Got sick of weeping widows and nasty divorces
Anna-Mari started her career by working as a real estate agent for a few years. She soon realised that it was the “sales” component she enjoyed most and decided to head in that direction.
“Back then, being a real estate agent was much like being a hobby-psychologist. It was too many weeping widows and nasty divorces for my liking. I found out about Lime’s trainee programme and aimed for a sales job instead. It appealed to me that Lime was a growth company with products at the forefront of the industry and with a local connection. The team of darn funny and great people was another plus.”
From an IT panic attack to Product Specialist in 11 years
When Anna-Mari first started at Lime, she was fully aware of CRM as a working method and had done many customer relationship-type courses. She was quite familiar within this field – but IT was an unknown patch.
“Before joining, I didn’t realise it was IT I had to learn. During the induction, people used a lot of abbreviations and acronyms….. SQL, VPN etc; it was scary, and I started to realise what I had gotten myself into. There was no major drama though, and after completing the trainee program I was totally fine.”
Initially, Anna-Mari worked as inside sales representative, but after some time she was keen to visit customers and started her outside sales journey. A few years later she became sales coach and soon after sales director. She has worked in Lund and Gothenburg and a short stint in Denmark when the Copenhagen office was first established. Since 2017, she has been working as product specialist in Lund.
Big challenges have meant significant responsibilities
Anna-Mari has lots of memories from her time at Lime and she finds it hard to pick the highlights. Two memorable moments that stick out, however, are from her time in Gothenburg and in her role as sales manager in Lund.
“For some time, I was the only sales person in Gothenburg and it was really cool to drive the business forward, and subsequently also to coach the new sales representatives as they joined us. Being a sales manager was also great: building a team based on my own and Lime’s values and then being able to see the results.”
In her current role, Anna-Mari must have full control of the market’s demands, which is why she once again is working as an inside sales representative. There are thus some similarities between her role as product specialist and her first time at Lime. But there are also obvious major differences.
“I’m able to influence internally in a completely different way and I have more responsibilities. My role today is as much about pitching ideas to the executive management group as to potential customers, and I am responsible for the growth of a particular product – instead of being responsible just for myself. That’s what’s best about my job today – that I have a lot of influence.”
“I’m always open about my aspirations”
Anna-Mari’s journey from sales trainee to product specialist may seem crooked at first, but each step has been a natural progression and well-considered.
“The reason I have changed jobs is that I have asked for it. I have a desire to develop personally and I know there are opportunities for this within Lime. As long as I am open about my aspirations, I don’t feel I need to go somewhere else.”
Thanks to Lime’s growth, new opportunities have constantly presented themselves. But you need to be patient. When Anna-Mari first joined, the company had about 30-35 employees and offices in Sweden only.
“I remember a colleague who quit during my first years because ‘the company was too small’. We now have over 250 employees and offices all over the Nordic region. The company has transformed completely since I started, and will do so again within the next 5-10 years. If you express your ambitions and what you need, then there are really great opportunities for a career here.”