Today we continue our “Behind the Scenes” series with an interview we conducted with Christian Heimrich. The business economist has been Head of Business Development at GetMyInvoices since the beginning of 2019.
Christian, business development is a multifaceted term. How is it defined at GetMyInvoices? We are primarily concerned with the question of where we want to move. My department is largely responsible for the growth of GetMyInvoices. In concrete terms, this means creating measures and ideas to expand existing business areas or open up new ones and define additional business models. This is of course formulated in a very abstract way. For example, we are continually working to expand our core product and develop complementary solutions. Above all, we coordinate new campaigns with our sales and marketing and work closely with our project management. Every week is different. That’s what makes my job so exciting and varied. At GetMyInvoices we don’t have rigidly defined task descriptions. We pass the ball to each other across departments. This is how new ideas emerge dynamically, which we then implement together with the team.
Can you perhaps describe a few tasks? Like I said, it’s difficult to break down, but I’ll try to outline it. We are responsible for restructuring processes, for example within our sales department, and are involved in many strategy topics. The topic of internationalization is currently at the top of the agenda. In addition, we support our partners and work with them to develop new use cases from which we can both benefit by addressing additional target groups. Here we are currently trying to implement hypothesis-driven work more intensively. We want to create better structures. One thing is to have ideas or be inspired. The other thing is to actually implement these ideas.
What does hypothesis-driven work mean to you specifically? When we have an idea, we first implement it on a test basis. So we first try out new sales mechanisms on a small group of buying personas. If campaigns are successful, we establish them in standardized processes.
Can you tell us what your long-term plans are? Yes, sure. The goal is to build an enterprise suite in which small and medium-sized companies can find the solutions with which they can automate and optimize their processes. The first steps have been taken. We have already established numerous modules within fino that accelerate work on documents. This includes ours, for example OCR solution fintract , which extracts all relevant data from documents in seconds, eliminating manual entry. We currently have a variety of product ideas in the pipeline that automate processes in companies and support them in digitalization.
What requirements should you meet as a business development manager? Be curious, have a desire to innovate, and above all, be knowledgeable about operations. What I mean by this is that creativity alone is not enough. It is much more important that you implement them. I don’t believe there is a defined path to be successful in business development.
How does Corona affect your everyday work? Corona has changed a lot in my work structure. Before the pandemic broke out, I was traveling for about two days every week to conduct workshops or on-site partner meetings. Of course, that has now been completely eliminated, but it hasn’t affected our business at all. I currently work from home four days a week. One day a week I meet with the entire team in Kassel. I will probably continue to do this, as I can plan in a very structured way this way.
