Inside parcelLab: Interview with Conor

Name:  Conor McGrath

Age: coughing fit 56

Position at parcelLab: UK MD, Head of Clients UK and Nordics

Originally from: Born in the USA. U-S-A!  U-S-A!

1. Briefly tell us what your everyday working life at parcelLab looks like

Waiting for my Millennials to wake up and amble into the office, then we talk about Love Island and everyone’s plans for the weekend. After that, we finally make a few calls and try to help retailers improve their CX.

2. Tell us about your professional career

I fell into sales straight from uni and was lucky to have excellent managers who gave me lots of coaching. I moved to California for all of the 90’s and have sold tech to enterprise clients nearly my whole career.

3. What do you like most about parcelLab and your job? 

The UK team is pretty cool. Different backgrounds, different skillsets, different personalities.  The team culture has morphed into something, but it’s not easy to pinpoint: proud, supportive, funny. 

4. In your opinion, what makes parcelLab unique? 

We have room for just about any type of person on our team. It's like a bad pub joke: We have an Italian, a Frenchie, an English Rose, an Egyptian, a Yank, a German, a Swede, a Lithuanian, an Archaeologist, a teenage hacker and not one, but two guys from Hull. And most recently a pashtun warrior poet. So we're already stacked with talent, but still looking for more!

Plus it’s a brand new industry. Post-purchase comms is only done well by a handful of retailers and there are very few suppliers in the marketplace. So, we think there is lots of upside for our team and our company.

5. What are the characteristics of the perfect parcelLab candidate? 

They should be looking for career progression and open to being coached. For example, we are taking BDR’s with less than 2 years experience and turning them into closers inside a few months.

Also, people who know themselves and can bring value to us. We are a start-up, we don’t know everything so we need all sorts of new people to be successful. Read about us and come and talk to us!

6. How would you describe the working atmosphere at parcelLab?  

Chilled isn’t quite right, although we are chilled. Neither is relaxed, although we don’t do stressed. I think ‘quietly determined’ might be it? We all know the plan, our part within the plan, and we’re all working on it together.

7. What was your favourite moment at parcelLab so far? And why? 

Our Xmas parties are pretty epic. Us winning one of the top three retailers in Europe was a biggie. Showed us that we can win anyone as a client, anywhere in the world.

8. What qualities and strengths have you gained during your time at parcelLab? 

I’ve had to take my sales approach down several notches. I’m trained in classic US sales techniques which are if in doubt, err on the side of aggression. So being asked to be a bit less business-y and a bit more friendly was a personal challenge but I’m getting there. Learning to trust other people is also not so straightforward but you have to do it in our company and in our current growth stage.

9. What challenges have you had to face during your time at parcelLab and how did you overcome them? 

Not asking too many direct budget questions! But, with coaching from the management team, I realised it’s possible to do it indirectly and still get a similar result. Tobi (our CEO) wants us to be the nice guys who finish first, it’s the team mantra.

10. What makes London so attractive for you? 

I am lucky to have lived in San Fran, New York and London, all great cities. For me London tops them all. You can’t beat its culture, history, variety of entertainment and diversity of people. Plus its proximity to Scotland and the French Alps - two of my fave places.

11. How would you spend your perfect weekend? 

As per my social media profile: Loves food, dancing, stretching, vino, loudly expressed opinions, travel and funk, preferably all on the same night.

12. What three words would your colleagues use to describe you? 

You should ask them! I suspect it may include: “know your client”.

Would you also like to become part of the parcelLab team? Check out our careers page here.