Lauren Davis has more than a decade of experience in the marketing technology industry, but for the first time, she’s a proud user of the product she’s pitching.
At Bombora, where Davis is the senior director of enterprise accounts, she is excited to help solve a problem that frustrated her throughout her sales career — knowing which prospects to focus on. Bombora uses data to tell businesses which companies are researching their products and services, thus helping sales representatives narrow outreach to the most interested and relevant parties. Being a user of the service she’s selling has a lot of benefits, Davis says.
“It makes talking to prospects easy and fun because I can speak firsthand to the results,” Davis said. “Coming from a user perspective makes for more engaging conversations because I can very easily put myself in the prospects’ shoes and relate to their pain points.”
Davis is not alone in enthusiasm for her product. Sales leaders featured below were excited to discuss passion for their companies’ products and services, which they say makes working in sales enjoyable and fulfilling. For some, like Davis, their company’s products are solving issues they encountered firsthand in their industries for years. At other workplaces, like Zocdoc and Ribbon, sales team members are eager to sell mission-oriented solutions in impactful industries such as healthcare and homeownership.
To be a successful sales representative at these nine NYC-based companies, in addition to having confidence in what you’re selling, leaders repeatedly emphasized that it’s also important to be adaptable, resilient, empathetic and curious. They are looking for strong communicators who take a consultative approach and actively listen to clients’ needs.
Built In connected with these sales leaders to learn more about what makes selling at their workplaces so rewarding.
Senior Sales Executive Kylie Sharp says she loves pitching Zocdoc, a digital platform for booking healthcare appointments, because the product helps patients and providers. To be successful at the healthtech company, Sharp says sales representatives must show persistence, adaptability, active listening skills and confidence in both their skills and Zocdoc’s mission.
What about Zocdoc’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
Zocdoc is an easy-to-use platform for patients and providers. Patients want quality providers whom they can trust and book appointments with seamlessly. Providers want to bring in quality patients to grow their practices and improve their brands.
Zocdoc is super customizable, which makes every pitch unique. Whether a provider wants to attract as many new patients as possible or target only a handful of specific patients, our platform can help practices reach their goals. With Zocdoc, providers are only charged a fee when a new patient finds and books an appointment with them via Zocdoc’s marketplace; so any provider, no matter their budget, can join Zocdoc. Since Zocdoc is so customizable, you can learn about each prospect’s goals, then deliver a pitch based on what matters to them.
We work closely with our marketing and analytics teams, which means we’re able to provide relevant metrics to prospects. This helps get deals over the line. We can also show examples of Zocdoc’s marketing efforts, which add value and credibility to our pitches.
I love pitching our product because the product helps both patients and providers, every pitch is unique and the company provides the tools to help me succeed.
I love pitching our product because the product helps both patients and providers.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Zocdoc’s product?
To sell Zocdoc’s product, you must have persistence — both to get information about what providers need and to explain Zocdoc’s value in a way that turns a “no” into a “yes.”
You must have confidence in yourself and in Zocdoc’s exceptional product and mission. You must be adaptable, since Zocdoc is always evolving its approach to better meet the needs of patients and providers. Being excited about new features and being able to engage with different personalities and practices are key.
You must have active listening skills to understand a prospect’s goals and tailor your pitch accordingly. You must be willing and eager to learn. Even if you don’t have sales experience, a willingness to learn will help you become a successful Zocdoc salesperson.
Movable Ink helps businesses apply data to create personalized content and maximize their customer engagement. Two of the marketing technology company’s core values — curiosity and grit — are essential to succeeding on the sales team, according to Strategic Senior Account Executive Rebecca Singer.
What about Movable Ink’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
Movable Ink’s marketing technology product is so dynamic. We can solve for a wide variety of pain points in a way that is unique when compared to any other vendor. Each sales cycle and use case is tailored to the customers, their tech stacks and industries.
We are supported by the best in the business when it comes to service from our client experience team and thought leadership from our team of strategists.
You can’t be afraid to get into the weeds and challenge yourself to learn a new skill.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Movable Ink’s product?
