An Interview with Lighting Sales Consultant Andre Kibbe

Amid the calm and attraction of the San Fernando Valley lives Andre Kibbe, a devoted lighting gross sales guide 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 sturdy right this moment.

Andre’s journey into gross sales started almost ten years in the past, on a day that may 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, crammed with pleasure and nervousness. His first style of success got here inside a couple of months—but it surely wasn’t the financial worth of the sale that resonated; as an alternative, 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 nervousness into motivation and dedication. Via 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 in addition nurtured belief together with his shoppers.

Andre was just lately 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 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 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 in all probability go there weekly.

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

Andre: My first sale in all probability 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 huge sale was a $30,000 order, which was in all probability three or 4 months into the job. That was thrilling. Inside my first yr, I had my greatest 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 utterly new to gross sales, aside from retail jobs the place you’re simply transacting, not likely promoting something. There was plenty of following up with inbound gross sales calls and nervousness of questioning if this may work. I used to be not sure of myself. I’d 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 important to domesticate. 

Once I obtained that first sale, I used to be like, “Oh, okay—this could 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 appears like all the trouble pays off. That felt good. I bear in mind feeling relieved—like, “I can do that—” and in addition simply helpful. 

Promoting lights to individuals—issues that individuals want—having the ability to specify one thing precise—the variety of lights, the colour temperature, the technical facets—and having the ability to present individuals with info and comply with by with that, that’s satisfying.

Query: Do you bear in mind particulars concerning the $330,000 sale?

Andre: I do. That order was for an engineering agency whose shopper had townhomes that wanted lighting. It might 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 plenty of follow-up. You by no means know what’s gonna occur whenever you decide up the telephone. Typically it’s simply an order. Different occasions, 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 couple 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 a great feeling about it from the start. There are specific cues the place I can inform what section 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 believe is like $380,000 from a fairly large firm—a satellite tv for pc dish firm—which in all probability 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. If you decide up and discuss to a potential buyer, you’ll be able to sense whether or not they’re severe. And I believe the alternative is true—they’ve a way of whether or not I’m being severe by my demeanor, by how quickly I get again to them—how critically you’re 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 critically. That influences how I communicate. I can all the time inform when somebody’s severe. 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 capacity 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 stepping into the meat of the dialog as rapidly as potential.

Query: How do you take care of a state of affairs the place a buyer is annoyed or needs to vent?

Andre: I ask for particulars as a result of, particularly on this business, individuals can’t all the time articulate the issue. They’ll [tend to] say [things] like, “Oh, this gentle 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 whenever you hit the change? Or individuals will use brightness as a proxy for coloration temperature. Issues like that. 

It’s my accountability as a lighting skilled to unpack that. And information them into going forwards and backwards—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 facets of it. One is the technical facet. The opposite is the human aspect. Once I’m speaking to individuals—simply doing gross sales calls—it’s like there’s no getting round placing your reps within the gymnasium. 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 already know the array of solutions. You’ve the data, and it’s comparatively pure. Whereas, earlier than, whenever 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 nervousness. 

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 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 couple of days, I spotted, “Oh, that is an e-commerce gross sales job.” I thought of not persevering with. However then I assumed possibly studying methods to promote can be character-building as a result of it may generalize a great life talent—the artwork of persuasion.

Query: As you close to your tenth anniversary, what’s essentially 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 critically. I do my finest to make clear points, handle reservations. I believe it’s addressing individuals’s reservations reasonably than in overcoming objections, which, to me, feels like railroading—or steamrolling—over individuals. 

If I’m delicate to individuals’s frustrations are, and attempt to unpack these, then reply in a simple manner, I can earn respect. Clients 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 mentioned. I all the time err on the aspect of giving an excessive amount of info reasonably 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 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’d 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 satisfaction 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 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 gentle that bounces off of a floor reasonably than beaming on the topic immediately. 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 plenty of glare. 

Fifty years in the past, when workplaces didn’t have plenty of computer systems, it wasn’t a problem. However now, everybody has screens at their desk. Everybody needs to scale back glare. And oblique lighting is one of the best ways to do this. For my part, it appears 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 gentle that shines gentle up towards the ceiling. So that you’re seeing the gentle glow across the perimeter of the room. 

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

We don’t get plenty of demand for it however I believe that it’s an underutilized useful resource. I believe that plenty 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 inventive. She’d convey 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 believe my solely curiosity in lighting was from being a film buff and being attentive to cinematography and lighting. I used to be conscious of how issues have 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 suppose by it myself. 

When he moved to Texas after I left the nest, I’d diagnose the whole lot from mundane issues to grease modifications—or if there was {an electrical} downside—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, you need to study to grasp—not concern. It’s a great life lesson.

Query: Did any early work expertise form your method 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 pc. 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 suppose 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 concerning the monetary reward, essentially. It’s a matter of lighting up somebody’s work or dwelling. 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 discuss it, not hash forwards and backwards about it, however to really come to a conclusion. As a result of, to me, the one manner I do know if the data I’m giving is of worth is that if somebody buys the sunshine.