Hi, everyone. Hopefully you can hear me. Ok. It's great to be here. Thank you for joining. Um, so today my chats about reselling sales. I see some of you and I know people will be strolling in.Um, actually come with a sales background and it looks like some don't. So this is great. Um Let me walk you through this a little bit today. Um So just to get a little bit of a sense of, of uh what my chat will be about, um, I'll share with you my story. So today I'm an executive, uh sales executive in a tech company and, but I didn't start that way. I didn't start in sales. I started as a developer actually. So why didn't I start with sales um and kind of dig into all of that and instead, um, what I think sales is actually about and perhaps how I could fast forward your journey, um, and get you to think about whether or not that could be for you and uh, and then where you might be able to start uh with sales getting into it and just some thoughts for you to take away from here and, uh either for yourself or perhaps someone else in your life that you could share with.

So, let's get a little bit more about my story. So I actually, I grew up with a math teacher, mom and a musician dad. Um, I grew up being good in math. Thanks to my mom. I know it's very unusual and, and I actually wanted to be just like her. I thought I'd be a math teacher. Uh uh at some point along the way, in high school, I took a required computer science class. So this should definitely be required. Uh And I realized I there's a certain amount of creativity and creation with computer science that I really enjoyed. And I thought, hey, I, I will do this. This is, this is, this is fun. This is what I'm going to do. Um I did computer science and math in school. I uh graduated and got a job as a developer. Thankfully my job. So this is, you know, um I'm a developer but I was actually under the business development umbrella. Um It, it was completely luckily and aging myself here a little bit. This is mobile before is mobile, but I was a develop. Um my job was at Palm so think kind of like pre trio, right? Like Palm Pilot, um Palm Trio if you've ever uh uh you know, heard about that before. And my role along with two other developers was to support a 30,000 person um developer community.

So provide all technical resources but also speak at conferences, help them troubleshoot, help with architecture design um and uh you know, sample codes, et cetera, so highly technical role, but not just a software engineer working on product. Um it, which turned out to be very lucky for me.

I realized really quickly that I loved um making an impact on the business and I really loved uh growing something, helping some of our kind of developer clients grow their companies alongside with our um phone manufacturer and, and um that that was what I got joy out of. And whereas my coworkers were getting joy out of the most hairy technical things and technical issues that they could find or, or um that they can try to, to, to resolve. So I took my career in that direction and uh I was able to still with technical pieces along the way. But every time that I would go into with one role, I would gravitate towards something that I can kind of create from scratch and grow out, I was essentially being almost like a GM over businesses um with insight into product, with insight, my technical background, but ultimately really growing the revenue of a company.

Um I did it time and time and time again in various different shapes and forms and titles. Um until, you know, I finally had this realization that at the end of the day all of these roles that they have in common is that I've been delivering revenue and that, that is what I love. And that has a name and that name is sales, a name that I thought was, you know, a dirty word. Um before and yet here I was loving doing it. Um So why didn't I start with sales? Right? Why, you know, III I don't think I'm the only one today. I don't think I'm the only person um that kind of goes through this journey and, and I find myself, you know, I consider myself fortunate having even gone through this um self kind of realization and, and assessment and realized what it was and I think plenty of people might not.

So why didn't I start with sales? Why maybe didn't you start with sales or someone else that, you know, maybe you've got little cousins or daughters or sisters or um I think, you know, it's, it comes down to the stereotype of a used car salesman, right? It's um it's, it's somebody who is um who somebody who sells you something that, that, that you don't need. It's somebody who um is like sleazy, right? You don't want to talk to them, you don't wanna have this interaction. There may be aggressive. They are, they are all of these attributes, all of these characteristics that um one I didn't wanna be and two that I think how many female used car salesmen do you know, I mean, sales, women, sales people, do you know, I think very few that I have ever seen or interacted with or heard of in my life.