Curiosity is one of our core values and is, without a doubt, one of the most important skills needed to make you successful at Movable Ink. As a sales rep, I am always learning new things about the marketing technology landscape, vertical trends and the value we bring to varying customer problems.
Grit, another one of our core values, also plays an important role. You can’t be afraid to get into the weeds and challenge yourself to learn a new skill or try a new technique.
Sales representatives at Ribbon are united in their mission to make homeownership more achievable, while helping multiple parties in the buying process. The real estate fintech company is looking for team members who are adaptable, empathetic and strong communicators.
What about Ribbon’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
There’s so much about Ribbon and our offerings that makes me excited to introduce it to prospects. It really comes down to a few major things: who we help, how we help and why we do it.
Our mission of making homeownership achievable helps a buyer get into their new home, but it also helps several parties throughout the process. The solutions we provide arm real estate agents and mortgage lenders to grow their businesses and offer more options to their clients. The sellers who accept our offers receive security and peace of mind when it comes to selling their homes. Since we empower and provide value to everyone in the homebuying process, it is fun and rewarding.
At Ribbon, I’ve experienced different market conditions and been able to adapt our program for diverse clients in various scenarios. Our versatility, combined with our consultative approach, allows us to cater to our client’s specific needs to truly enable them in a genuine, heartfelt way.
Our mission is a huge selling point as to why people choose to work with us. When everyone stands together and holds high standards to promote equality on all levels, we can advocate our solutions with even more passion.
Since we empower and provide value to everyone in the homebuying process, it is fun and rewarding.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Ribbon’s product?
The unique thing about Ribbon is we are a business-to-business-to-consumer company. Adaptability is crucial to selling because we aid different parties in various ways so we need to always be ready to pivot and accommodate our clients in a personalized manner.
Active listening and empathy are incredibly important as well, as we are assisting people with one of the most emotional, stressful and expensive purchases of their lives. When you can instantly put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand their reality, then you can honestly comprehend the struggles they face to better position our offerings as a customized solution.
With multiple parties involved, strong communication skills are a must. Consistent and prompt communication will contribute to success and a higher level of customer experience, while increasing your opportunity of gaining referrals and more business.
Lastly, a willingness to learn is important. The only way to grow is to have an inquisitive, open mind. You must be willing to endure failure, but then learn from those experiences and apply those lessons moving forward. If you’re always learning, you’re always growing and getting better.
Sales team members at Red Points are passionate about helping the brands they love protect their customers from scammers. When it comes to selling the company’s AI-powered platform, Account Executive Branden Stallard says it is important to have intellectual property expertise and the ability to find the information you need.
What about Red Points’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
IP infringements are a big problem, not only for companies but for consumers as well. Before reaching out to a prospect, I check its various marketplaces, platforms and websites and get a good idea of whether or not it can benefit from a service like ours.
The nice thing about our solution is that our job is to help protect companies and consumers from fake products, sites, impersonators and bad online actors. This problem has become bigger over the last few years, and I have seen a lot of investment from companies in making this a priority.
It is always fun meeting with a brand you use daily and helping them ensure their customers don’t accidentally get scammed.
It is always fun meeting with a brand you use daily and helping them ensure their customers don’t accidentally get scammed.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Red Points’s product?
Every company, brand and industry is different. This means you have to spend time learning about intellectual property and how that relates to the different e-commerce, social media platforms, websites and channels. A toy company may not see the same risks that a fitness brand does, so as an account executive, I need to learn as much as I can about each industry before I can be helpful to our clients.
A much-needed skill is knowing where to find information, whether it’s by leveraging our internal teams or seeking information externally.
Sales leaders at Botify, an enterprise software company that turns organic search into traffic channels, help marketing executives understand and maximize their SEO. Account Executive Austin Park says that successful sales team members must be able to clearly communicate Botify’s value to different stakeholders.
What about Botify’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
SEO can be difficult to comprehend for someone who doesn’t have a background in the space. The reality is that a lot of marketing executives fall into this category and, in my experience, they often do not have great visibility into the major areas of opportunity within organic search. Despite this, however, they recognize the channel’s importance. This juxtaposition presents a great opportunity for companies like Botify to come in and help evangelize SEO within the organization.
