Cees Fiselier, 40 years in the recycling business

The eventful "German" career of an Enschede salesman.

He was taken hostage, signed contracts on ski slopes and is nowhere more comfortable than with his eastern neighbors. The career of Cees Fiselier (68) reads like a boy's book. The Enschedean, sales manager at BOA Recycling Systems, has been in the business for forty years. ''I have lived in the right time.''

'Cees, isn't this something for you?' It is the early 1980s when his mother points Cees to a job opening at BOA Recycling Systems in Enschede, the city where he grew up. After gaining experience in aircraft and playground equipment construction, the twenty-something returned to the east. The inside sales department at BOA turns out to be the start of a forty-year career in the recycling world, in which he develops into sales manager for Germany and Eastern Europe in particular at BOA and during a foray at competitor Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions.

Recycling is still a relative term in Cees' early years, it only involves the processing of waste paper. But business was already booming, says the sixty-year-old. Russians were lining up for balers and conveyor belts, while Cees, as a field sales representative from the late 1980s, was already talking his ear off in Europe. You name it: ''Mondays in Greece, Tuesdays in Bulgaria, Wednesdays in Hungary, Thursdays in the Czech Republic, Fridays in Poland and then quickly back home.'' To his wife and two sons.

Cees sees the recycling business gradually changing. Plastic processing is taking off, but it has not affected his sales tactics in all these years. Or tactics, for the Enschedean it's more of a natural attitude that doesn't do him any harm. Colleagues agree: if you stand with Cees at a trade fair, he is the icebreaker. Cees knows everyone and everyone knows Cees. He opens doors with playful ease that would otherwise remain closed.

,,I am not a price salesman. If someone tells me we are too expensive, I often refer to heart surgery. Suppose you have to undergo it, do you want a cheap operation that may fail, or do you want to spend more and be sure it will go well? Delivering quality and building relationships is what it's all about. Visiting every client at least once a year, you see and hear new things that way. As a family, we became good friends with a customer from Austria. On the ski slope we arranged the purchase of machines.''

Things sometimes run a little less smoothly, too. Take the day that Cees visits a client from whom a balance has yet to be received. The discussion gets out of hand and the Enschedean is pardonably locked up in a dingy little office. he was held hostage for about four hours. The bill is eventually paid off neatly. And a while later Cees is just back on the doorstep, as if nothing had happened.

Germans. Cees can read and write with his eastern neighbors. A relationship that has grown naturally over the past decades. in the office it was already sweating for me if I had to say something in English, but with Germans I could get on very well.'' He keeps three rules of thumb: always let a German finish talking, let your style of dress match that of your interlocutor and don't drink a drop of alcohol with a German during the day. ''And a car is very important in Germany, so if you visit a customer there, park your Mercedes right in front of the door.''

Cees distills anecdotes by the conveyor belt. It is mainly the stories with small clients that stick. There he feels in his element. i have also had conversations with large companies while the lawyer was sitting at the table. Terrible.'' Building trust, maintaining relationships, that's where he has gotten his satisfaction for forty years. ,,I have lived in the right time.'' But Cees can't ignore it: small businesses are disappearing, the recycling world has become more businesslike. ''And,'' he confesses honestly, ''my usefulness to the business is becoming less and less, peers are falling away.''

But those who can boast forty years of experience in the recycling world have a lot to give youthful colleagues. ''Preparation is everything, establish the purpose of your conversation. An offer must be 100 percent correct, take the customer very seriously.

Even the little ones, because they too can become big. Make sure you know who your competitors are, but never talk negatively about them. Emphasize your own strengths, be honest and fair. And if you're traveling, work. Don't hang out at the bar every night, you won't be sharp. And don't underestimate what such a job does to your home situation, it has to be possible. If you have a partner, then it is very important that he or she is independent.''

And now? The Enschedean has now reached retirement age, but there is no question of a final goodbye. ,,I am going to wind down, because of the corona crisis that is accelerated somewhat, because it is difficult to maintain contacts in this period.'' His wife puts an arm on his shoulder: ''Is he still talking now?'' Cees smiles: ''I actually never thought of myself as a salesman, I think I'm more just a sociable guy for this industry.''