Conversations With Women In Sales

Abby Golub shares her story about how she went from working in a family business in Vermont to making a move to Boston and finding not only a BDR / SDR role but also with a company where she knew she'd be trained well and would be in a good team with great leadership. Lots to learn here for those newer in sales or those hiring BDRs and SDRs. 

"If an inclusive sales culture was easy, maybe you would have done it already - don't just check the box on diversity." - Joyce Johnson. Meet 7x author, speaker, sales influencer, business coach, and founder & CEO of the Why Sales Network, Joyce Johnson.  Joyce hosts a podcast called, "Let's talk about it #collegelife" and is just releasing a new book, "No Back Doors for Me" Reach her at https://iamjoycejohnson.com/  

Anna Baird is an accomplished C-Level executive, with a tremendous background in finance and in accelerating high growth companies. She is currently CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) at Outreach.io and oversees all of the sales and revenue initiatives there. Listen as I ask Anna about her career journey and hear her advice for women in sales and aspiring leaders. 

Alice Katwan wanted to get into a tech sales role in Silicon Valley and started in Customer Support - a smart way to begin a sales career, because she rose to Enterprise Account Manager, Area Sales Manager, Sales Director, and now Senior Vice President of North American Sales for Salesforce. Listen as Alice discusses her journey, and in what she and I agree about when it comes to professional selling. 

Professor Stefanie Boyer is a changemaker - she is helping thousands of college and university students learn how to be a professional seller through her work as a professor and also as the co-founder of RNMKRS. We had an interesting conversation about sales education and more. 

Lindsey Boggs is Digital Sales & Development Leader at Citrix where she manages, develops, and retains top talent by teaching social selling, prospecting, cold calling, and pipeline creation. Prior to that she's been a mainstage speaker on social selling and worked at other top companies in sales and leadership. When tragedy struck in her family she had a nervous breakdown, got help for it, and used that situation to help others through the co-founding of Uncrushed.org. She also gave a TEDx talk, and does ongoing speaking (as she did here with us) about the stigma of mental health and how those in our sales organizations feeling depressed or isolated have people to talk with. We also talk about Imposter Syndrome. 

Becc Holland is a woman on a mission to help Sales Development Reps - and anyone at the front of the sales process to better communicate with and help buyers buy. She has an exhaustive library of plays for those newer to sales to try in order to reach buyers and have more positive conversations to ultimately move deals forward. Her Flip the Script program offering is free for others to learn, and paid for by sponsors. We talk about how her helping others internationally when young, along with her love of music and selling helped bring her to where she is today. 

Galem Girmay is an Account Executive at Flywire and co-founded RevGenius, the community for sales professionals with over 7,000 members. As a Black woman, she offers her support and recommendations to companies to help them find women of color for sales and sales leadership roles. Learn more about the SDR role, where she began her sales career and gain ideas about the great possibilities of sales in this episode.  

Chantel George is doing big things. She is an Account Executive at LinkedIn, the Global Program Manager for the Black Inclusion Group at LinkedIn, and also Founder & CEO of Sistas in Sales, which is the first community of women of color sales professionals. We talk about Chantel's journey from acting to law to sales, and have a good conversation about what majority women can do to support her efforts to see more women of color in our sales profession. 

Sheevaun Thatcher is an outspoken leader in the practice of Sales Enablement worldwide - as a frequent speaker and as a Founding Member & Member of the Board of Advisors with the Sales Enablement Society.  She is the Global Learning and Enablement Leader at RingCentral and oversees a worldwide remote team. Sheevaun has a way with words - which makes her an amazing storyteller. 

Maria Tribble is VP of Enterprise Sales at PathFactory. She raises flowers in her #5-9 and believes in the critical importance of kindness. We had a tough time recording this one because Maria had been previously recorded with Barb, before her passing, but the episode hadn't launched nor had we found it - so we re-recorded. 

Sara Levinson, VP Business Development at Prometric has sold and launched transformational technology initiatives - multi-million dollar deals - with the world’s largest & most influential brands. After grad school, Sara got into a marketing role which morphed into more of a sales role in the newspaper business in Pittsburgh. Hear how she got into the technology sector and how who you know is key to not applying for positions. 

Cynthia Barnes is author of "Reach the Top 1%: A Strategic Game Plan for Warrior Women in Sales", and is a keynote speaker, sales trainer, LinkedIn top sales influencer, and CEO of the NAWSP.org. In this episode we discuss how sales changed Cynthia's life, how we both agree that women do NOT lack confidence! and more.   

Tamara Schenk's goal is to help empower human potential. She is a mainstage speaker on all things sales enablement; having spent 25 years in international roles spanning multiple industries. Tamara has also been the "only" woman in the boardroom many times. We discuss the great opportunities for women in B2B sales enablement roles and Tamara's love of the field is in everything she shares. 

Nancy McNeill is Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for global sales strategy for Dow Jones' suite of professional information products. She has more than 20 years of management experience, leading global sales organizations in the financial services information industry. We talked about supportive company leaders, mentors, and how sales can be successful working remotely.

Jill Fratianne is Partner Channel Manager at Hubspot, where she has been in various sales roles for over 10 years. Jill came to Hubspot when it was a startup and has been through massive growth of the company, including seeing it go public. Jill received her Masters in Music from Northwestern University and was going to be a Violist but ended up getting an insurance sales job right out of school. Jill talks about the great lessons she learned in this role and how it made her appreciate future sales roles. 

This is the beginning of "Act 2" for Conversations with Women in Sales. Lori Richardson and Women Sales Pros will continue to publish episodes with interviews of amazing women in sales roles. We want to carry on Barb Giamanco's vision and mission. Your feedback and support welcome. This conversation was with Lori, Joanne Black, and Deb Calvert on Barb's passing and the future for CWWIS. 

There is often a stigma associated with failing but never making mistakes means never learning and growing. In this episode, I talked with Ashley Zagst from Zagst Consulting. She is a professional dancer/choreographer turned digital marketer. She is the former Head of Marketing at Bravado.co, the first digital community exclusively for sales professionals committed to elevating the profession by changing the stigmatized perception.

Hilda Kwa, Regional Director at VMware is my guest in this episode. Your employees are your company “brand ambassadors”, as such they are your organization’s greatest asset. Too often companies forget that employees drive the customer experience – either positively or negatively – and that impacts revenue in the same way.  

Julie Hansen is a sales presentation expert and the founder of Performance Sales and Training, helping sales professionals communicate with greater confidence, clarity, and influence. Julie spent 20 years as a sales contributor and leader. She also worked as a professional actor, performing in over 75 plays, commercials and television shows including HBO’s “Sex and the City.”