”Meet Acubiz” is a series of articles that’ll take you behind the scenes at Acubiz. They’ll tell the stories of the everyday heroes. In this article, the spotlight is turned towards Alan Lustü, who is Key Account Manager and an experienced employee in Acubiz with 17 years of employment.
What is your role at Acubiz?
I’m Key Account Manager, and my most important job is to make sure that our customers are happy. They can always call me if they experience any challenges with our solution. I find it very exciting to meet different people in my everyday life, and customers are never the same.
Once a year, I reach out to my customers and arrange an annual meeting where we discuss our collaboration, and how we can improve it. If they, contrary to expectation, experience challenges with our solution, I’ll make sure that a consultant or support are reaching out to them as fast as possible. It’s incredibly important to me that the customer feels that I can solve their challenges and that our solution creates value for them. I’ve been here for 17 years, so I obviously like being here.
What makes you stick around after 17 years?
I love to sell and counsel customers. My purpose with customer meetings is to make sure that the customers are doing well. And I’m checking whether the customer has some needs that I can help them realize and implement. Acubiz can make the work day easier and streamline workflows around employee-related expenses. I truly believe in our solutions. Because I’ve seen how big an impact they can have for businesses. This indomitable belief in Acubiz has also made me stay for 17 years.
Acubiz is a really, really nice place to be. We are like a family, and I value the fantastic relationship with my colleagues. Furthermore, we have room for differences, and I can develop my professional competencies.
What is the biggest difference between Acubiz today and Acubiz 17 years ago?
When I started, my sales consisted primarily of cold canvas. Today, customers contact us themselves or find us online. Acubiz has always digitized and automated the expense management process, but it was difficult to sell 17 years ago. We were ahead of our time. Since then, digitization and automation of workflows have been on the agenda for businesses, which have been beneficial for us. And today, organizations know that there is both time and money to be saved by automating and digitizing the entire expense management process. Now, it’s just a question about whom should deliver the solution?
We’ve been the frontrunner in the market for so many years that many people know about us. We’ve got many ambassadors as well in different organizations. When users change jobs, they are really good at taking Acubiz with them. For that, we are truly grateful. In my opinion, it shows that we are creating value.
How would you define the perfect meeting with a customer?
A good meeting is when the customer has some challenges that I can help solve. When I ask customers why they do what they do, their answers are in 80 percent of the cases: we have always done it like this. It’s my job to make them aware that other and more effective options exist. I’m happy when I feel that they are happy about my visit. Because I’m honestly interested in them.
What is the funniest or most surprising thing that has happened at a customer meeting?
A lot of funny episodes are happening to be honest. The other day, I was visiting a customer who, through their parent company, had been told that they couldn’t spend more money on Acubiz than they already did. Their employees travel extensively abroad, so I discovered a need. They have the opportunity to reclaim foreign VAT incurred on their travel expenses. I introduced them to our service, Foreign VAT Refund, and explained that they could reclaim a significant amount. Some of that money could be re-invested in some other services in their Acubiz solution. Fortunately, the customer could see that this would make some of their other workflows even easier. The best part was that they got more value out of the Acubiz solution while simultaneously making a profit.
Why are you a golf enthusiast in your spare time?
I’m also a golf enthusiast at work. I like to practice my golf swing. My dear colleagues have probably already noticed it. Golf is fun because I have to master so many different strokes. There are constantly new situations in the game that require me to stroke the balls in different ways. That’s what I like. I like to experiment. I have a saying: when something doesn’t work, I need to do something else. I live out the saying at the golf course but also at work. And I try to get my clients to do the same. If something doesn’t work, we find another solution that does and adds value.
