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When Elitsa and I spoke, we had many stories about competent women in sales and leadership roles who wait to get the "tap" on the shoulder to be promoted. Our male counterparts TELL their boss that they expect to be promoted many times and they initiate introductions with some of their C-level leaders, heads of other teams in their company and proudly state their accomplishments.
Are we too shiy to also do that, or is it in how we were raised - "don't brag," my dad would tell me.
Today in 2025 we say, "It isn't bragging if it is true."
Listen to Elitsa share about her career. Born in Bulgaria, Elitsa visited the US a number of times, going back and forth, then moved to the DC area in 2011 and started working for CEB (which became Gartner later). She got great sales training (these were the "Challenger" folks) and really fell in love with sales.
Due to an opportunity for her husband, she moved to Ukraine back in 2015 (no hint of a future war then). What was amazing was that when they did hear of turmoil happening at the beginning of 2022, they had to immediately leave Ukraine - while she was quickly building a virtual and in person sales team AND was six months pregnant. Any one of those three things is tough, but all together is incredible.
Listen to her story, and also how she created her original role at Preply by giving feedback to the CEO.
More about Elitsa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elitsa-zaimova-a238a31a/
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April Marks leveraged the communication skills she got in college to help her launch into a sales career - first as a BDR, then right into an Enterprise Sales role. She is currently at Pangea.
My current role enables customers to leverage processes integrating API-based security services and strategically managing enterprise accounts, currently at Pangea. I am driven by the mission to streamline security processes, which resonates with Pangea's innovative approach to delivering comprehensive services through a single framework. My commitment to fostering a collaborative culture and bringing diverse insights to the table ensures alignment with many organizational values and goals.
In my experiences, I've led strategic customer engagements, expanding their use of services during crucial business periods such as new technical use cases, DevOps transformations, onboarding, and M&A events. I successfully proposed DevSecOps and AI processes, demonstrating my proficiency in these areas, and partnered closely with customers to tailor security solutions that matched their unique needs. My approach always involves a thorough understanding of customer metrics and standards, which has been instrumental in exceeding goals and securing marketable assets for the company.More about April here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilmarks/
April's recommeneded reading:
The Dark Side Of Interpersonal Communication, Brian H. Spitzberg Positive Communication for Leaders, MirivelMore about Women Sales Pros: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-sales-pros/
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Kaivona Parker works with companies and individuals to help get more underserved folks into tech sales and support and champion them to success.
We talked about the notion of people saying to bring your "whole self" to work, but in reality we can't all do that.
Kaivona wants to help build up those in sales to help them grow and flourish. She trains, coaches, and is an all around sales enablement pro, with career stops at Grainger, Yelp, Nestle', and Teachable, among others.
Listen and share your thoughts - we'd love to hear them.
Kaivona Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaivona-parker/
Women Sales Pros: @womensalespros on Instagram
https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-sales-pros/
2x a month newsletter about getting more women in sales; championing female sellers and sales leaders, and shining a light on our male allies:
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The book Ask Like an Auctioneer has a mission: to help 1 Million women ask for more and get it.
But it’s not just for women. It’s for you if you want to:
Get the raise of your life Land that partnership that can change everything Expand your influence in your domain Secure that whale of a client Refuse to lowball yourself Use asking as a success strategyI was thrilled to interview Dia because as a former fundraising auctioneer myself, I know a bit about Dia's successes -
A Communications Coach for two decades, Dia Bondi works with top CEOs, VC-backed founders, innovators, and creatives to speak powerfully and elevate their impact.
After training as an auctioneer, Bondi translated the strategies she learned from the fundraising auctioneering stage into a program that helps women ask for more in their career and life. Based on the wildly successful keynotes and workshops, Ask Like an Auctioneer is an actionable guide that shows you the secret to getting out of your comfort zone and into your “zone of freaking out” (ZOFO).Dia Bondi on LinkedIn
Women Sales Pros @womensalespros on Instagram, here on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-sales-pros/
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Anna rose from inside sales support to a sales role at Oracle, to startup PlanGrid, then Autodesk (acquired PlanGrid) and now at TigerEye as VP of Sales. How did she do it?
Anna is very conversational and I really enjoyed hearing her tips in doing well in sales and also what she has to say about AI.
Listen to what she has to say about being a "lone wolf" and why you don't want to be that.
Follow Anna here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-r-a375483/
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Do you know what you want in your career?
Many of us know we don't like where we are at or our role, but we don't know what we DO want.
