Robbie Bhatti, sales director at Capita Application Services, talks about sales fun, stretching targets and why you should always be yourself.
I’m Robbie Bhatti and I’m the sales director for Capita Application Services. It’s my job to go out and delight our customers and clients – and win new business both internally and externally. I’ll talk to potential clients about their business challenges and give them a solution. That’s why I love working in sales and it’s the fun part of the job, because I get to really engage with people.
In sales, people buy from people, and the only way you can get people to buy from you is by building relationships and the only way to do that is by being open, honest, collaborative and occasionally, making people smile!
Stretch and test yourself
This is a sales role, and in every sales role you’ll find targets. This is a sales role, and in every sales role you’ll find targets. They are challenging. At the start of the year, I’ll very often find myself thinking, how on earth am I going to achieve that, but there is some science behind the targets, numbers aren’t simply picked out of the air. They are realistic – and stretching. But my favourite aspect of the role is winning a big deal. The last big deal I secured, I was actually jumping up and down when I heard the news and ran out into my street shouting – my neighbours thought I was mad!
Sales passion
If someone was considering a career in software sales, I would say, bring your passion – if you’re not passionate, you won’t be successful, you’re just wasting your time. I also think you need a sense of humour. When times are tough, and they can be, you need to find the positive, smile and get through it. You’ve got to want to talk to customers and be a problem solver for them, wave your magic wand for them. Working hard and knowing what you’re selling is also important. The more you know about your customer, the better because the more you know, then the more you can help them. Do your homework, do your research, and you’ll bear fruits, amazing things will happen to you.
If I could go back to my younger self, I’d say get into this role earlier. Prior to working at Capita Application Services I worked in insurance and then as a Test Analyst, moving up the ranks to become project manager roles, release management, delivery director and it was great, but sales is what I enjoy the most.
Software sales roles
If you’d like to find out more about the opportunities at Capita Software and search our current job roles, head over to our software sales page.