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 recollections. These roots instilled in him a way of belonging, and his love for Southern California stays robust in the present day.

Andre’s journey into gross sales started practically ten years in the past, on a day that might mark a big 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—nevertheless it wasn’t the financial worth of the sale that resonated; as a substitute, it was overwhelming reduction 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 way of every interplay, he realized 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 together with his shoppers.

Andre was not too long ago interviewed close to his dwelling in Woodland Hills, the place he talked about his childhood and his motivation and drive to excel within the lighting business.

Query: The place do you name dwelling?

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 recollections 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 received married, I moved again to Woodland Hills.

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

Andre: Yeah, it’s nice. I primarily moved right here to affix 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 bear in mind accurately—was on February ninth, 2015. The primary massive sale was a $30,000 order, which was most likely three or 4 months into the job. That was thrilling. Inside my first yr, I had my largest single sale ever, which was like $330,000.

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

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

After I received 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, unexpectedly, it’s such as you get a sale, and it seems like all the hassle pays off. That felt good. I bear in mind feeling relieved—like, “I can do that—” and likewise simply helpful. 

Promoting lights to folks—issues that individuals want—with the ability to specify one thing actual—the variety of lights, the colour temperature, the technical features—and with the ability to present folks with info and comply with via with that, that’s satisfying.

Query: Do you bear 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 will 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 loads of follow-up. You by no means know what’s gonna occur once you decide up the telephone. Typically it’s simply an order. Different occasions, it’s folks investigating.

Query: Which kind of lights did the client need?

Andre: Linear pendant fixtures. These are our hottest lighting merchandise. It was a complete 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 specific cues the place I can inform what part the particular person’s venture is in—whether or not it’s an informational name or somebody who has an intent to purchase. I don’t bear in mind the precise particulars. I simply knew that this was one thing imminent. 

I’ve a pending sale proper now that I feel 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 perfect.

Query: What do you suppose sealed the deal when it comes to your effort on that decision?

Andre: Credibility flows each methods. While you decide up and speak to a potential buyer, you’ll be able to sense whether or not they’re critical. And I feel the alternative 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 folks will [be more amenable]. 

I attempt to keep that stage of professionalism with each name as a result of I do take these items severely. That influences how I communicate. 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. Folks decide up on authenticity. 

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

Query: How do you take care of a scenario the place a buyer is pissed off or desires to vent?

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

It’s my duty 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 features of it. One is the technical side. The opposite is the human factor. After I’m speaking to folks—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 folks. And ultimately, I grew to become much less self-conscious. 

You begin constructing a psychological map of various questions somebody can ask, after which the array of solutions. You’ve the data, and it’s comparatively pure. Whereas, earlier than, once 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 today, I’m stumped by questions. However they’re fewer than ever. I understand how to purchase time to get the solutions I want 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 noticed, “Oh, that is an e-commerce gross sales job.” I thought of not persevering with. However then I assumed perhaps studying find out how to promote could 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 folks in a well timed method and take folks’s inquiries severely. I do my greatest to make clear points, deal with reservations. I feel it’s addressing folks’s reservations quite than in overcoming objections, which, to me, seems like railroading—or steamrolling—over folks. 

If I’m delicate to folks’s frustrations are, and attempt to unpack these, then reply in an easy approach, 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 facet of giving an excessive amount of info quite than not sufficient as a result of I do know I dislike it once I ask somebody a query and get 70 p.c of a solution—then I’ve follow-up. So, I attempt to be sure that when somebody asks me one thing, I present an entire reply. I observe the golden rule and attempt to do unto others as I might need 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 delight 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 desires everybody else to be the perfect model of themselves. We’re personally invested in one another.

Query: Is there a kind of lighting that you simply suppose is underestimated?

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

Fifty years in the past, when workplaces didn’t have loads of computer systems, it wasn’t a difficulty. However now, everybody has screens at their desk. Everybody desires to cut back glare. And oblique lighting is the easiest way to try this. For my part, it seems higher.

Query: Are you able to be particular?

Andre: There’s cove lighting—you’ll see this in increasingly 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 mild that shines mild up towards the ceiling. So that you’re seeing the delicate glow across the perimeter of the room. 

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

We don’t get loads of demand for it however I feel that it’s an underutilized useful resource. I feel that loads of 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 creative. She’d deliver me into sure rooms the place I may play with the tools—there have been computer systems and all this equipment and stuff like that—however I feel 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 have been lit in films. 

Query: What did your dad do?

Andre: He was an automotive mechanic. My dad’s technical. I feel the primary 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 suppose via it myself. 

When he moved to Texas after I left the nest, I might diagnose every little 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 Bike Upkeep, the concept that the belongings you personal, it’s best to be taught to grasp—not concern. It’s an excellent life lesson.

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

Andre: I did have a tech assist job for an organization that made mind-mapping software program. A thoughts map is one thing the place folks 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 assist problem after one other. 

Each name was a problem. I might be thrown into the deep and had to determine. What I realized from that’s that whether or not I do know one thing or not, I can suppose via 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 day-after-day?

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 dwelling. It’s satisfying to have folks 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 really come to a conclusion. As a result of, to me, the one approach I do know if the knowledge I’m giving is of worth is that if somebody buys the sunshine.