Jaime Diglio's new book, "Moneyball Leadership" is not just for leaders - it is a quick read for anyone wanting to get out of the "war room" as Jaime puts it, and into the "win room".
Mindset is so important in business - especially sales and sales leadership.
Jaime explains:
"Today’s leaders are burning out at higher rates than ever before because they're measuring the wrong things and using outdated methods that work against the results they are trying to achieve — losing them money, time, and energy every day.
In Moneyball Leadership, I reveal a better way to win that most are blind to. I offer a unique, proven blueprint you won’t find anywhere else, revealing the secret formula behind my clients' successes."Jaime will teach how to play (money)ball and Master the New ROI: Return on Interactions, changing how you see the game you’ve been playing your whole life.
More on Jaime here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimediglio/
Jaime's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viXdeKVLwXo "From War Room to WIN Room - Change Your Room, Change Your Life"
Follow Women Sales Pros on LinkedIn and Instagram
2x month e-newsletter with interviews and resources for more #womeninsales
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My guest today is Sarah Gross, VP of Global Enablement at RingCentral. Sarah and I go way back, and most recently she became a new mom which has given her new perspectives about women and work.
Sarah is also a top sales enablement professional who helps design process and support for sales teams like the ones at RingCentral. When Sarah and I first met, she was with Gartner, and has also worked at Procore and Vorsight in addition to others.
Sarah calls enablement the "octopus" of an organization because it is the only department that touches every other department.
Follow Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahfricke/
Follow Women Sales Pros on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-sales-pros/
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Brilliant business author Tamsen Webster has just released her newest book, Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change.
Tamsen describes the new book: The book is a compact and actionable guide that will get leaders (and others!) thinking differently about where change comes from and how to initiate it. By introducing and exploring nine “persuasion proverbs,” I highlight the behavioral, cognitive, and psychological principles that underpin lasting change, and offer a powerful alternative to the standard tactics of influence and persuasion. The outlined concepts are easy to remember, simple to implement, and will give readers the tools to transform any audience of lukewarm prospects into passionate believers.
We started off talking about "ethical persuasion" - a huge important aspect in professional selling. Join the conversation and check out Tamsen's book.
https://tamsenwebster.com/ More on Tamsen
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Her parents were Somali refugees who ended up in the U.K. As a child, Misky Sharif learned to be careful around the drugs and crime in her low income neighborhood. She rose above it, while learning as she grew up. How many kids would dodge all of the negative and find something positive in that? Listen as Misky explains how.
Misky overcame obstacles and currently is in FinTech as an Account Executive for Revolut, and if you are in sales and don't have an "accomplishment bank" - take a listen to the full episode - great action item to start one on your own today!Misky Sharif can connect via LinkedIn
Womnen Sales Pros can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and other social posts.
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Now more than ever, we are seeing the importance of how sales fits in pre-sale and after the sale, and how sales needs enablement like the examples Deirdre offers are what helps grow .
Learning, practicing, executing and coaching is the repeatable cadence
Lori and Deirdre talk about creating "work life harmony" and the value of keeping in touch with those you've enjoyed working with previously.
We talk about "just in time" coaching and how adults learn.
Deirdre helps Skillibrium to:
Assess your team's skills
Remediate with Learning paths
Practice with Stand and Deliver
Implement an Operational Cadence
Execute with Sales Playbooks
Predicably grow revenue
Promote based on objectivity
and Deliver exceptional experiences.
More is at https://skillibrium.com/
Women Sales Pros tracks top podcasts, books and speakers and has a 2x a month newsletter in addition to this award-winning podcast. @womensalespros
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Xactly is a tech platform for assisting companies with compensation and forecasting with the sales team, and has been around since 2005. They started sharing research about men in sales roles versus women in 2014 or so - quite some time ago, and just released their 2024 research results which includes the following:
● Representation disparities: The gender ratio in sales is alarming. Women are underrepresented in sales roles, constituting only 34% of the sales force and only 29% of sales managers.
● Female salespeople earn less: On average, men earn 3.5% more than women as salespeople, and 3.7%* more as sales managers when it comes to fixed pay. Without adjustment of outside factors, men earn 9% more than women as salespeople, and 13% more as sales managers.
● Pay gaps widen over time: At the start of salespeople’s careers, men earn 2.2% more on average than women. After 2 years, this gap widens by 30%. After 5 years, the gap increases even more significantly, with a 77% increase.
