01732 759725 20 Liam Close, Area Account Manager, Kyocera Document Solutions UK, shares details of his life in print, what he’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry print industry – is the difficulty I often have getting a good mobile phone signal while I’m out and about in my role! I spend a lot of time taking calls on trains to and from London and other parts of the country and the call quality can be a bit of a lottery. It’s an issue that I’m sure everyone in field-based roles has to grapple with, so we make do as best we can. PITR: What (or who) do you think has had the greatest impact in the sector in recent years? LC: The change to a digital marketplace has without doubt had a massive impact. In my earlier days in the industry, the approach was quite an analogue one, where the emphasis was on selling physical units. Now, businesses can’t survive by solely focusing on hardware. Selling software is vital, and it’s an area where we’ve seen significant growth at Kyocera in the last few years. PITR: If you could speak directly to someone who inspired or challenged you most in your career, what would you want to say to them today? LC: An old colleague who hired me once told me you never get your time back, so enjoy it while you can. Which is a shame really, because I’d quite like to delete that particular moment: I turned up to my interview wearing a shiny suit which soon became talk of the office! in the print industry! Prior to working at Kyocera, I had spent six months living in the US doing sports coaching. When I returned to the UK, I was figuring out my next steps before coming across the role at Kyocera. Since then, I’ve never looked back! PITR: What excites you most about working in print today? LC: The people that we work with – both customers and channel partners – are what make the industry so exciting in my eyes. The products and services that we sell are obviously crucial, but the relationships you build with people along the way make everything so much more rewarding. PITR: And what are the biggest frustrations or challenges? LC: The move from office-based to hybrid working arrangements has without doubt been the biggest challenge of the last few years. Businesses have had to accelerate the development of new offerings, such as cloud-based products that can be accessed anywhere in the world and on any device, whether a computer, tablet or mobile phone. It’s something we’ve been very conscious of at Kyocera, as evidenced by the growth in our cloud and cyber service portfolios in recent years. Another frequent challenge of mine – although not directly related to the PrintIT Reseller (PITR): What was your first job in print? Liam Close (LC): I started my career in print at Kyocera in 2013 and have been at the company ever since. My first role at the company was as a business development executive, which provided a challenging start to life in the industry as I had to build relationships with customers and partners from scratch, often through cold outbound calls. This provided a great foundation for working in sales, and a learning curve that grounded me and set me up well for the future. After a couple of years in my first role, I progressed to the position of account executive where I was given new responsibilities in building and maintaining customer relationships. I then moved into an account manager position before becoming area account manager, which takes me around the country on my regular visits to customers and partners. PITR: What led you to enter the sector? Did you choose print by design, or accident? LC: Being completely honest, it was completely by chance that I ended up My life in print INTERVIEW Liam Close
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=