Conversations With Women In Sales

Precious Williams KNEW there was a STAR inside of herself - she was not raised with confidence but she learned to embrace herself and own who she is.  She is a world class master communicator and a shining light in our sales world (and the world at large)  Sales and pitching skills are vital to charting your own destiny. Precious shares part of her story and you should be watching for Precious - she is going big places! 

Jen is an author contributor to the new book, "Heels to Deals" with 33 women's stories about their journeys in B2B sales. It was pulled together by Heidi Solomon-Orlick of Girlz Who Sell and is a GREAT read!  Jen does a popular LinkedIn Live show where she shares stories, as she did in the book and on this episode about challenges she ran into as a woman in sales - in hopes that other women coming up in sales will learn from others and not get stuck in the same corner or be speechless if and when someone says something totally inappropriate or disrespectful. We cover a lot of topics in this one. 

Natasha has had a most interesting journey into and through sales. She grew up with a most unconventional upbriging (you'll have to listen to see what I mean) and had no idea what business was, let alone sales. Through her education and early roles she learned about sales and has been involved in it now for the past 20 years. Listen to Natasha's journey and get inspired. 

Andy Paul is a mentor, coach, supporter, and champion of more women in sales. He is also a global sales advisor and top podcaster. In his new book, Sell Without Selling Out, he shows you how to take charge of your own sales career without selling out using the four "Sell In Pillars" of connection, curiosity, understanding, and generosity. These are pillars women have used in sales for YEARS. Now it is a must for everyone in sales because these soft skills are what bots and computers cannot yet replace. Check out Andy's book and you will thank me! It is an easy read, and a one-sitting read if you are as engaged with the topic as I am. 

What does an inclusive sales culture look like? How do we get men to be our advocates, not just allies?  I talked with TikTok B2B Sales standout Leslie Venetz, Founder, Sales Team Builder, about her 15 year sales journey and how far we still need to go for more women in sales. We talk about working remotely and how that can be a game changer for a mom with child or kids at home - and how you don't need to be a "road warrior" to be a sales leader anymore. That is great for more women sales leader candidates and ultimately more women in sales leadership. #SheSells #SeeItBeIt @SalesTipsTok "Breaking Corporate Bro Culture"

Meg Hewitt has had a number of varied roles which we talk about this episode. She's been a rep, a manager, a head of sales dev, trainer, coach,  Director of Sales, Regional VP, and now a Strategic Account Executive, Retail & Consumer Goods at Salesforce. Meg shares that it's not the title but what you learn, and how you can work to plan out what it is you need or where you want to go in sales.  What is wonderful about B2B sales is that you can take your career many different directions. Meg shares about her geographical moves as well as climbing the career ladder. 

In this session Alli and I talk about the topic of feeling like an imposter and what you can do. Why is it so prevalent in women, and can men have it too? Join us and learn. 

We kick of 2022 with a new sponsor, Reprise. Big thank you to them. They have some amazing women in sales, including their head of sales. VP Sales Grace Tyson sat down with us to share about her journey and stops along the way to her current role.  We discussed the idea of product led growth and got some inspiration from a top sales leader. If you know of a woman sales leader or amazing sales rep, let us know - if they inspire, we want to share their insight and story here. 

We had an awesome, amazing year of interviews here at Conversations with Women in Sales. I'll review all 36 episodes and share what is ahead for Women Sales Pros and the She Sells Summit. If you know of a woman in sales or woman sales leader in B2B who would make a great guest, please refer them our way AND please share this podcast with your sales leader or company leader, whether they are male or female. We depend on our male allies to help affect change in B2B. Also, reviews are welcome and appreciated on iTunes as well as any endorsements on LinkedIn or elsewhere. 

Ashley is co-founder of Somersault Innovation and the author of "Naked Sales: How Design Thinking Reveals Customer Motives and Drives Revenue"  In this episode we discussed what design thinking is, what her journey in sales has been like, and some great insights she had to share with us. 

Shawanda Roberts is a force of nature - upbeat, positive, and always moving forward. She is VP Sales at Frost & Sullivan where she leads a team of talented and energetic Business Development Directors and Managers responsible for selling solutions to C-level executives focused on identifying, prioritizing and implementing growth strategies through research and custom advisory solutions. Shawanda is also a mentor for GirlzWhoSell. We cover a lot of topics in this conversation - I met her in person at the last event I attended prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk a bit about how such a worldwide disruption accelerated change in big ways.  Let's dive in. 