Um even kind of googling memes to, to put on here. Uh There were very few to choose from that actually incorporated a woman. Um So why didn't I start with sales? One representation? Right. I think that's one big one. Um Two again, the stereotype, maybe I'll come back to this one actually. But the stereotype is, you know, a, a used car salesman, a salesman, a salesperson, right? It's those phone calls that you receive that you don't want to answer that they just keep going. You're like, excuse me, I have to go and they just talk over you and still try to get you to stay on the phone. Um They're, they're aggressive with their bodily language even, you know, and it, have you tried to buy a car? Um They would like, block your exit at times to try to get you to continue the conversation. Um They're not trustworthy, right? It's, it's right. How many times have, have or have you, if it hasn't happened to you? You've heard of it happening to somebody else that they've bought something again, that card just to use kind of that stereotypical example and, and it ends up that there are so many um fine print fees or, or just uh different things you signed up for then you had no idea. Or that very likely you were told the opposite that I, that has happened numerous times. Both to me in terms of cars, like cell phone plants anywhere.

Um, I went, I went into a t-mobile store the other day and even there is like, you know, what I'm hearing, told to me is actually not what I saw, read online. Um, they're kind of, you know, out to get you, they're out to sell to you. Like, you know, it's supposed to be a compliment. He or she can sell snow to an Eskimo, right? Um, is that really an, a compliment? I think, um, to me that was never a compliment. Right. That sounds like something I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be pushy. I don't wanna be aggressive or untrustworthy. Um, I don't wanna go be out there, you know, to get anybody. I don't wanna, uh, trick anyone. I don't want to back anyone into a corner into saying yes and having them pay way more than what they actually could have paid for, um, for, you know, a car or, um, taking advantage of them. That is not what I have wanted nor want for myself. So, without realizing it, these are all the stereotypes that I just, you know, had ingrained in me and therefore never considered sales as an actual career. Um, lastly, I think, you know, it's important to also think, not only is it not what I want for myself. But um you know, as if a salesperson is kind of like that vulture, right? Like you walk into a car always using this example car lot and you kind of feel like prey.

You know, you, you see these like 34 people sitting around exchanging looks who's gonna get you, who's gonna get to be the one that gets to sell to you? And I don't want to make anyone feel that way. I don't want to make, I, this is why I, I had not considered sales. At first, I didn't want to make anyone feel small. I didn't want anyone to feel like they don't have a choice or don't have a way out and to push them into doing something that they're actually uncomfortable with. Uh and that for me was the stereotype and I, you know, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, I think this is a common stereotype. So I wanna break that stereotype. I, I want to share today what actually sales is what sales done well, right? Because certainly or done right? Or what sales can be and should be. And what I think tech sales has predominantly moved to, especially with the PLG product led growth movement. Um It actually embodies completely different characteristics. Number one, primary here, curiosity in, in with sales done, right?

The job of a salesperson is to talk less, not more, it's to ask questions, right? It's to constantly ask questions and to be able to understand the state of where they're at. What is that person's needs? Why are they there today? You are not there to trick them? You are there to make their life better. Hopefully, you, the key here is to sell something you really believe in. If you really believe in something, then what it is that you're selling, it's actually AAA process of teaching, it's teaching that value, right? So to understand where that value lies, you have to dig in and to ask those questions. So your innate kind of curiosity and um and a practice of what are the right questions that will give you the right information that you need. So you don't bombard some with too much info because then you are not making them feel great, you're giving them too much and it's, and it's overwhelming. But if you can figure out what they actually need, thanks to the curiosity, then you can help them with, by teaching them and guiding them to, to, to what they need to know in order to make the ultimate decision and for them. Um And if you believe in your product, then you are innate passion and kind of, you know, the little tidbits that you can share along the way will hopefully get them to see that value that you want to show them and go ahead and buy that product.

Um And then empathy and of course, these, this is condensed but I think like high level wise, right? These are empathy which is you can put someone else yourself in someone else's shoes. So, you know, going back to the car example, if you are, you know, a salesperson and somebody comes in with, you know, as a family with small Children, um maybe, you know, you don't encourage them to get that like two door Porsche or even that Ford sedan that's smaller if like they all won't fit in a van in something other than a van.

Um I just, you know, completely simplifying it. But the idea here is if you care and if you want to, if you enjoy teaching, if you enjoy wanting to help someone and if you really can, um it's not a big stretch for you to find yourself in somebody else's shoes, you actually have the core traits and characteristics of what sales thrives on and how different are these characteristics for these, right?