In some cases, we can even help define the narrative of what SEO success looks like and how it should be monitored. At Botify, we’re fortunate enough to provide scalable data, prioritize that data and streamline the process of implementing changes. Being able to help enterprise brands, who often have organic search as their highest traffic-generating channels, makes pitching Botify to prospects very enjoyable.
Being able to help enterprise brands, who often have organic search as their highest traffic-generating channels, makes pitching Botify to prospects very enjoyable.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Botify’s product?
The most important skill to have in sales at Botify is the ability to communicate our value to different stakeholders and personas. Like many SaaS products, the value of Botify will be very different for a chief marketing officer versus an end user (an SEO practitioner in Botify’s case).
What’s particular to SEO relative to other marketing channels, however, is that it’s very technical and “top of funnel” in nature. When you add those two things together, you’re almost speaking two different languages when pitching the product to decision makers versus end users.
On top of this, SEO often sits at the cross section of marketing and IT, and if you throw in the different stakeholders that you run into from the product, development and engineering sides of the house, the amount of different personas you encounter is truly representative of an enterprise sale.
At YOOBIC, a digital workplace for frontline teams in retail and hospitality, sales leaders are encouraged by their promising results. Head of Strategic Accounts Jenna Goldstein says that YOOBIC’s platform helps teams complete routine tasks up to 40 percent more quickly, and their product has driven a fourfold increase in training adoption among customers.
As they scale the startup, sales leaders are looking to add team members who are skilled in building relationships, engaging decision makers, multitasking and thinking strategically and tactically.
What about YOOBIC’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
For sales teams, nothing beats having a product that solves big problems for both senior management and frontline users. YOOBIC is solving one of the biggest challenges facing retail and hospitality today: how to empower and engage frontline teams while driving bottom-line results during these turbulent times.
Trusted by more than 300 amazing brands, we are a digital workplace that revolutionizes the frontline experience, putting tools for task management, communication and digital learning at frontline employees’ fingertips via an intuitive mobile app.
With 81 percent of employees asking managers to improve internal processes to make their work easier, and 60 percent demanding opportunities to learn and grow into bigger roles, YOOBIC simultaneously solves for both organizational and individual needs to beat burnout, boost productivity and create a true win-win scenario.
The results speak for themselves. YOOBIC helps teams complete routine tasks up to 40 percent faster, and also drives a four-times increase in training adoption. We drive real bottom-line results, while also elevating the frontline employee experience. We aren’t just helping companies do better, we’re making frontline work a career to be proud of.
We aren’t just helping companies do better, we’re making frontline work a career to be proud of.”
What are the most important skills required for selling YOOBIC’s product?
YOOBIC customers deploy our app to thousands of associates, managers and leaders across thousands of stores, so our sales team doesn’t just flit from one pitch meeting to the next. They have to build relationships, engage dozens of decision makers and oversee pilot projects before finalizing partnerships.
Our sales executives are superheroes. They’re people who can juggle multiple balls simultaneously while working closely with our business development team to solve customer-specific challenges and pain points.
We want teammates who think strategically, as well as tactically. We’re looking for people who embrace our startup culture and spot opportunities, while taking ownership of getting results.
Our sales executives are excellent in building relationships with executive-level leaders at major retail companies, navigating webs of leaders and managers across large organizations and engaging the right people at the right time based on their needs, responsibilities and authority to close deals. It’s a big ask, but one that comes with much pride when you play a part in helping us scale our company.
At adtech agency Bombora, the sales team’s motto is “help, don’t sell.” Taking a consultative approach, sales representatives demonstrate a genuine interest in their clients’ unique needs and aim to help customers meet their revenue goals.
What about Bombora’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
It’s the solution to a problem that I’ve personally tried to solve throughout my career. When it comes to prioritizing my time as a sales rep, how should I start and where should I focus? Our Company Surge Intent Data surfaces companies who are actively in-market for what you sell.
I’ve been selling in the marketing technology space for more than 10 years, and Bombora is the first company where I am an active user of the product that I’m pitching. It makes talking to prospects easy and fun because I can speak firsthand to the results. Coming from a user perspective makes for more engaging conversations because I can very easily put myself in the prospects’ shoes and relate to their pain points.
