Conversations with Women in Sales

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.

Heidi is a Diversity and Inclusion champion and change agent, entrepreneur and mentor. She is committed to supporting women and girls by continuing to push for racial justice, workplace and inter-sectional gender equity. Heidi invests in the leaders, companies and products she wants to see in the world. She is an active aging advocate who believes that older women (and men) are not obsolete. Age = Wisdom and Experience. Heidi is truly committed to closing the gender gap in B2B Sales, which is why we had such a great conversation!

In this conversation, Annie shares SO much insight about being good at your sales role, how she got into sales, and how her mom inspired her to do her best and ASK for what she needs. We talked about the need for women to speak up and really advocate for themselves. She says, "You don't have to be salesy to be in sales!"

Jordan wishes she had gotten the advice about sales being a "long game" - a marathon, not a sprint. Try not to measure yourself based on your dashboard. Jordan Arogeti is Sr. Executive, Financial Services at Salesloft. She is a mom, a wife, and also a partner in Arogeti Endeavors. Jordan says that she is in an intense season in life right now with so much going on. We have a great conversation about her career path since college and some of the wisdom she's learned in sales.

Jula Pereira can be found on LinkedIn supporting and encouraging others in professional sales - and is helping shine a light on making sales more inclusive. She is an SMB Account Exec at Hubspot and a peer advisor at re:work training. In this episode Jula talks about self acceptance and how she learned to feel at home in her skin. We also talk about the power of resilience in sales and I reference her book, "Six Weeks to Sales Confidence - A Guide for Women" which is available on Amazon.

Chaniqua "Nikki" Ivey is a force to be reckoned with. She brings high energy and positivity to the B2B sales world, working hard to make it better - to level the playing field for all. Listen how this lover of words, who studied journalism, relates to professional selling - the mark she has made so far, and what's ahead for her.

Ellen Stafford is Director, Presales and Solutions at Vidyard which means that she leads business development as well as the Solutions Consulting teams - an unusual combination but it works for her. She started selling cell phones after college and then, through connections, got an opportunity at Salesforce.com. She went from the mammoth company to Vidyard which was truly a startup with 35 employees when she started there, and has risen through the ranks.

Mary Shea, PhD is an innovator in the B2B sales space, and she believes that with an innovation mindset, anything is possible. Now Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach, Mary had a distinguished career as Principal Analyst at Forrester. She is a change agent and passionate about making the sales department an inclusive place. To think she began her career as a professional musician. Mary shares her thoughts about how we can change the face of sales in our conversation.

Reva Pellerin has spent over 10 years in B2B sales. She did not know what selling technology even was when she got her first BDR role at Oracle but it opened the door to technology and SaaS sales. She is glad she took a chance and in a roundabout way ended up in a fantastic career - now at Vidyard. We had a fun conversation and Reva discusses her journey that could help others listening in.

Kelly is a regional sales manager with years of experience managing sales managers and has inspired hundreds of sales reps. She works in a male majority industry and is a standout leader. Listen to how she talks about selling as a helping profession and how a servant leader mindset can help you become a great leader.

Amy Volas is Founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners because "great sales teams aren't built on guesswork." Amy is Co-Founder of Thursday Night Sales, along with Scott Leese. Amy is incredibly proud of TNS because it really has helped create an amazing community where people are heard and can find insights to solve their issues as SaaS sales professionals. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation - good for leaders and reps alike to hear.

She had me at "B2B sales literally changed my life." I heard it as "B2B sales SAVED my life" and although Jenny Anderson didn't say it, what a stable, well-paying career in sales did for her was revolutionary in her world. Listen to her journey and how she is working to pay it forward so other women and men can rise into this great career.

Educated at Cornell, Zoya initially thought she might want to work in hospitality but had jobs on campus cold calling and working in fundraising. She recently moved to Gong as a Strategic Sales Development Manager. Her number one passion is developing people.

Alexine has been in SaaS software sales for over 8 years. She and host Lori have some things in common- we had influence in our youth by relatives who were selling all around us, and impacted us. But with a dad who received his PhD from MIT and other interesting possibilities for Alexine, she did end up in B2B tech sales, specifically software-as-a-service (SaaS). Additionally she is a rising voice for more women in sales and we champion her as she co-leads the Clubhouse "Women in Sales" club on Saturdays with Gabrielle Blackwell. Alexine also volunteers with great organizations like Aspireship, Victory Lap, and Re:work.

Dr. Jane Sojka is Professor Educator, Marketing at University of Cincinnati. She teaches undergrad and grad students and does research. Is responsible for developing the professional sales program, implementing course curriculum, coaching the UC Sales Team and advising the UC Sales Club. Professor Sojka runs an incredible "Women in Sales" course at UC. We have a great conversation about confidence and resiliency in women and men.

Astha immigrated to the U.S. from India in 2006 and talks on this episode about how she ended up in professional selling in a male-dominated industry. As a researcher in a solar startup, she realized her passion for sales and mustered the courage to ask for a chance to be in sales at that company. Shining there and progressively making it through in a traditional all boys club of the electrical industry, she now leads a team of field sales reps managing a $100M+ quota. She balances being a great mom and being a passionate sales leader which she says makes life interesting.

As a C-level Microsoft executive and thought leader, Gavriella Schuster leads a global portfolio of channel partners that has influenced over $1 trillion in ecosystem revenues. She brings over 20 years of leadership in digital and cloud transformation roles, driving strategy and execution spanning all aspects of business model and product development, launch, marketing, sales and partner development. Gavriella currently leads global recruitment, enablement and engagement of Microsoft's fast-growing partner ecosystem. Check out her TEDx talk, BeCOME an Ally; How to Achieve Gender Equity.

Lindsay is Americas Asphalt Supply Coordination Supervisor currently at ExxonMobile and has been in sales and logistics roles for the past 15 years in the oil and gas industry. Lindsay is a believer that you don't have to fit the typical mold to be successful in sales. Many people opt out of sales careers early on, but she believes that we all have innate abilities that with awareness and practice can lead to a rewarding career in sales. This is why she also writes and speaks on the topic of Authentic Sales.

Hang Black is VP of Sales Enablement at Juniper Networks. She is one of the top enablement executives worldwide - which is impressive, but her story of getting to the U.S. as a child is amazing and totally captivating. Hang released a new book called, Embrace Your Edge where she talks about resilience, survival, and growth. One of her goals is to help empower women who have not been seen and may feel like they are in the shadows. #HangWithHang

Ali Cudby is the author of the best-selling book, Keep Your Customers: How to Stop Customer Turnover, Improve Retention, and Get Lucrative, Long-Term Loyalty. We talk about pay equity in non-sales roles and what type of a career can someone grow into in Customer Care. There is a lot of growth and potential in this niche within B2B sales.

Gabrielle did not plan on becoming an amazing sales leader - especially when she was in France or when she was learning about public policy. Hear about her path into one of the coolest careers in the world - She is a Magical Sales Development Leader in service to the virtues of: Empowerment, Advocacy and Enlightenment Cultivating expertise in: Sales Leadership Sales Training Sales Management Change Management Sales Coaching Personal Coaching Sales Enablement

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."