Going the distance: Arton, Account Executive

I feel very satisfied when I experience movement and change through progress. I enjoy it so much when I feel that something moves forward. I love to see positive change and progress, both in my personal and professional life. So for instance when I can progress my personal development with educational diplomas, acquiring new skills, or entering the next level in sports activities. The same also applies to work, where I also can manage to advance along the sales cycle as an AE and to get things over the finish line. It highly satisfies me to see I made an impact on something and proceed it to the next step. A perfect metaphor for this in my view is my hobby In my private life: I own a road bike and when I cycle longer distances I love to see the progress I made on the map.

How does this connect with Q?

At Qualtrics in sales, I can progress the way I want at the speed that suits me. I have the transparency to set my own pace and compare with the pace of others to be able to conclude for myself whether I'm moving fast or slow. And pace is recognised here, as I get promotions based on my real results and not based on how someone in another country who doesn't know me decides if I get a promotion.

What attracted you to Qualtrics in the first place?   

I once read a study conducted through Qualtrics software which stated that tickets are cheaper if passengers don’t book checked-in luggage. As a frequent traveller (obviously before Covid), I found this to be an amazing piece of information. So I thought if this is possible, what else can Qualtrics offer to customers?

What was the turning point where you knew you 'had to have the job' at Qualtrics?   

I was aware of Qualtrics before I applied for my job. But I was highly impressed when I read on the career page that "Less than 1% of those who apply get hired, but they give 100%". I thought that experience management is becoming a huge thing in the future and the fact that Qualtrics hires only the best made me aware that it will be an awesome place to develop and grow as a person because I believe we grow together with our surroundings. Although I didn't apply straight away, as I still was happy at my company, I thought the next company I would work for is Qualtrics. And here I am.

What is your favorite part of your role?   

I'm delighted when I can offer something to my customers that they haven't seen before and that can be groundbreaking for their companies. With Qualtrics I can offer the latest and greatest technology and approaches to experience management in order to be successful. As an individual I believe in the Qualtrics offering by myself, which makes me very credible.

What has surprised you most about working at Qualtrics?   

The transparency, the hands-on attitude, and the feeling we are all sitting in the same boat. Everything at Qualtrics is transparent and clear. If I need help from someone I can look up when there is a free spot in their calendar and just book a meeting, or I know what I need to do to get promoted and I know it applies to others as well. I also get help from people in the US who don't know me or wouldn't be impacted by my success. As an example, I work on a German entity of a global gaming vendor everyone knows and the American entity is our customer in the US. So I easily found my US counterpart and set up a meeting with him to understand why that customer works with us in the US. So this helped me to understand what use cases are relevant for the German entity.

What is your top #LifeHack?   

Many guys with long beards know the issue that once they trim or shave it, both the sink and the ground are full of hair. After a while, this can even block the sink drain. It happens from time to time that I let my beard grow as well and when I decide to shave it or trim it, I take a trimmer to shorten it which barbers or even people at home do. In such a case, I take a vacuum cleaner and hold it under the trimmer to catch the hair before it falls on the ground and into the sink. This helps me with cleaning later and also to keep the drain fine, as I believe that 99% of the hair gets straight away into the vacuum cleaner than on the ground or the sink.

What's a myth about your type of job that you'd like to bust? Or about working at Qualtrics?   

Sales suffers from many stereotypes, one of them being that salespeople don't share the full truth in order to make money. As one of the first principles in Qualtrics is always being transparent and honest and the second is to continue to be the global leader in experience management, I know we don't need and won't hide anything and can fully be transparent about our technology and offerings as it is the most advanced in the industry. Therefore we can be authentic and proudly sell Qualtrics technology.

Qualtrics is growing, and if you're ready to find your "why" at a place like this, you can explore our open opportunities at any time by visiting our career page or by joining our talent community.

	Arton is an alumnus of Saarland University, started his career at UPS. Arton once cycled from Amsterdam to Saarbrücken, a journey of 500km - talk about endurance!

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