How does your usual day look like?

My workday varies greatly depending on the time of year and whether I'm at our HQ in London or travelling within Europe to visit clients.

I typically wake up around 7AM, unless I have an early flight. When going to work, I dress according to my meetings (and the weather). I need fresh air to start the day so I always walk to Paddington Station, and get in the Elizabeth line to our office Canary Wharf. I use the time on the tube to read the news, listen to a podcast, draft emails, or answer WhatsApp messages.

The moment I walk into the office, I get into that bubble of energy and motivation to work towards our goals. 

At Moody’s our internal meetings rarely start until 9.30 am so I use that time to prepare meetings and plan my time.  While drinking my first coffee, I check the latest updates on our business forecasts. As a sales manager, I am accountable for every pending deal and our top management may request the latest information at any time.

I oversee eight relationship managers who have full responsibility handling our European clients. Our sales cycles involve lengthy negotiations, requiring internal discussions, creativity and good preparation. Depending on the time of the year my team members work under high pressure as they have to finalise negotiations within very tight deadlines. I make sure each day to have dedicated time to support them in finding solutions and meeting clients. 

I would try as much as possible to get a couple of breaks during the week either “Me” time for a quiet lunch or yoga session or social time with my partner. That helps me to step away from work and come back into it with a fresh mind. 

 I would sometimes work extra in the evenings/weekends if something requires urgency or when I need to anticipate some of my work for the next day. 

In my job, every day is unique, there is nothing I can ever take for granted. That can sometimes be challenging and I love it!

What are the things you like the most about your job?

At Moody’s, I lead a team of 8 sales people from 6 nationalities and we manage clients based in 8 different countries. That means everyday  being immersed in different cultures, ways of doing business and communicating. Every interaction is special  and requires me to stay open minded and adaptable. That’s what I love about my job - the daily variety and the people I work with. 

What are some of the skills you utilise the most in your day-to-day?

I am an extravert and I am a motivator. Depending on the situation I take a step back to listen or I get proactive to support my team. 

What was one of your happiest days in your career and why?

I started my career in a start up business selling finance training. That was my first role in sales and at the time I had very basic knowledge about finance. As we were a small organisation, my manager quickly decided to give me full ownership of some of the territories. Through my then recent network and hard work doing cold calling I secured a first business trip to Morocco where I got to meet a couple of CEO’s from the local leading banks. 

At the time I felt very proud and happy that my boss trusted me to run it all on my own. It was a perfect opportunity to step up and prepare well to run the show on my own.

What has been your greatest challenge on your career path and how did you overcome it?

As part of completing my bachelor in international marketing and business we had to complete 3 to 6 months of internship every year. It was always challenging to get into an internship the first few years as my professional experience in that field was minimal. In my third year I really wanted to have an experience working at a communication agency. Through a family member I got  connected with an  event agency who quickly accepted to take me in. After a month in the role, I started feeling very frustrated as I realised that I had been parked in a corner of the office completing  all tasks that no one else would want to do. I started noticing that a lot of conversations were about criticising previous interns for the mistakes they had done. It was a tricky situation because not only did it have a very negative atmosphere but also there was also no feedback shared with me. I was lucky to have a very inspiring mentor at University who helped me navigate that situation and put an end to our collaboration . 

What is something you had to learn to become better at your job?

To become a good manager I had to learn to communicate priorities and expectations. 

Through experience and strong support from my manager I have learned that it is important to be defining expectations and to set standards. Perspectives and perceptions differ from person to person and need to be continuously managed. A feedback culture, strong listening skills and a supportive business environment at Moody’s help me to make my team successful. 

How did you get to become a Sales Manager in Financial Data?

The first 10 years of my career in sales were for either small companies or European satellite offices. In this context I always had quite expanded responsibilities managing large regions/clients but also managing colleagues. In 2020, I was at the Global Association of Risk Professionals for more than four years, my role had expanded and although I loved it and had memorable experiences I realised that there was a ceiling on my career progression due to the limited size of the organisation. This is when I started reflecting on what I wanted to be doing next. After many conversations with professionals from my network and headhunters, I got introduced to Fulya who has been my manager at Moody’s Analytics ever since. She was looking to hire a new relationship manager in the data sales team for clients in the financial services. At that time I knew about financial services, I knew a lot about financial risk management but I did not know anything about Moody’s Analytics data and content. 

I took on the role which on paper could be considered a downgrade from my previous role as I had no management responsibilities.

I had to learn a lot and I was ready to take a step back as it would open wider opportunities for my career. I spent almost two years as an individual contributor in the team, learning from the best, until an opening for Manager appeared to be the perfect next step. Although I liked my role at the time I was missing the bigger picture that you get as a manager. In February 2022, I got the role and started managing the team I have today.