Raivo Strēlis

Managing strategic partnerships and leading market expansion in Latvia for a FinTech focused on international payments and FX risk management. • Building and maintaining key partner relationships; • Overseeing market expansion and sales team & opening first branch in Latvia; • B2B negotiations & sales. Achievements: • Built long-term partnerships with major companies like Grindex, RIX, Intercars, UPB and Eleving group. • Increased ROCE for the Latvian branch by 88% over the past 12 months. • Sales team nearly doubled the CLV for key clients reaching a 1.92x improvement.

Built a market and sales entry strategy in Dallas and Tampa Bay (USA) from the scratch by: • Leading local sales/project teams; • Executing a market entry strategy; • Setting up local offices and operational infrastructure. Achievements: • Developed a scalable market entry model, now used as an example for other USA states; • Lowered CAC by 45% comparing to the first year; • Both sales and project teams hit targets improving EBITDA by 9%.

Led a team of 12 professionals across 5 stores to implement sales strategy for the Baltic countries: • Gathered key customer and market needs; • Set product offers, supply chain & forecast and sales plans; • Budgeting; • Reviewed and analyzed business performance. Achievements: • Increased sales by 22% (vs. budgeted); • Raised EBITDA by 7% by optimizing operational costs (in commercial dep.); • Improved ROCE by 11% by changing main marketing strategy, product selection and improving inventory processes.

The day-to-day work consisted of adjusting the market to the needs of local Latvian customers by: • Managing the team of 4 people; • Defining the local product offer and department yearly budget; • On-site selling & B2B Achievements: • Mentored two team members into leadership roles; • Exceeded annual sales goals by a minimum of 12% for three consecutive years, achieving an 21% increase in market share; • Established commercial relationships with 19 B2B business partners.

During this programme I gain comprehensive understanding of business and management combined with a profound knowledge of psychology.

This was my second module on the art of negotiating. This time, we went really deep into all the details and nuances. By the end, I gained a strong understanding of negotiation psychology and the ability to handle challenges effectively through practice in realistic scenarios.

I gained key skills in negotiation methods and commercial offer planning, learning tactics through business cases. Dmitrijs Juskovecs is an outstanding educator. Most importantly, I gained confidence and started shaping my own negotiation style.