Agatha Maduwaye

Account Manager - Home Care and I&I

BASF

Agatha is an Account Manager at BASF, and she joined the interview from Nigeria, making her our first Woman of the Week interview from Africa. Agatha came from a large family and was one of eight siblings, and this is where she learned her parental values which she applies to her own family as a mom of four daughters. Growing up, Agatha wanted to be a microbiologist, and her first career was as a laboratory scientist focusing on quality assurance and quality control. After four years, Agatha decided to move onto a new role after a contact told her that she had the right skill set and right personality for a career in sales, so without sales experience, Agatha took a leap of faith and moved into a career in sales. After almost nine years, Agatha took a role at BASF which is where she is currently employed. Agatha truly has a passion for sales and the industry in which she sells into, and believes that as a female, it is always important to drive towards success. Thinking back to early in her career, Agatha never knew she would have a career in sales and she had different career aspirations to fix the world, but after being offered an opportunity, she pushed herself to be successful.

During the interview, Agatha touched on some of the keys to being successful in a sales career. One key piece of advice she shared was to know your competitors, what they are doing and understand what you need to do differently in order to change the narrative. Another key piece of advice was on sales technique and how it is important to not just talk about your product but to sell solutions and make people understand the benefit of your product. Lastly, she notes the importance of having the right contacts.

During the interview we also touched on how more championing needs to be done for women in Africa by empowering women, promoting STEM in schools and constantly emphasizing that women can become whatever they want to become. Agatha shared how impressed she has been with Women in Chemicals over the past two years, specifically with the expansive network and the amount of engagement and interaction with events, and she is incredibly excited to see what this organization will accomplish in it's first ten years. Want to hear the full interview? Check out the recorded episode on the Women in Chemicals platforms!

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