Learn how and why an entrepreneur found in tech sales his dream career. Meet Alkan!
“Before Hyrise I would never have imagined daring to talk with CEOs, let alone trying to sell them anything. But now I know exactly how to reach them and make a positive impact in their lives.”
Before Hyrise
Alkan was born and raised in Hanover. However, he has moved around Germany several times and currently lives in Berlin. One of his biggest passions is programming, and he has built several websites… however, he says his favorite hobby is to “fail”! Alkan loves starting new projects and taking on new challenges. If he succeeds or fails at them doesn’t matter that much to him, because he believes what is really important is to learn from the experiences. The lessons learned from these experiences allow him to work on himself and improve every day.
Talk about mindset!
Before joining Hyrise, Alkan was working as a “medical documenter” in the pharma industry. But after working there for two years, he felt like he was missing something. He was getting bored. He started to reflect on what the missing part was and soon came to the conclusion that the problem was the lack of career growth opportunities. So, he decided to move to Hamburg and work in the headquarters of a pharma company, where he had plenty of career growth options. Unfortunately, he was still not feeling fulfilled in his job.
“It wasn’t about career growth opportunities after all… I missed human contact. And after the pandemic, the little contact I had was significantly reduced. I wasn’t happy.”
Alkan decided to give entrepreneurship a try. He had a great idea, and so he began to build his company. That was his first experience with the world of lead generation and prospecting.
“I really had a great product, but I struggled a lot with getting leads. I would write long emails and reach out to everyone that could possibly be interested in my product. But nobody would show interest or reply. I didn’t understand why, it didn’t make sense. Who couldn’t be interested in my product?”
Trying to overcome this struggle, he started to do a lot of research and came across one of our ads. So he started to dig deeper into the tech sales industry and profession, and what it actually is. He slowly realized it ticked all the boxes.
“At the beginning, I was a little skeptical about joining, because I had a previous experience working in sales where the products were faulty and I definitely did not want to repeat such an experience.”
After doing his research and talking to our team, he decided to pursue a career in tech sales, join Hyrise, and give his life a 180-degree turn.
His Hyrise Experience
His job search went very smoothly and quickly. He didn’t have to send any cover letters or go through complex recruiting processes. Just after finishing his profile on our platform, he went through ten different interviews where the companies directly reached out to him. It took him two weeks to get hired and land his dream job as an SDR in Planday.
“I can’t imagine another job that allows me to have as much fun as working in sales. You never know how your calls will turn out, every day is different and very dynamic. And that’s what I love about sales, you never get bored. I love being in contact with people, learning new things from their experiences. And the most rewarding thing is when I make an impact in somebodies life.”
One of the things he loved about his experience with us is the transparency and the support he received during his training and afterward.
“The flexibility that the training allows you to have, is something that I really valued. I could really focus on my studies when it best fit my schedule and this made me a lot more productive. Additionally, it taught me to be independent and responsible on a personal level.”
Alkan says his experience at Hyrise changed his understanding of the world. Now he tries to avoid using words like “would” or “could”, he rather says he “can”, and this boosted his confidence enormously and his manner to tackle his personal and professional life.
Tips for future Hyrisers
“Never give up. You will always fail at some point, but the important thing is to learn from it and to keep fighting for what you want.”
“Tech sales is a hard job but it is very rewarding, all the effort you put in is worth it.”
Want to launch your career in Tech Sales just like Alkan? Apply here.
