Andreea Olteanu is a sales consultant for German Imaging Technology (GIT), which remanufactures printer toner cartridges. The 34-year-old from Transylvania in Romania, relocated to Abu Dhabi in 2011 to work as a purchasing and sales manager for a restaurant. She moved to Dubai to work for GIT two years ago and now lives in the Green Community.
6am
I am an early riser because I enjoy my time before work. It begins with music on the radio, then coffee and then fruit for breakfast. Obviously as a woman it takes longer for me to get ready than a man – it’s not easy for us. As a salesperson you have to look good and I enjoy the process.
7.15am
I work in Business Bay but the Green Community roundabout is horrible so I have to leave for work 45 minutes before I start. There are now two exits from the community, but both have to traverse the roundabout so the extra exit hasn’t helped the traffic flow.
8am
I spend the first hour in the office checking emails, sorting out my schedule, making phone calls. I am in sales, so most of my day is out of the office and the morning is when I get my administration done.
9am
It’s time for phone calls. To make sales we have to check out the companies in Dubai and across the UAE. We have to know how many staff they have, what type of printers they have, what sort of usage they have. Everybody uses printers so we can save everybody money, but it is important we go into a sales meeting with some hard facts and knowledge about what sort of savings we can offer. We get the information by phone and then we schedule a meeting with the IT department or the purchase department.
10am
I usually have between five and seven meetings a day. It’s a simple pitch: you can save 30 to 40 per cent of your printing costs and help the environment. Using the remanufactured toner helps the planet by reducing your consumption. The remanufacture means we are sustainable and we recycle all the parts of the toner cartridge in an ecological way. We sort out the plastics, the metals and the other materials and dispose of them ethically. We take the branded toner cartridges from our customers and replace them with GIT branded cartridges which we produce in our factory.
11am
I’m often on the road at this time as I spend a lot of time travelling. I cover all the Northern Emirates. I can be in Ras Al Khaimah one day talking to a big corporation and in Dubai the next day talking to a government ministry as the Dubai Government is one of our customers. There is a huge market in this recycling. One toner cartridge is 1.5 kilograms in weight; to produce this toner you need 1.5 litres of oil. In the UAE there are more than 100,000 companies registered. If one company uses one toner cartridge monthly, which we will replace, we can save 150,000 litres of oil, and that is just one toner cartridge per month,
12.30pm
Lunch is a great time to mix business and pleasure. My favourite food is Italian, so I always hope it’s the customer’s as well. Lunch meetings allow you to understand a customer’s needs far easier than an office environment.
3pm-5pm
I have meetings with the Alshaya representatives or Al Futtaim, the big groups, because they are heavy users of toner. But it’s not just corporations – we [also] deal with the SMEs.
6pm
I arrive home. My family is in Europe so I spend this time catching up with them. As lunch will usually be big, my evening meal is some fruit or something light.
8pm
In the nice weather I will jog around Safa Park, in the summer I may go to the gym in the Green Community.
9pm
I meet up with friends and go to shisha cafes, I know it’s not good, but l love it. There is a great shisha cafe in Heritage Village in Bur Dubai.
10pm
My pyjamas always call me now. I am early to bed, early to rise, I may watch some television but nothing that matters … maybe some news.
ascott@thenational.ae
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