“Don’t be afraid of sales”

As Global Sales Manager for Sykes, Racine looks after sales teams and dealers across multiple continents. While being an engineer by trade, sales has been a component of her career since the very beginning. And she would like to keep it that way. 

“I get that interaction with the customer and problem solving with other departments. That aspect of the social connections is what drives me to stay with sales,” she says.

With Racine opting for a more outgoing line of work, it is perhaps no wonder that her favorite part of working for Atlas Copco Group is the people – having a good manager and team.

“There’s also the task itself. It’s challenging enough that it keeps me motivated and keeps my brain working constantly, trying to problem-solve every day.” 

When asked about her experience working within the Group, Racine brings up the leaders she has had. She shares how she has been able to have open discussions with her manager in terms of what she wants in the future and how she has been given the right conditions to succeed. 

“It's one thing to have goals and ambitions, but without the support of your manager, you're kind of grasping at straws,” she says.

When Racine joined Sykes, the goal was to grow her career through an opportunity to live and work overseas as a manager in the US.

“It gave me confidence to say that, “yes, I do know my stuff and I know what I'm doing in this space.” So it was very rewarding for me.” 

Now back in Australia with a new role as Global Sales Manager, growth is still high on her agenda. Racine says that she is primarily driven by the challenge of hitting big targets with her team. 

So how did Racine become the confident leader that she is today? She shares how the past few years have given her valuable experience and opportunities to develop her leadership skills – through mentoring, observation of others’ leadership styles (to consider what she wants to incorporate in her own), as well as just listening.

Putting the listening piece into practice, Racine says she has learned a lot from senior leaders as well as people who are not managers themselves. Indeed, leveraging the collective brainpower of the team to make better decisions is a natural part of Racine’s day-to-day.

For instance, when a customer has a requirement that it seems difficult to meet. She describes how she will then bring the challenge to the team, explaining what can and cannot be done. Then they will collaborate to close that gap.

Racine points out that it is funny that listening is a key skill for leadership as well as in building relationships with customers. Other than paying attention to the customers’ needs, she describes her approach to customer relationships as building trust through technological and industry fluency. 

“I can’t speak Spanish for example, but I can speak the “pump language.” I can relay messages in a manner that comes across as “okey, she knows her stuff – I can trust that if I ask her a question, whether technical or commercial, she can answer it.””

Racine has a clear piece of advice for others considering sales-focused roles in the Group.

“Don’t be afraid of sales,” she says.

“I think sales roles have had a stigma, where some liken it to used-car salesmen. And that’s not what we are. There are sales roles where you sell off a brochure and I respect those guys. But for the sales roles in our company there’s enough of a technical element to it to challenge engineers.”

An example of this combination of sales and tech came with the launch of a new pump, where success relied on ensuring a competitive offer from a technological standpoint. To that end, Racine and her colleagues brought in additional rigorous third-party testing, beyond the normal scope. A revision was made to the pump based on the test findings, resulting in even better performance. Racine describes the approach for this product launch as an interesting journey – where having the test results made it easier to confidently sell the product.

“It triggers both the technical side and commercial side of me, right? So on the technical side, okey, the results are proven. And now commercially, I don't mind adding margin because I know that this pump is going to perform better.”