VISION AND MISSION
MY VISION is to provide transparency and empowerment to sales professionals on successful sales concepts that improve velocity of pipeline and win rate.
MY MISSION is to create and share ideas and tested concepts, as a sales leader, that can drive repeatable success for others with the intent to refresh old, worn out concepts with a new approach to winning.
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INDUSTRY AND VERTICALIZATION
- BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, Insurance)
- IT and Telecommunications
- Government FED/SLED (Federal, State, Local and Education)
- Healthcare and Life Sciences
- BPO, BPM, and Outsourcing
- Retail
- Transportation
- Energy | Utilities
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The ultimate mission is to help sales professionals reach their highest potential while committed to helping clients achieve their goals.
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I am dedicated to shaking up the SaaS industry by introducing fresh new ideas and concepts to field sales teams. My approach is rooted in customer-centricity and innovation, while also challenging and re-inventing some of the older, worn out methods of selling.
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I am passionate about ensuring sales professionals succeed; and, at the same time, elevating the client's buying journey that will differentiate the sales professional as a trusted advisor.
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You can expect to see creative, cutting-edge thoughts and concepts that can be tailored to your unique sales style.
Did You Know?
Let me share something many don't know about me.
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I was co-author of an enablement program for the State of Missouri after the welfare reform bill was passed in 1996.
I was teaching some undergraduate classes at National-Louis University in the evenings. I met another adjunct professor with similar likes and dislikes. We decided to team up to write the new Welfare to Work program that would officially be rolled out by Convergys, a BPO in the outsourcing industry. Convergys was later acquired by Concentrix - 2018.
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This program would be made available for those that were on a time-limited benefit program to help them transition into a work program.
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State of Missouri partnered with Convergys to deliver the enablement program; and, ultimately, place the students into the Contact Center as Customer Service Representatives (CSR). The program focused on the needs of the CSR role but also had many life skills incorporated into the learning.
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As authors, we chose to deliver the first full program together so that we could understand how content was being consumed and tweak as needed.
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It was a fantastic experience and one I'm proud to share.
My Story
I started my professional sales career in the insurance industry as a top property, casualty, life and health agent. I was the top sales agent for Jefferson County. When I married the love of my life, who also worked for the company, I had to follow the existing HR guidelines which would require one of us to step down. Since I was less than two years into this career, and he held fifteen years, it was most beneficial for me to step into a new career. This is likely too much information but it is important to understand my story - my personal journey.
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I landed in a leadership role at Charter Communications because of the successes I had with Convergys - see Did You Know?. At Charter, I wrote an RFI and RFP for an enterprise software need. This is where I started getting interested in technology, best practices for deploying software, and offering ideas for software enhancements, etc. After a year, I was requesting documentation from the vendor that didn't exist; so I began writing best practices documents and processes for enterprise deployments so that I could ultimately build domain expertise within Charter's leadership team. I was sharing this documentation and ideas with the vendor and was quickly recognized as a thought leader with their platform.
It is at that time I started looking at opportunities in software and hired into my first software position at Witness, which was later acquired by Verint Systems. While my first two positions were consulting for Professional Services and then moving into consulting in the Sales cycle, it was clear I was great at building relationships and selling the value of software in a world that sold features and functionality. I stayed in this career for over fifteen years advancing every few years into four unique positions. Each promotion during this part of my career was offered to me as I proved my loyalty, advanced my skills, and invested my time into building my professional career.
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During 2017, I was referred to Calabrio from previous relationships that had transitioned to this fairly new software organization. This position was not on the DNC (do not compete) list from Verint since it was just starting to get traction in the industry. They needed someone to come in and build a strategic sales initiatives team. At the time, it was a loose title. Over the course of the first three years, the role morphed into Strategic Sales with its own P&L. I was able to take this role into something nobody would have expected.
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Because it was a small - yet quickly growing - software company, I was able to spread my wings and share my experience to take on many roles where there were gaps that needed attention. At one point I managed all these different functions as we grew into the company we are today. Sales Analysts, RFx Team, Sales Demo Operations, Presales, Account Managers, Customer Success Managers, Operations, Principal Consulting (Sales and Professional Services), Implementation Strategy Team and, of course, Strategic Sales.
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In summary, the last twenty one years have been a blessing in the software and SaaS industry and I can't imagine my career taking a different path. I appreciate and value my path to success.
TOP 20% MAKE 80% OF SALES
How do you change the culture dynamics and tip scales in your favor?
1
METRICS
Do you know the right questions to ask and have you done proper research?
- What is the benefit to your prospect?
- What metrics can we quantify?
- What is the economic justification in the mind of your prospect?
- What is the criteria for success?
2
ECONOMIC BUYER
Who is the economic buyer...the ultimate decision maker?
- Who has the budget?
- Who is the economic buyer?
- What are their expectations?
- What are their sources of budget or finances?
- Have you met them?
3
DECISION CRITERIA
What is the decision criteria and how will you satisfy the requirements?
- What is the decision criteria for evaluation?
- Is there other criteria for the purchase or subscription?
- Who set this criteria?
- Are there any economic barriers? Political barriers?
4
DECISION PROCESS
What is the decision process from evaluation to committed decision?
- How is decision made?
- Is it informally or formally done - describe the process?
- Who has the power to make committed decision?
- Who is the sphere of influence?
5
PAPER PROCESS
Do you know the decision signing process for paperwork?
- What is the path to a signed contract?
- What are the internal approvals? legal, security, CFO, etc.
- How does this work across a timeline?
- Who ultimately approves the purchase - that ultimate final signature needed?
6
IDENTIFY PAIN
Did you identify and confirm pain points throughout buyer journey?
- What are biggest pains we can address?
- Are the pains obvious to prospect?
- Can pain be measured in ROI?
- Who benefits from solution?
- What happens if pain not addressed? fines, CX, cost-to-do-nothing...
7
CHAMPION(S)
Do you understand who has power and influence to sell us internally?
- Who are most important people to drive "win" decision?
- Do they have power and personal motivation? Why?
- Will they sell for you when you aren't there?
- What do they need to effectively sell internally?
8
COMPETITION
Who are competitors which is likely more than other solution option?
- Is competition talking to prospect? What are strengths & weaknesses?
- Are there projects or initiatives competing for same budget?
- Are there individuals that are champions of incumbent solution?
- Is prospect considering their own "build"?
Value Positioning
Disrupting the Aggressive Market
Competition
KNOW THE COMPETITION!
What is their completeness of overall CCaaS, SaaS or CPaaS vision?
Are their gaps in delivery by competitor?
What is the reality of GTM for visionaries?
What are gaps from niche players?
Do you have your playbook on how to win?
What are partnerships in the vision that may help close gaps?
Differentiate
BUILD PLAN TO DIFFERENTIATE
What is the cost to do nothing? This may be your strongest competitor!
Can you build a quantifiable ROI to differentiate and track success?
What are your DIQs and 10% Messaging? How will you use them?
Have you aligned the customer needs to value using your solution / platform?
Are you prepared to go to battle with value wedges versus feature parity?
Have you done your research?
Be Your Best Self
PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE THEY TRUST. HAVE YOU BUILT TRUST?
How will you be memorable in a sea of "similarities"?
Have you built your win themes and team?
Have your prepared your value wedges for the industry or vertical?
Have you scheduled and hosted briefing and debriefing sessions?
Do you know the audience - titles, roles and goals? Does agenda align with audience?​