Barb Giamanco

Impacting Sales Success Through the Right Culture Fit w/Caroline Gregory, Okta

October 2, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

This was another great interview topic. If we do not proactively and intentionally choose a working environment that is going to help us thrive, sales success will end up being tougher than it needs to be.

My guest in this interview is Caroline is an Enterprise Regional Sales Manager with Okta. She has 16+ years selling IT infrastructure and software to CIOs and CTOs to medium – fortune 500 companies for Workday, EMC and Okta. She is known for her creative and challenger-approach to selling. She consistently achieves sales goals and has been recognized as a top performer and enabler to strategic business partners and clients.

Here’s what we talked about:

We started by defining what ‘sales culture’ means and that became the foundation of our conversation.

Caroline talked about what sales culture means to her and broke it down into 3 areas.

We discussed why finding the right sales culture is important to sales success and why you shouldn’t settle.

What Caroline looks for in a sales culture.

The unfortunate effects to you personally and professionally if you end up in the wrong culture.

How to evaluate the organization culture during the interview process. You’ll learn practical tips to uncover key information. And, you’ll learn about warning signs to watch out for during the interview.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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About Caroline:

Caroline is an Enterprise Regional Sales Manager with Okta. She has 16+ years selling IT infrastructure and software to CIOs and CTOs to medium – fortune 500 companies for Workday, EMC and Okta. Caroline is known for her creative and challenger-approach to selling. She consistently achieves sales goals and has been recognized as a top performer and enabler to strategic business partners and clients. She resides in the Music City Capital – Nashville TN. When not selling software, she prefers spending time outdoors or acrylic painting. She is also an animal lover supporting animal rescue organizations – Horseback riding is a passion of hers, and she looks forward to buying a farm outside of the city within the next year.

Connect with Caroline on LinkedIn

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Looking After Your Number 1 w/Rachel Gray, Gatekeeper

September 30, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

Rachel Gray has worked in sales for ten years, after fleeing law school to sell makeup door to door. In the past ten years she has sold cosmetic products, media, advertising space, and has spent the last five years in SaaS. In talking to Rachel, we discuss why it’s important for salespeople to look after themselves mentally and physically every day. That includes disconnecting from the mindset that you have to be ON 24/7. Hint: you don’t.

Today, more than ever, sales management often creates “emergency sales cultures”, which is on prominent display every month, quarter and year end. The ridiculous focus on closing deals at any cost during this time reminds me of my school days when everyone waited until the last second to cram for tests or finalize their papers. In some cases, the last minute push makes sense, especially if you product or service is largely transactional in nature. Otherwise, it is simply delusional thinking that all that last minute flurry of activity actually accomplishes anything of quality.

Questions we tackled in this interview:

How important is mental health in the sales profession?

Why is mental health becoming more important to talk about and take care of?

What are some key takeaways on how people can look after themselves mentally?

What about physical health? Are you saying you need to be an athlete to succeed in sales?

Why do people not focus on these things?

3 pieces of advice for newer salespeople to set positive habits?

Tips for turning off and tuning out the world of distractions bombarding people.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify Stitcher Google Play Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen right here.

About Rachel:

Rachel Gray has worked in sales for ten years, after fleeing law school to sell makeup door to door. In the past ten years she has sold cosmetic products, media, advertising space, and has spent the last five years in SaaS. On top of selling, Rachel has also hopped around the globe and in the last ten years has lived in Australia, the UK, Canada, the United States, and Poland. She enjoys bringing this cultural knowledge and experience to her sales process. Connect with her on LinkedIn

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Creating Opportunities for Women in Corporate Leadership w/Heather Combs, 3Pillar Global

September 18, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

I talked with Heather Combs, Chief Revenue Officer for 3Pillar Global, an Inc. 5000 developer of client-facing web and mobile applications about how to create more opportunities for women in corporate leadership roles. While the gap is improving, Heather is a female Chief Revenue Officer, and we do not see women in this role often enough! She oversees marketing, business development and operations for the nearly 1000-person multinational company, creating the revenue acceleration strategies that drive 3Pillar’s continued double-digit growth. Heather has been named one of Software Report’s Top Female Tech Services Leaders and Member of the Year by the Institute for Excellence in Sales.

Here is what we talked about:

How companies have begun increasing the number of women on their corporate boards.

Why getting more women into leadership roles is such an important movement.

How more companies take steps to bring qualified women into positions of corporate leadership, especially in sales.

What Heather has seen in her own career related to the evolving business culture and what that has meant/means for women.

The priorities that companies must focus on to continue to shape business culture that is welcoming and supportive of female leadership.

For the first time, we have a female majority in the college-educated workforce. Heather shared with me what this will mean for gender equality in the workplace and the sales industry in particular.

As an experienced sales and tech executive, the advice Heather gives to other women starting their careers, particularly those in the tech and/or sales industries.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify Stitcher Google Play Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen right here.