You need a genuine curiosity and a consultative mindset to get to the bottom of your customer’s key business drivers for intent data.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Bombora’s product?
Take a consultative approach. On the sales side here at Bombora, our motto is “help, don’t sell.” Intent data is a powerful tool. It’s the key ingredient for our customers in meeting their revenue goals, but, like anything, it takes education. As a leader in the space, our prospects and customers rely on us to provide that education and guidance on intent data strategies and best practices.
Every prospect and customer looks vastly different in terms of their organizational structure and sales or marketing workflows, which means we need to give prescriptive recommendations tailored to their needs. You need a genuine curiosity and a consultative mindset to get to the bottom of your customer’s key business drivers for intent data, current internal workflows and ideal future state.
Sales leaders at HqO are motivated to help businesses connect their employees to in-office and nearby amenities, thereby making the workplace a more attractive place to be. For team members selling the company’s workplace experience platform, Vice President of Sales Sam Calder says it is critical to use a consultative approach, ask questions and truly listen to clients’ needs.
What about HqO’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
What’s unique about HqO is that we offer a product that helps solve both a human and business need. Coming out of the pandemic, there has been a fundamental shift in the way people view the workplace. With more remote work options, landlords and companies alike are under immense pressure to make their buildings and workplaces more attractive places to work. Creating a positive tenant or employee experience is key to bringing people back to office, which involves making the workplace a more comfortable, productive place where people enjoy working.
Our product connects office workers with a variety of in-house and nearby amenities and services; everything from restaurants and wellness classes to getting a farm box delivered to your office. From a single device, folks can also receive updates and get access to their offices, parking garages, conference rooms and more.
Better connection plus less friction equals happiness. The office doesn’t have to sound so bad after all; it should be a place people want to work.
Fully understanding and selling our value proposition, instead of relying on the demo to do the sale for you, is key.”
What are the most important skills required for selling HqO’s product?
Workplace experience technology is a relatively new concept, so it’s important that our salespeople take a more consultative approach when speaking to prospects. Asking questions and listening are crucial skills to better understand a customer’s specific needs or pain points.
Our software cannot solve everyone’s workplace needs, and it’s important that we set our customers up for success. Fully understanding and selling our value proposition, instead of relying on the demo to do the sale for you, is key, given we are all going through this big workplace transformation together.
At Peak, a company that hosts an AI platform for driving commercial growth, sales leaders understand that every business’s approach to AI adoption is different. As a result, they encourage team members to demonstrate empathy, build trust, practice curiosity and be open to new ideas.
What about Peak’s product makes it great for pitching to prospects?
One of Peak’s greatest strengths is its breadth of capability. The platform allows you to be creative in the sales process while meeting customers’ needs appropriately. Our target personas include CEOs, technical users and CTOs — everyone from data scientists to functional heads. This requires agility in the sales process, but also means that no two sales processes are the same.
Further, we genuinely transformed business processes for our customers. Being able to demonstrate how we would do the same for a prospect is always an exciting moment. The moment where the customer understands the technology and starts to see a huge range of opportunities and areas for improvement, that’s really special.
We also understand that every business is different, and therefore how they approach their acceleration of AI adoption will be too. This means that our commercial teams need to demonstrate a huge amount of empathy and understanding of our customers’ worlds and be able to make them trust in our ability to deliver.
The platform allows you to be creative in the sales process while meeting customers’ needs appropriately.”
What are the most important skills required for selling Peak’s product?
The most important skill is curiosity. The sector is new, the product is new, the way we approach the market is new and Peak is new. If you think you can just dust off old methods of selling run-of-the-mill technology and expect someone to bite your hand off for it, you are wrong.
If you are willing to dive into the product, into the world of AI and truly understand how it applies to retailers and manufacturers, you will be surprised how quickly conversations become big in scope and massive in terms of potential.
In order to be able to do this, you’ll need to be open to new ideas, learn the fundamentals of complicated technology, dive into the world of different stakeholders and personas and also be adaptable to the ever-changing world of a scaleup business.
