John O’Keefee is the UK and Ireland commercial director at Office Depot, the £7.5bn global office and furniture supplier. He tells Salestarget about the key to success, looking after customers, and his similarity to Heinz.
1. What was the first thing you sold?
Coffee: my first job was selling coffee in a department store in Cork when I was 16. I suppose my first proper job was selling paper with the Jefferson Smurfit Group. I ended up running one of the biggest accounts in Europe, handling the paperwork and manuals that went out with Microsoft and Dell products – it was one of the biggest accounts of its type in Europe at the time.
2. Did you intend to go into sales when you started your career?
No, I got drifted into a sales job by accident and it just evolved into a role. I’ve had what you might call a Heinz career – 57 varieties. I studied Commerce at university and, unlike 70 per cent of my peers, decided that I didn’t want to go into accountancy. Instead I joined Jefferson Smurfit as a graduate recruit, learning about the business and being despatched to run factories. I then went to Maxol, an Irish oil company, and after a few years joined the Office Depot, swapping the selling of one product for 14,000.
3. What’s the single most important quality you need to succeed as a salesperson?
You have to be rounded. There isn’t one single attribute, you have to have a combination of many to succeed – professional, hard working, resilient, energetic - and have a great deal of integrity. The last is particularly important: we’ve got over 2,000 direct members of staff and each of them is an ambassador for the company.
4. What is the one thing you would love to sell?
Yachts in the South of France: nice climate, nice products and lots of nice people with money to spend. It’s a dream retirement job.
5. What is the last thing you’d want to sell?
Cars.
6. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
There are two. Be aware of your weaknesses and work to your strengths: I heard that from someone whom I consider a role model. The other is I’m lucky: the harder I work the luckier I become.
7. What advice would you give to someone following in your footsteps?
Keep your eyes on the big picture. Impressive and consistent results are only gained by thinking in terms of months and years, by building relationships and teams.
8. What did you buy with your first bonus?
I paid off part of the debt I’d run up buying my first car, a Volkswagen Golf.
9. Who do you most admire in your industry?
It’s a man called Denis O’Brien. In Ireland he’s a legend and salesman to his finger tips. He built up an Irish telecoms company and made £250m by selling it to BT, and then turned that into billions by buying the mobile phone licences in the Caribbean. He diversified into areas like radio, newspapers and energy – all before he was 50.
10. How would you sell ice to an Eskimo?
For every £100 of ice he bought I’d give him a free fur-lined hat.
11. How important is image for a salesperson?
It’s essential. Any salesperson represents the value propositions of his brand, and if you’re offering a professional service you have to look professional. No one will buy products and services from someone who doesn’t look as though they care about themselves.
12. What is the single most important skill you need to close a sale?
I have problems with this idea of closing, because for me a salesperson’s job doesn’t end with a handshake and taking a cheque. Increasingly it’s less about closing a deal and more about full account management, making sure the customer is well served and cared for long after a sale. Having said that this is a business and we have to make a margin, so it’s about negotiating a partnership that benefits all sides.
13. Has anything ever gone wrong, that in hindsight, has worked out well for you?
No, I’ve never been that fortunate. Usually when something goes wrong, it is wrong.
14. What’s been your biggest success?
Building my sales team. Getting good people in the right positions and seeing them develop is the most successful and fulfilling thing I’ve done professionally.
15. If you were to pack up your desk and leave today, what would you like to be known for?
That I’d always tried to do the right thing, put the interests of the customer above everything else and left the business in a better shape. If you look after your customer over time, and show you have their best interests at heart, they’ll look after you, be open to buying more products, more services, and be willing to forgive you when things don’t go right.
16. How has sales changed from when you started out?
It’s far more dynamic and intense, you have to work harder to get market share. Margins against almost all products have fallen and it's now more about service – in fact if you’re not selling a service you’re not making money.
Demands are also higher and more specific – if a buyer doesn't get exactly the sort of pen they’re used to writing with they soon let us know. People in sales roles now need a greater degree of overall business acumen. They need to understand the wider implications of what their sales will have on both their and the customer’s business.
17. What are the current challenges facing your industry?
Recovering from the recession. During the downturn, sales softened as a lot of people cut back on office supplies. As a result we faced greater competition, fighting for a smaller pot of work. However, as there’s currently a greater degree of confidence in the economy we’re starting to see a recovery, as businesses put more into capital expenditure and buy items such as furniture, printers and photocopiers.
18. How has the digital age changed sales?
A lot. In our sector something like 60% to 70% of business is now online, which has changed the relationship with the customer. It’s now less about prices and products: standards and services are now the real differentiators.
19. What will never change?
People buy from people – that never changes. Despite the rise of online sales, people like to buy from people they can trust. If they don’t trust you or if you’re not seen as relevant, you are nothing. But it is getting harder to get in front of those people, which means sales has to get increasingly involved in marketing to be effective.
20. Who is the best salesman ever, real or fictional?
Donald Trump.
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