Everyone obsesses over sales techniques, objection handling, discovery frameworks and the perfect cold call opener.
But that is actually missing one of the biggest points in sales! The people who dominate from day 1 are not the Salesy Technique People, but the ones who are experts in their own character!
Meet Alara Karabakan, Account Executive at Doctolib. She started in January 2026 and has overperformed from her very first month, averaging +170% of monthly target since day 1! We asked her what drove it and her response did not include one single sales tactic. π
Here are Alara's 3 Best Practices she swears by.
1. Own your success and demand the support you need
High performers don't wait to be onboarded. They onboard themselves.
Alara's first principle is radical ownership: your ramp is your responsibility, not something that happens to you. That means
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actively requesting support
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reaching out to people
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asking the questions, again and again.
Don't wait for someone to hand you the knowledge. Go and demand it!
2. Connect with the right people
Before you master the product, master the room.
Alara connected with her colleagues from week one because she knew relationships are the fastest route to the knowledge you'll need later. When you genuinely get along with the people around you, asking for help stops feeling like an imposition and you get the information much faster and in more depth.
The faster you build those relationships, the faster everything else gets easier.
3. Challenge the status quo for the whole team
Don't just fight your own battles. If you spot a better way to write an email, or you've got a best practice worth sharing, share it! Alara's view is that it's literally your job to challenge how things are done and help the entire team level up.
Because when the whole team wins, being successful as an individual becomes far easier.
π‘Bonus Tip for the Management reading this!
Alara made it clear that top performance isn't only on the seller. It's management's job to create an environment where the team can succeed!
So challenge your team not just on KPIs. Instead challenge them on Character and individual Skills! Success isn't only about the seller delivering; people also need the opportunity to show what they're capable of. Build that environment, and top performers will emerge. π€
π Don't miss the Battle of Enterprise VS Scale Up π£
Speaking of building the right environment for your career π
Join us on September 3rd with Camille von Arnim, Ex-Amazon and now Sr. Director Sales at Doctolib, as she breaks down the differences between enterprise and scale-up career paths in sales. From Life Style choices to Family plans, we will cover it all to help you find which one's right for you!
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