Linda: Hi George, thanks for your time today and that you are volunteering as our first employee to share some insights and experiences from your time at Homelike. I have a couple of questions prepared for you and it would be great if you could answer them just very spontaneously and honestly. So let’s get started with a little introduction of yourself.
George: Hey Linda, sure. My name is George, I’m 26 years old and I’ve been working at Homelike since 2018. I studied international tourism management and actually started to work in the hotel industry, but then after a while, I thought it would be great to have a change in my professional life and I searched for a role in the real estate or saas branch. Finally, I found the start-up Homelike and thought it was a great match and so this is where I am now.
Linda: Since you work as Inbound Sales Manager here at Homelike. What does a typical day look like for you in this role?
George: Most of my day I deal with our clients, calling them, emailing them, and trying to convert their interest into a reservation or booking for Homelike. You could also call our team the money makers, since we are the ones generating revenue for our company 😀, so it’s all about customer contact and selling our product to get as many reservations as possible.
Linda: And do you manage a specific region of clients or how does this work?
George: Everyone has a different dedicated region to manage. My regions are Berlin and Brandenburg, part of the GSA (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) region. There are further GSA regions but also international regions since we operate across Europe.
Linda: What advice do you have for someone who would start as Inbound Sales Manager?
George: You need to be good at selling and be very patient with clients. 😉 As there is a lot of client contact, you should enjoy talking to clients over the phone. Some clients are a bit more demanding than others and thus you should be prepared and ready for those ones too.
Linda: A general question now, what was your greatest moment so far at Homelike?
George: Well, basically there were a lot of great moments so far. The one I’m most proud of was when I got promoted to Senior Inbound Sales Manager. I was really really proud of myself and had the chance to grow and also the chance to show Homelike that I can improve.
Linda: Congrats again! What was your biggest challenge?
George: Puhh, let me think…there was a reservation in the past, which was very complicated and I had to manage between the client and the landlord. So interests and requirements were conflicting and I was trying to moderate the situation and find a solution. That was personally challenging, but in the end, I managed.
Linda: Okay, now the last question. What will you do when Corona is finally over?
George: I will go to my favorite restaurant in Cologne and have a proper meal with wine and friends. The place is called Marx & Engels and they have amazing burgers, I love it!