Top go-to-market teams are different. They create an authentic buyer journey by leading with buyer goals and payoffs rather their product across sales, marketing, and customer success . In this session, Brent (our very first male guest) talks about the power of empathy, communication skills, listening, and other traits women bring in big ways to sales conversations.  Brent is President of Winalytics and is focused on building go-to-market strategies across sales, marketing and customer success teams. 

On November 3, 2021 the first ever "She Sells Summit" will be happening. It is a B2B sales virtual event with most of the speakers being women who have founded groups focused on helping get more women into sales or into sales leadership. Learn how this #sales conference came to be, who is participating, and why it is historic. Big thanks to all of the sponsors of this event, as well as the participants. #sales #seeitbeit #shesells #womeninsales #allieswelcome

As a people first leader, Jaime's passion is for building strong teams, running toward complex problems and "digging in" to help clients deliver outcomes during periods of massive organizational change & transformation. Over the last 15+ years while holding sales leadership roles at Gartner & Microsoft, her teams overachieved year over year growth targets by building trust based CXO relationships to drive millions of dollars of net new revenue. Today she consults and advises clients on how to attract, inspire and maintain high performing teams (specifically) during times of change.

Jen Miller is passionate about sales strategy, networking, and training. She is Senior Vice President, Producer Development, at Marsh & McLennan Agency where she has helped thousands of sellers get the onboarding and training they need to be successful in their roles.  Jen has been writing a post a week since the pandemic began and writes about sales leadership, mentorship, trust, the sales journey, credibility and other great topics. She also shares the power of LinkedIn for sales pros. Seeing her content will help grow your career. 

We had a fabulous panel discussion on how to deal with the unique issues women in sales roles - and parents in general need to deal with when it comes to variable pay, ramp up, quota and other issues that standard corporate family leave policies often don't take into account. Listen to Alicia MacDonald of Brandwatch, Jordan Arogeti of Salesloft, and Michelle Benfer of Hubspot speak about their stories, insights, and lessons learned over a number of years discussing these issues. Company leaders should listen to better understand how to attract and retain more women in sales for their companies based on the policies they create. 

Elizabeth Ionita is Account Executive at Allocadia and founder of COMWUNE. She grew up and lives in Canada - was 1st generation Canadian in her family. Elizabeth has raised two kids and been in a sales role, so we talk a bit about her maternity leaves and how coming back can be tough. Listen to her journey as a full cycle rep and what she was looking for when making a move to another role. Good food for thought for anyone contemplating change - to really know what type of company and environment will suit you well.  Also learn how she moved from selling to a different persona moving from one company to another. 

Irina Soriano is VP, Enablement at Seismic and author of "Generation Brand: Controlling your life-brand for likes, loves, and career advancement". She also has a terrific TEDx talk called, "Gender Parity Starts with Controlling our Life Brand". In this conversation we discuss how Irina rose in her career to a VP level, and how your brand can support you (or not support you) in your career growth. 

Tiffani Bova is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and a thought provoking change maker. She's has a storied career currently at Salesforce, formerly as a Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, and as a pioneer in technology launching or advising on cloud services and digital transformation in the 90's 2000's, 2010s up until now.  Tiffani Bova is author of the Wall Street Journal best seller book, Growth IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business. She is host of the podcast "What's Next - with Tiffani Bova". In addition to Tiffani's great successes in business and technology she is committed to helping build a more inclusive tech world - including within sales, where she got her start in tech.  We had a great conversation about building confidence, doing things that make us uncomfortable, establishing credibility, and how age gives us wisdom to not need to shout out the answer. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did 

Skills session: Julie Hansen provides the "missing virtual selling skills you need today.  Customers today are being bombarded with vendor video calls – a never-ending parade of missed connections, bad lighting, worse eye contact, extreme close-ups, and awkward pauses/talk overs.  This session with former sales pro and actor, Julie Hansen - who has written 3 books on presenting skills for sellers will talk through some of her best tips and ideas. This is a "skills session" which we sprinkle through out our sales journey here.