A Day In The Life Of A Business Development Specialist – Matthew O’Connor

Matthew O’Connor
Business Development Specialist

Upon completing my second level education, I went onto study Physics and Astrophysics at Maynooth University, where I was lucky enough to get both the JP McManus All Ireland Scholarship and Maynooth High Achievers grant for my CEO points. 

During summer holidays and evenings/weekends  I worked with Eir and Phonewatch where I got my first taste of the sales world. The latter job was strictly commission-based which gave me the drive and determination to succeed, which I have carried through to OBW. After graduating, I wanted to expand my experience so I joined a leading telecommunications company, working as a surveyor. I thoroughly enjoyed being on the road and meeting people every day but I’m also very technically minded, so I moved to a design role within the company which was good but too stationary for me. There was no achievement for a job well done and I wanted more of a challenge, so when the opportunity presented itself to join OBW, I jumped at it!

Why OBW?

I knew people who worked with OBW and had no doubt it was a great place to work from what they had told me. I could see that it was a relatively small company that was growing and had great potential. I had just been with a company that was bought out and everything was becoming very corporate. Here, I speak to the managing director on a daily basis and everyone is valued.

I started during Covid where travel and meeting companies was restricted. I had to work from my desk and try to build rapport with people over the phone, which is fine but thankfully I’m on the road at least 3 days a week now meeting people which is great. In a typical day I might meet three to four existing or potential customers and meetings can range between 20 minutes and 2 hours, depending on the customer’s needs.

Thankfully we have a wealth of knowledge within our service department, so I liaise with them throughout the day and they are vital technical points should customers have more detailed/complicated queries or requirements.

I’m six months into the role and unlike a lot of business development people, it’s building rapport with customers and working within a team, which is my favourite part of the job. Of course helping a customer and getting a big order is fantastic but I get just as big of a buzz by seeing a long to-do list and working through it. It’s all the small parts of the job that come together, I enjoy! I love that we can fix problems for customers and when they are happy it makes me happy.

Goals

Looking forward, I just want to improve and know I’m more skilled. Once I can achieve this, I know I’ll be doing a better job for OBW and giving our customers a better experience/service. As we continue to grow, I’d like to branch into other European countries but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so hopefully that will come with time.

To anyone thinking of joining us, I can vouch that everyone is friendly and if you work hard you’ll get the rewards for it. You’re not competing with each other, everyone works together to try and make each others day easier. 

Visit our Jobs page if you’d like to join our growing team!