be fully new to gross sales, aside from retail jobs the place you’re simply transacting, not likely promoting something. There was numerous following up with inbound gross sales calls and anxiousness of questioning if this could work. I used to be uncertain of myself. I’d get nervous each time I’d decide up the telephone. And that took some time to get previous—lots of of hours of fixed promoting, which requires a mindset you need to domesticate. 

Once I obtained that first sale, I used to be like, “Oh, okay—this will occur. This really works…” You retain calling and calling and calling, and also you’re not getting something. Then, swiftly, it’s such as you get a sale, and it appears like all the trouble pays off. That felt good. I keep in mind feeling relieved—like, “I can do that—” and likewise simply helpful. 

Promoting lights to individuals—issues that folks want—having the ability to specify one thing actual—the variety of lights, the colour temperature, the technical elements—and having the ability to present individuals with data and observe by with that, that’s satisfying.

Query: Do you keep in mind particulars in regards to the $330,000 sale?

Andre: I do. That order was for an engineering agency whose shopper had townhomes that wanted lighting. It could have been a structural engineering firm. 

That was a sale that got here from an inbound name. Most of our leads are inbound. So I do numerous follow-up. You by no means know what’s gonna occur if you decide up the telephone. Generally it’s simply an order. Different instances, it’s individuals investigating.

Query: Which kind of lights did the shopper need?

Andre: Linear pendant fixtures. These are our hottest lighting merchandise. It was an entire bunch of them. They needed to ship them in tranches of like a number of hundred at a time and it was like three or 4 shipments. 

As quickly as they talked about the amount, I knew it might be a high-ticket order. I had an excellent feeling about it from the start. There are particular cues the place I can inform what part the particular person’s mission is in—whether or not it’s an informational name or somebody who has an intent to purchase. I don’t keep in mind the precise particulars. I simply knew that this was one thing imminent. 

I’ve a pending sale proper now that I believe is like $380,000 from a fairly large firm—a satellite tv for pc dish firm—which most likely will order within the subsequent few months. I keep centered, reply one query at a time and hope for the very best.

Query: What do you assume sealed the deal by way of your effort on that decision?

Andre: Credibility flows each methods. Once you decide up and speak to a potential buyer, you possibly can sense whether or not they’re critical. And I believe the other is true—they’ve a way of whether or not I’m being critical by my demeanor, by how quickly I get again to them—how severely you are taking the decision. So if an individual has an instinct that I’m a accountable particular person, and I’m responsive, and I’m not blowing smoke, then individuals will [be more amenable]. 

I attempt to preserve that degree of professionalism with each name as a result of I do take these items severely. That influences how I converse. I can all the time inform when somebody’s critical. You’ll be able to inform when somebody’s studying a script versus being genuine. Individuals decide up on authenticity. 

This, to me, is professionalism. Not somebody’s skill to learn a script. It’s really listening—it’s breaking by that shell of ready speaking factors and attending to what the particular person really needs—actually entering into the meat of the dialog as shortly as doable.

Query: How do you cope with a state of affairs the place a buyer is pissed off or needs to vent?

Andre: I ask for particulars as a result of, particularly on this trade, individuals can’t all the time articulate the issue. They’ll [tend to] say [things] like, “Oh, this gentle doesn’t work.” However they will’t all the time inform you, for example, whether or not it’s flickering. Is the sunshine not approaching if you hit the swap? Or individuals will use brightness as a proxy for colour temperature. Issues like that. 

It’s my accountability as a lighting skilled to unpack that. And information them into going backwards and forwards—just like the time period “looping for understanding” to get a extra exact model of the reason for the preliminary frustration.

Query: How a lot of your success as a salesman comes from coaching and assets you acquired and the way a lot simply you?

Andre: There are two elements of it. One is the technical side. The opposite is the human component. Once I’m speaking to individuals—simply doing gross sales calls—it’s like there’s no getting round placing your reps within the health club. I’ve to maintain speaking to individuals. And finally, I turned much less self-conscious. 

You begin constructing a psychological map of various questions somebody can ask, after which you recognize the array of solutions. You may have the information, and it’s comparatively pure. Whereas, earlier than, if you’re first beginning, somebody asks a query, and also you’re at a loss, which places you on the defensive and it spirals into anxiousness. 

There’s a tipping level the place you simply really feel extra assured. To at the present time, I’m stumped by questions. However they’re fewer than ever. I understand how to purchase time to get the solutions I would like so I can get again to the particular person in a fast method.

Query: How did you study Alcon Lighting?

Andre: An commercial on Craigslist. I really thought it was going to be an e-commerce job. I assumed it might be sustaining the web site or one thing like that. 

Inside a number of days, I spotted, “Oh, that is an e-commerce gross sales job.” I thought of not persevering with. However then I assumed perhaps studying how you can promote can be character-building as a result of it may generalize an excellent life talent—the artwork of persuasion.

Query: As you close to your tenth anniversary, what’s probably the most constant buyer praise you’ve acquired?