● The gaps differ from industry to industry: The pay gap varies significantly across sectors, with female sales professionals in the Life Sciences and Pharma space reporting a 9% gap in pay and Manufacturing space with an 8% gap. It might be more opportune for women in sales to enter the Financial Services industry, where no pay gap was reported.
● State-by-state disparities: The state sales people live in seems to correlate with the pay disparities. Colorado and New Jersey hold the largest pay gap between men and women at 7%, with Georgia and Washington claiming the lowest pay gap at 1%.
● Performance remains unaffected: Despite the overwhelming disparities in representation and pay, female sales professionals consistently outperformed their male counterparts. Female salespeople outperformed men by 1.5%, and female sales managers outperformed by 3%.
● Loyalty is not a factor: Women tend to show greater loyalty to their Sales teams, staying with the same organization on average four months longer than their male counterparts.
● Unfair impact on quota assignments: Many organizations do not seem to recognize women’s higher performance. On average, male salespeople are assigned 3% higher quotas, and male sales managers are assigned 5% higher quotas, suggesting that sales teams assign men to higher potential sales territories or opportunities.Follow Women Sales Pros for more research, interviews, and recommendations to add more women into sales and sales leadership roles.
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Gretchen launched Unbound and Unbothered, a career coaching business for women in tech in 2021. She helps high achievers who are stuck, stifled or at a crossroads ditch the stress and overwork to have a life and a job without burning out.
Since she and I both got into tech in the "early days" (me earlier than her) we had a great conversation - I reference the title because we both worked for at least one company where the bathrooms were both for the guys since we were the first or second female hires.
Be sure and follow Gretchen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchend/
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Our 2x month newsletter, The News is all about celebrating women in sales with upcoming events, feature articles, and stories about our male allies supporting us.
Past issues of The News here.
Please share this podcast episode if you find value in it! We love reviews on iTunes!
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"A billion dollar quota is like a 100K quota - you have to be comfortable talking about money with others" - one of the topics guest Marva Bailer and I bond on in our conversation shared today. I'm thrilled that our sponsor, Skillibrium, brings on advisors like Marva so that we can have real discussions around how to be successful.
Marva was in sales before she learned how to drive - she and I share that young entrepreneurial spirit as well. Marva got into health, wellness and personal development before it was cool - and these are big topics in a successful sales career today.
Join us for a fun conversation about coaching, personal growth, and professional development as well - share your thoughts, and please share the podcast with one other woman or male ally if you can.
@womensalespros on Insta
@marvabailer on Insta
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Ashley Philipps is the author of the new book, The Teacher's Guide to Changing Careers. Being a former teacher myself, I am always up for hearing about others who left the admirable profession of teaching due to the lack of pay, and who got into sales roles.
Ashley's book showcases other careers, but she did go into B2B sales and we talk about that on this episode.
You will also hear my tip for those in the job market - what is the best way to approach someone who is well connected, instead of saying, "Hey if you know of anyone hiring...." What do you say instead?
Ashley's book will certainly help teachers who feel like they are underappreciated, underpaid, and who are interested in continuing to be a teacher as a professional seller.
The good news about the B2B sales profession is that IT is also an admirable profession - a helping profession. Even with new AI tools, complex sales won't happen without empathetic, communicative, collaborative sellers like many former teachers can be.
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I have known Michelle Benfer over the years and it was great to catch up with her in her role as SVP Sales, Business Line Owner at BILL. [Bill is (according to their website) the intelligent way to create and pay bills, send invoices, manage expenses, control budgets, and access the credit your business needs to grow—all on one platform.]
Michelle is a sales leader and in our conversation we talked about how things have changed in sales, how there is some "bad behavior" happening more than before due to the tougher economy and some advice for reps about taking control of their destiny and the big job that front line sales managers have.
Fun fact: Michelle's mom was her sales role model, setting up calls like today's BDRs and SDRs do. When her parents started thinking about college for her and her siblings her mom got a job at Boston College so her kids would get free tuition (perk of working at a university). Mom was smart!
More about Michelle Benfer, ex Hubspot, Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital - now at Bill.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellehughesbenfer/
More from Women Sales Pros - sign up for our 2x month newsletter https://bit.ly/thewspnews
Page on LinkedIn "Women Sales Pros" or connect with Lori Richardson #seeitbeit
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scoremoresales/
https://www.instagram.com/womensalespros/
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What is it like when two data focused people get together and talk? It does get a bit nerdy, but that's what I like about Sara, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
Sara has been doing nearly all roles - from individual contributor - like SDR, BDR, AE and all the way up to VP and CRO. Now she is running two companies, "Break the Box" and "Skills."
