For Fulvio living in Asia with it’s can do business attitude has allowed him to set up a successful sales organisation.
What’s your story?
Taking challenges, learning lessons and sharing them with others is what I have done for most of my life. It’s what made me an entrepreneur and author, passionate about sales and its many nuances.
Driven by my curiosity I left Italy almost 15 years ago. I have worked in the leisure industry first in Ibiza then in Egypt and learnt that everywhere you go you can always raise your game if you are brave enough, a bit foolish and willing to work hard.
After a few years I came back to Italy to get my engineering degree and soon after I moved to London where I have officially started a career in IT sales, learnt the science of leadership and met an amazing Indonesian woman that is now my wife.
In 2012 I came to Singapore. During the day I was working for an MNC and at night I was pro-bono coaching sales managers in my network to help them perform at their best.
After leaving the corporate world, I have started a sales training company (www.fellettis.com), written a book on attracting and hiring great sales people and embarked on a culinary journey across Asia.
What excites you most about your industry?
Sales as a discipline is always evolving and adjusting to the needs of the market. I wake up every morning looking forward to discovering the next innovation. If this wasn’t enough, training sales professionals puts you in a very privileged position to impact people’s life. You engage the most intimate areas of their motivation, help them discover their true sense of purpose and coach them to act on it so that they are inspired to do the same with others.
What’s your connection to Asia?
Half of my family lives in Jakarta and I have a profound respect for the importance that everywhere in Asia is given to culture and traditions. This together with the “CAN DO” attitude in business, makes me look at Asia as the place to be both now and in future.
Favourite city in Asia for business and why?
Singapore. I find it incredible how Singaporeans have turned Singapore into one of the most important global business hubs, despite all adversities. It gives me a feeling of pride being able to live in this country.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
What you permit, you promote. In business there are always decisions leading to tradeoffs and remembering that “what you permit you promote” helped me to remain coherent with the expectations set with my teams and business partners.
Who inspires you?
Elon Musk: I find his entrepreneurial courage and vision absolutely breathtaking.
What have you just learnt recently that blew you away?
I have learnt the extent to which you can scale up your business by outsourcing non-business critical responsibilities leveraging organizations like www.elance.com.
If you had your time again, what would you do differently?
I would start an Italian food and beverage take away business in the UK. This has been an idea that has been there for very long time and I kept procrastinating until I moved to Asia.
How do you unwind?
Drinking a good glass of red wine from the Piedmont region of Italy where I was born.
Favourite Asian destination for relaxation? Why?
Bali. I feel in peace with myself and the nature surrounding me. When I spend time there, the landscape and the local culture stimulate my creativity giving me fantastic business ideas.
Everyone in business should read this book:
The Switch: it’s a great book on change management with advises the reader to immediately apply change management to both their business and personal life.
Shameless plug for your business:
Fellettis is a sales training organisation that helps clients in three ways:
– We train clients to attract and hire outstanding salespeople;
– We coach managers to make sure they retain and motivate their top talent;
– We help companies to make sure that their sales teams always perform at their highest;
How can people connect with you?
[email protected]
Twitter handle?
@ffellett
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This interview was part of the Callum Connect’s column found on The Asian Entrepreneur:
Callum Laing invests and buys small businesses in a range of industries around Asia. He has previously started, built and sold half a dozen businesses and is the founder & owner of Fitness-Buffet a company delivering employee wellness solutions in 12 countries. He is a Director of, amongst others, Key Person of Influence. A 40 week training program for business owners and executives.
Take the ‘Key Person of Influence’ scorecard <http://www.keypersonofinfluence.com/scorecard/>
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