Andre: That I’m thorough, skilled and responsive. That I get again to individuals in a well timed method and take individuals’s inquiries severely. I do my finest to make clear points, deal with reservations. I believe it’s addressing individuals’s reservations quite than in overcoming objections, which, to me, seems like railroading—or steamrolling—over individuals. 

If I’m delicate to individuals’s frustrations are, and attempt to unpack these, then reply in an easy method, I can earn respect. Prospects find yourself saying: “Thanks for being so thorough—so skilled, so devoted.”

Query: What’s the nicest praise you’ve had?

Andre: One buyer who retains coming again may be very complimentary. I can’t consider any particular factor that she stated. I all the time err on the aspect of giving an excessive amount of data quite than not sufficient as a result of I do know I dislike it once I ask somebody a query and get 70 % of a solution—then I’ve follow-up. So, I attempt to guarantee that when somebody asks me one thing, I present a whole reply. I observe the golden rule and attempt to do unto others as I’d wish to have them do unto me.

Query: What makes Alcon Lighting totally different, as an organization, from the competitors?

Andre: It’s a household enterprise with pleasure within the tradition they’ve constructed, not simply an empty shell, not simply an meeting line. It’s values-driven. All of us look out for one another, and everybody needs everybody else to be the very best model of themselves. We’re personally invested in one another.

Query: Is there a sort of lighting that you just assume is underestimated?

Andre: Oblique lighting of all types. Oblique lighting is any gentle that bounces off of a floor quite than beaming on the topic straight. For instance, a linear pendant fixture casts gentle as much as the ceiling, after which the sunshine within the room is the ambient gentle that bounces off the ceiling. And that reduces numerous glare. 

Fifty years in the past, when workplaces didn’t have numerous computer systems, it wasn’t a difficulty. However now, everybody has screens at their desk. Everybody needs to cut back glare. And oblique lighting is the easiest way to try this. In my view, it appears to be like higher.

Query: Are you able to be particular?

Andre: There’s cove lighting—you’ll see this in an increasing number of eating places and lobbies, the place the perimeter is illuminated, however you don’t see the sunshine supply—that’s cove lighting. Like the place the wall intersects with the ceiling, recessed within the wall is a cove gentle that shines gentle up towards the ceiling. So that you’re seeing the comfortable glow across the perimeter of the room. 

After which additionally, oblique linear lighting is lighting—the place a linear pendant gentle can both be solid downward, the place it’s known as downlight, or it will possibly go up and down, which is called direct-indirect lighting. Or it will possibly go straight up, which is oblique lighting. That’s the least standard. 

We don’t get numerous demand for it however I believe that it’s an underutilized useful resource. I believe that numerous workplaces would expertise both extra productiveness or have a greater work expertise in the event that they switched primarily to oblique lighting.

Query: Did your mother’s vocation contribute to the abilities that propelled your profession development?

Andre: Sure, although she labored as a graphic artist for Getty Oil, so her job was additionally inventive. She’d deliver me into sure rooms the place I may play with the gear—there have been computer systems and all this equipment and stuff like that—however I believe my solely curiosity in lighting was from being a film buff and taking note of cinematography and lighting. I used to be conscious of how issues had been lit in motion pictures. 

Query: What did your dad do?

Andre: He was an automotive mechanic. My dad’s technical. I believe the principle factor that I took from his work, with out being explicitly taught it, is that I can repair my very own stuff. I don’t must essentially look to another person to repair an issue I’ve. I can assume by it myself. 

When he moved to Texas after I left the nest, I’d diagnose every thing from mundane issues to grease modifications—or if there was {an electrical} drawback—on my own. I used to be capable of self-service. My dad was just like the equal of Zen and the Artwork of Motorbike Upkeep, the concept the stuff you personal, it’s best to be taught to grasp—not worry. It’s an excellent life lesson.

Query: Did any early work expertise form your strategy to your work?

Andre: I did have a tech help job for an organization that made mind-mapping software program. A thoughts map is one thing the place individuals used to do it by hand with a pencil—pen and paper—however you’re brainstorming, you draw a bubble, you then do outward issues. So most individuals now do them by laptop. There’s this piece of software program known as TheBrain—I labored at this software program firm known as TheBrain—and it might be one tech help problem after one other. 

Each name was a problem. I’d be thrown into the deep and had to determine. What I discovered from that’s that whether or not I do know one thing or not, I can assume by something. I don’t need to have already got solutions at my fingertips once I’m being challenged with an issue.

Query: What’s your favourite a part of coming to work on daily basis?

Andre: Having the ability to finalize gross sales. It’s not in regards to the monetary reward, essentially. It’s a matter of lighting up somebody’s work or residence. It’s satisfying to have individuals with summary issues, which I’m capable of break down into concrete options and have them act on it. So, it’s very satisfying to finalize a sale—not simply speak about it, not hash backwards and forwards about it, however to truly come to a conclusion. As a result of, to me, the one method I do know if the knowledge I’m giving is of worth is that if somebody buys the sunshine.