Like many of us who came from little money, Sara was amazed when she got her first paycheck in her sales career and said to herself, "I will never have to be hungry again."
That's why we talk about sales being a game-changer for those new into professional selling. If you are having a tough time at the moment - stick with it because sales can be such an amazing career if you are motivated, good at it, and have support from the company you're at.
Sara talks about her journey from selling consumer products where half of the sellers were women to being the only woman in the room and how she adjusted - and what many of us learn over time to "fit in" versus being ourselves - it is an interesting point in our conversation.
Also, Sara gives a great tip on what to say when someone sales something really inappropriate in front of you and others. Check it out.
Connect with Sara here on LI:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralstorm/
Learn more about Women Sales Pros here - we support all of the women in sales orgs and communities: https://womensalespros.com/
Sign up for our e-newsletter: https://bit.ly/thewspnews
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We have had sales leader Gabrielle (GB) Blackwell on before (episode 85) and happy to have her back discussing some of her recent posting about toxic boss behavior in the sales workplace. GB and I were talking about more women than usual leaving B2B sales - something I am posting more about now as well.
GB shares her story about some really unhealthy situations she's found herself in previously - note we did not name names - it's not about that. It is about helping others in the same spot to see the red flags we may have missed or thought they were just part of being there.
I stand by what I say: "Go where you are celebrated, not tolerated."
GB talks about how if you are a woman, be sure and get feedback.
Get feedback not about your personality, but about skills. This is something GB noticed she'd get.
If you are a manager and simply write off a rep and don't give them any feedback, that's a form of abuse. (note: Manager, it is your JOB to support and develop all of the reps on your team)
What have we missed? Share in comments on LinkedIn or elsewhere. Keep this conversation going. Let's not lose women because of something that is changable with support of women in sales and our male allies.
Reach Gabrielle here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleblackwell/
More Conversations with Women in Sales here: https://womensalespros.com/podcast/
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How can you be in intergrity and hide part of your story? That was one of the big takeaways from my conversation with Jaime Konzelman, sales leader at tech company Rackspace.
Jaime wrote a memoir called, "Dealmaker" that chronicles her life from college into exotic dancing and on into a stellar B2B sales career.
Jaime has done big deals - hundreds of millions of dollars worth, at companies like IBM, Unisys, and Xerox. She leads teams of sellers now. Jaime knows her stuff.
Let us know how you like the episode - and please give us a rating on iTunes if you will - and a comment - and share with other women to help inspire them.
More on Jaime: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkonzelman/
More podcast episodes from Women Sales Pros:
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Shoutout to our sponsor, Skillibrium! https://skillibrium.com/
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When Meredith graduated from college, she taught English as a second language in Spain. She had graduated in 2011 and from Spain saw and heard that her friends back in the San Francisco Bay / Silicon Valley area were all getting tech jobs. Friends encourged her to hurry back and get on with a big tech company.
Using her background as an NCAA varsity field hockey athlete, she walked into a sales role at Yelp - a super fast growing company at the time.
We talked about office dynamics at some of the companies Meredith went on to work for. She said that she had left amazing opportunities because the in-office dynamic was so intolerable. A boy's club.
Listern to her journey and currently Meredith is at pclub.io working to grow sales there, and also at Meredith Chandler Consulting
Connect with Meredith here.
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If you have ever wanted bigger deals to build or to work on, you need to know our guest this episode, Dr. Barbara Weaver Smith. Having known Barbara for the last 10 or so years, I don't know why she hasn't been on the show sooner - and today she is talking about a new service she's launched utilizing generative AI, "Barbara AI" and the launch of her online Whale Hunters Institute.
Barbara runs The Whale Hunters and is entirely focused on helping people win bigger deals through a process she's refined over the last 20 years. She is author of "Whale Hunting with Global Accounts" and co-author of "Whale Hunting - Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company"
Listen to Barbara's journey from education to non-profits to sales and how she is still contributing massively to the sales field through her new online institute.
She's the first person in sales I have seen using AI the way she does.
Barbara Weaver Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaraweaversmith/
https://thewhalehunters.com/the-institute/
Find more stories of amazing women in sales at Women Sales Pros and "Conversations with Women in Sales podcast. If you LIKE what you hear, PLEASE review on iTunes - it means a lot. Women Sales Pros consults with companies to help them find, hire, and retain more great women for their sales teams. https://womensalespros.com/
- Visa fler
