Get to Know Us: Meet Marcin Pichur, VP of Sales — Emerging Markets

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DocuWarians is a new blog feature that introduces you to the people behind the product. This month,  Marcin Pichur, VP of Sales — Emerging Markets, who has been an avid rock climber for 20 years, explains the similarities between climbing and sales. 

My tasks and responsibilities at DocuWare are …

I’m responsible for business development and sales in Italy, Spain, Latin America, the UK and emerging markets. When I started working at DocuWare 10 years ago, my territory included every country except for those in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. That meant intensive travel between Dubai, Singapore, Russia, Turkey and many other places. This was a huge change for my kids as before I was traveling about once a month. Working at DocuWare, I was away every week. After one of these trips, my kids asked me, “Daddy what do you do when you travel?”

I’m responsible for business development and sales in Italy, Spain, Latin America, the UK and emerging markets. When I started working at DocuWare 10 years ago, my territory included every country except for those in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. That meant intensive travel between Dubai, Singapore, Russia, Turkey and many other places. This was a huge change for my kids as before I was traveling about once a month. Working at DocuWare, I was away every week. After one of these trips, my kids asked me, “Daddy what do you do when you travel?”

I told them what I told my customers at that time: “I help my customers to streamline their document-related processes.”

They were very young and didn’t understand my explanation. I had to find simple words to explain what ECM is all about to a 5 year old. 

I said: “Can you see these papers on my desk? I help companies to get rid of these papers so that they can see them on their mobile phones, tablets or computers.”

They processed this for a short while and said, “We will tell our friends that you are a magician.” 

My background prepared me for this role because …

Before I joined DocuWare, I was a serial entrepreneur and ran a small ECM consultancy with 30 employees. Working in a corporate environment was a completely new experience for me as I’d usually worked for myself before. At first, I felt like a small cog in a big wheel, but then I started to notice DocuWare’s entrepreneurial side. I’m responsible for a huge market, and it’s very much up to me to decide how to grow and develop it. Yet, unlike an entrepreneur, I do not have to worry about EVERYTHING. Now I have a team to help me. I focus on things that I love and am good at. Although I am part of bigger organization, I still see how my actions and decisions have impact on the business. That’s absolutely inspiring and motivating. 

At DocuWare, we’re very process driven. We literally have a process for everything. This was challenging for me at the beginning. I come from Poland where rules and laws are merely an indicator of what’s expected of you. It’s your choice whether to follow them or not. It took me some time to appreciate the advantages of planning and structure. Today abiding by well-defined processes and striving for their optimization are part of my DNA.

My favorite DocuWare feature is …

If a customer asks me to give them a list of unique features, I recite this mantra: Smart Connect, Intelligent Indexing and Connect to Outlook. Then, I explain what’s really special about DocuWare: 

Simplicity and user experience.

The same UI, configuration, administration and implementation for both cloud and on-premises solutions.

Preconfigured cloud-based solutions which can be up and running in 3 days.

How would you describe our corporate culture?…

No politics: we say what we do, and we do what we say

It’s OK to fail. We do not hide our mistakes and share them openly. As an organization and in our teams, we learn from these mistakes and we strive to avoid similar ones in the future.

We base our decisions on data. We were one of the first companies in the document management space that created a sales process that is constantly measured, improved, and lived every day.

Major insight I had because of COVID…

My passion is free climbing. I’ve been rock climbing for over 20 years. This year due to COVID, my family and I did not visit Italy where we usually spend summer holidays. Instead, I climbed in Poland. My family enjoyed the swimming pool and beautiful weather on the days when I was climbing.

In the past, I chose less difficult climbs because they could be completed quickly. The route I was taking was rated as a 7c+ grade which means it’s an expert level climb. In Poland, these routes are slightly more difficult than in Italy as these are shorter, more technical and its the terrain is often slippery. On the first attempt, I copied my climbing partner’s moves. He is more experienced and a much stronger climber. I fell on the crux which is the most difficult part of the route. I hung in the air for a couple of minutes and continued from there. I then tried the same moves, and I fell on the crux each time.

I came back a week later. I fell on the first and second attempts. I was frustrated and scared. On the crux, all these emotions took control, and I fell again. I hung on the rope and decided to change the sequence a little bit so that it worked for me. On the last attempt that day, which was 6th attempt on this route, my mind was clear when I reached the crux. I knew this sequence of moves was right for me. I executed it and finally conquered the most difficult route I’d ever climbed. 

I learned that: 

One small change can make a difference — I used the same holds as before but used them differently. It’s the same in sales. We do not need to change everything. Sometimes small things we’ve learned from experience or training seminars can have a huge impact. 

What works for your colleague may not work for you.

Even if you fall or fail, you can learn something valuable. 

Salespeople are under tremendous pressure and at risk of failure every single day. Just like climbers we fall, and then we have to clear our heads and carry on because our families and our companies depend on us. As long as we’re open to learning from our mistakes and commit to getting better at what we do, we consider ourselves successful.

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