About Heather

Heather Combs, Chief Revenue Officer for 3Pillar Global, an Inc. 5000 developer of client-facing web and mobile applications. She oversees marketing, business development and operations for the nearly 1000-person multinational company, creating the revenue acceleration strategies that drive 3Pillar’s continued double-digit growth. Heather has been named one of Software Report’s Top Female Tech Services Leaders and Member of the Year by the Institute for Excellence in Sales.

Connect with Heather on LinkedIn

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Creating a Sales Culture of Accountability w/Kristie Jones, Sales Acceleration Group

September 4, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

Kristie Jones is with the Sales Acceleration Group. She is the go-to expert for companies looking for help evaluating, building, training and scaling their Sales teams. Her 19+ years in the SaaS space, willingness to get her hands dirty, and “take no prisoners” approach is what makes her so valuable to her clients.

In this Conversations with Women in Sales interview, we talked about:

Why having an accountability culture is important for a sales organization.
The elements needed to create an accountability culture.
How to hire for accountability.
How to communicate your expectations around accountability.
What gets in the way of sales leaders holding their reps accountable to the expectations of the job.
What to do when sales reps resist being accountable to what management expects.
How having a culture of accountability effects the relationship the company has with prospects, clients, and partners.

And more. Listen and enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify Stitcher Google Play Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen right here.

Areas of Expertise at the Sales Acceleration Group:

Sales training and coaching
Sales process evaluation and improvement
Hiring strategy: SDRs, AEs, and CSMs
Goal setting and compensation plans
Selection, implementation, and customization of sales enablement tools

Connect with Kristie on LinkedIn and Twitter

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SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform. Did you miss this years 3 days of learning, networking, and inspiration at SalesLoft’s Rainmaker 2019 conference? With over 100 speakers and 40 track sessions, their annual Women’s Breakfast and a performance from Grammy winning band Blues Traveler, it was an amazing sales conference. See you next year? Visit www.salesloft.com

Diversity and Inclusion: Fighting Bro-Culture on the Hiring Front w/Brooke Bachesta, Outreach

August 28, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

I talked with Brooke Bachesta an SDR Manager at Outreach, a leading Sales Engagement Platform about her passion for diversity and inclusion and specifically, bringing more women into sales and sales development organizations. She is a thought leader that has been published in publications like Forbes, Apple News and Sales Hacker. Recently, she was recognized as a Girls Club Sales Women to Watch in 2019.

Here’s what we talked about:

The hiring process at Outreach and the sellers persona’s Outreach looks for in their hiring process.
How Outreach goes about ensuring that there’s diversity in the sales organization.
The types of events that Outreach uses to in draw recruits who might not be considering a career in sales.
Hiring diverse groups is the starting point and retention of top talents is equally important. We talked about what Outreach does to encourage retention.
How Brooke and others at Outreach continue to encourage and foster a culture of diversity and inclusion.
How Outreach leverages the super-special-awesome-skills of the reps they hire while enforcing organization wide KPIs. Example: Rep says “I don’t need to cold all because I book all my meetings via email.

And more. Listen and enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify Stitcher Google Play Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen right here.

About Brooke:

Brooke Bachesta is an SDR Manager at Outreach, a leading Sales Engagement Platform. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion and specifically, bringing more women into sales and sales development organizations. She is a thought leader that has been published in publications like Forbes, Apple News and Sales Hacker. Recently, she was recognized as a Girls Club Sales Women to Watch in 2019.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

How to Leverage Vulnerability in Sales and Life w/Lauren Rearick, Lessonly

July 30, 2019 By Barb Giamanco Leave a Comment

This interview is with Lauren Rearick, Account Executive for Lessonly is all about being authentic and vulnerable and how that can positively impact your sales success. Lessonly is a team training software company on a mission to help teams change how they work, so they can live better lives. One of 6 children, Lauren has been negotiating since birth. In her free time, Lauren is traveling with her fiancé, doing yoga, or reading a good book– her current favorite: “Do Better Work,” a book about finding camaraderie in work and life by Lessonly CEO Max Yoder.

Topics we tackled:

How Lauren defines vulnerability.

The impact vulnerability has had on Lauren’s sales success.

The positive value and impact of being authentic and vulnerable in our professional relationships.

Why being vulnerable is NOT a weakness!

The negative impacts of resisting being open, authentic and vulnerable.

Tips for creating a culture of vulnerability.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify Stitcher Google Play Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen right here.

About Lauren:

Lauren Rearick, Account Executive for Lessonly is all about being authentic and vulnerable and how that can positively impact your sales success. Lessonly is a team training software company on a mission to help teams change how they work, so they can live better lives.

One of 6 children, Lauren has been negotiating since birth. In her free time, Lauren is traveling with her fiancé, doing yoga, or reading a good book– her current favorite: “Do Better Work,” a book about finding camaraderie in work and life by Lessonly CEO Max Yoder.

Connect with her on LinkedIn

Thanks to our Sponsors!

Want more great content like you get here on The Conversations with Women in Sales Podcast? Check out The Sales Experts Channel for 500 presentations from 150 global sales experts, all in one place. Always free, always fabulous. Don’t miss another minute! Subscribe today to The Sales Experts Channel.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Barb Giamanco

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