“Employee No. 8. “This is what Edmon de la Paz is in WeGen, apart from being one of the leaders and most driven members of the continuously growing Sales Department.
Mon joined the company in 2016, and even then, he was hardly a neophyte when it came to sales. With a degree in banking and finance, Mon has worked in both leadership and direct sales roles in the insurance industry and in an IT company. “I’ve attended quite a number of workshops and seminars on how to do effective sales and the professionalism that’s needed to reach targets,” he said. “Learning how to do my job more effectively and more efficiently has always been important to me. I rely on the things I learn to have more confidence in selling.”
Solar Learnings
In 2016, WeGen was just starting out, and as a small start-up, it had yet to produce the necessary marketing and sales collaterals to help salespeople promote and sell the solar PV systems and the very idea of WeGen. “We didn’t have technical onboarding sessions then. There was only a handful of us, and all of us in the newly-formed departments were preoccupied with building their own respective work protocols and processes. The sales department was no different – we were basically on our own when it came to familiarizing ourselves with the systems we were going to sell, ” he said.
Instead of being daunted, Mon saw everything as a challenge he was eager to surmount. He started to sit in on informal discussions among the engineers, actively listening as the latter exchanged information on the company’s lined up projects.
A Continuous Process
Mon vowed that he would learn all that he could about solar technology and all of the components of the systems that WeGen was selling. “This has always been my greatest strength when it comes to my job: others may be more personable, they find it easy to build rapport with customers, but when it comes to knowing the fine details of the product or service, I’m very good at that. After that first sales presentation, I promised myself I will not stop until I’ve understood everything there is to understand about WeGen’s solar PV systems and their components!” he said.
And this is what Mon did and continues to do. He keeps reading information on solar energy and solar PV technology (“I’m practically an engineer,” he joked) and keeps himself updated on developments in the field. His sales presentations are a marvel of detail and computations on generated electricity and household or business savings (“I customize them depending on the client I’m going to present them to, but I also have generic sales presentations”).
Now, four years in WeGen, Mon says that he has nothing but good things to say about the company and working there. “I greatly appreciate how WeGen genuinely treats its employees like family: there are genuine camaraderie and support between the management and employees. Despite all the different changes that have taken place in the last years, this hasn’t changed. I feel that we are now stronger and better prepared to reach our goals because the management has a more defined direction,” he said.
“I’m also grateful because the people I work in the Sales Team are all very driven – very energetic and enthusiastic about their work. We support each other instead of competing with one another.”
Appreciating Company Values
According to Mon, he is also very appreciative of the company’s values and the culture it works to promote among the employees. “I’m not particularly religious, and I’m not an environmentalist, but because of the efforts of the company to educate us, employees – about Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, and about the importance of fighting climate change by making the move to renewable energy like solar energy, I love Mother Earth more now and this something that comes out when I present to clients – the need to care about the environment,” he said.
Mon says that selling is a hard job because it takes so much effort to influence how people think. “We need effective marketing and sales techniques and strategies to convince people to invest in solar PV systems, and different customers have different needs when it comes to information. You really have to be creative and well-informed, to have accessible collaterals, to be backed by effective marketing,” he said.
“Most importantly, it’s important to be patient. Gathering leads is the least hard part of selling – getting appointments with potential clients is harder, and getting the client to say yes and put away all doubts is the hardest. It’s all a challenge, but then most salespersons like challenges,” he said.
Also an important value for Mon: “Humility. It takes humility to admit what you don’t know, and to ask for help from people who do. I learned this in WeGen.”
No Slowdowns
Mon shares that the pandemic has not dampened the drive of WeGen’s sales force. “All of us in the team are still looking for leads, following up appointments, securing agreements, conducting online consultations. We know that promoting solar energy is more relevant than ever given what’s happening now because of the COVID-19 pandemic that’s also caused by the damage the planet’s natural environment has sustained in the last century. We need to work harder to make more Filipinos understand and accept that solar is the best and most immediate alternative to fossil fuels as a source of electricity,” he said.
Mon so loves working in WeGen that he sincerely sees himself still being a part of the company in WeGen until it reaches its 25th anniversary. He has found a home in the company and hopes to see himself being a part of it for the rest of his working life.
These days, Mon takes care of four plants in his apartment: “I’m learning how to care for living things!” he said. “This is also something new that I’m trying out and learning about – how to keep plants alive and how to make them thrive.”
This how Employee No. 8 is: always learning. #