It it's mind blowing how, you know, that stereotype or maybe how something was done before um can be so radically different from what it actually takes to succeed. Um And, and, and so when I had these, you know, kind of realizations, um i it it was completely eye opening and freeing because it allowed me to embrace the name, the name of sales, the, the title, the the category kind of my squad in a way it allowed me to be able to, to, to know um exactly what I'm looking for, know how it is that I'm looking to, to grow my career, to refine my craft in a way, you know, it, it's still a craft and the craft is in, how do I trick someone?

The craft is h how do I combine the art and science in a of a sale in a perfect way for the outcome, for the business and for the outcome of people that I'm selling to. Um so that they are very happy, but at the same time, the business is doing really well and I've been able to um help accelerate and grow that business that which I found earlier on in my career that I actually really love doing. And it's important to say that people don't mind paying for something selling in itself isn't bad. Paying in itself isn't bad. You know, think of the last time that you were that, what's your favorite item that you own or your favorite experience that you've had? Uh um uh if you think about that item or that experience, maybe it was a trip that you went on, maybe it was, it's your favorite pair of shoes. Um Or, and I say shoes, not as like a stereotypical woman. Like I, I mean, literally like lately I find myself just being thrilled if some, if shoes are incredibly comfortable that I can walk my dog in for several hours. Um And whatever that item is. I, I'm happy to pay for something that I love. Right. Something that I get regular use out of. Um, obviously it'd be nice to get those things for free. But at the end of the day, if that value is there, uh, you know, I'm happy and I would wager to be that most people are as well.

So, the idea here is, is people are happy to pay for value. What we're not happy to pay for is feeling like we were tricked into something like we overpaid for something like we were taking advantage of. We didn't have any choice in the matter, right? This feeling that the stereotype of sales provides is what people are not happy about, but this isn't what sales has to be. So, uh sales tech like getting into. So all of this to say this is sales overall, but I'm in tech sales, right? Um And whether you already are today or you're looking to, um there's actually like a continued growth and I can chat on this a little bit for, I, I saw that there are already account executives in the room. But um I think everything that I talked about applies through the growth of a career in sales, through an account executive, through the management, through the director, um you know, regional kind of VP to eventually VP of sales. All of those characteristics are vital not only in having in yourself and being able to scale out a team, but also um in just building that culture and hiring for those characteristics. Because if you keep in mind constantly of what does a buyer feel like? Um, I think that just propels your organization to the next level, but for those wanting to get start to just start out for those kind of potentially, hopefully having a little bit of an aha moment of who maybe I should consider this.

I've, you know, I've done some operational things. I've done some client facing things. Maybe I've done, you know, maybe I've enjoyed working with clients, but I've always done support and I feel a little bit, you know, um, burned out and I, I just don't, you know, I wonder, what can I do, please consider sales? Um, that can start with being an SDR, it's a typical place to start for your sales journey. Um, there are a lot of roles out there. It is a role that's constantly needed to be filled because the tenure of it is, I think of these days 12 to 18 months before you move on to the next role, which is an account executive. Um, but, you know, if you and uh I'll, I'll move on here. So if you are naturally curious if you are or can be process oriented, because if you recall, I mentioned sales as an art and a science, there is very much a science to it and it's very much a a regimented process um and kind of stages and things to learn.

It's not rocket science by any means. But uh uh you know, it the business needs to grow. Um And in order to be able to plan for everything, there has to be a two way street communication around, um what is going to how much revenue is a company going to bring in and what that breaks down to is there needs to be a way to track, you know, how much potential revenue is there.

And uh you know, what is the percentage, what is the possibility of it actually um coming to fruition at a certain point in time. So without process, there would just be no way of doing that, there would be no way of, of uh you know, of growing a business or hiring because how are you going to do that if you're not sure what your business is bringing in today? So there's very much a process but it is not rocket science and you can learn it if you're self driven. And um you know, if you feel like those are challenges that you can push through, think about it, give it some thought and I hope that you uh would consider sales happy to take questions and if there are none. Um And if we're out of time, please feel free to reach out to me on linkedin and um would be super happy to help anyone out there considering this or who felt like this resonated.