#KeepGrowing: If Given a Choice, Choose Challenge
Happy International Women’s Day! Every year on March 8th, communities around the world take the time to stop and recognize women’s accomplishments and contributions to society. To mark the occasion this year, I invite you to #ChooseToChallenge. Choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements because from challenge comes change. Today, I’m celebrating the accomplishments of Kristin Moore, a US Air Force veteran and current SMB Sales Manager at KeepTruckin. With her positive energy and enthusiastic outlook on life, Kristin chooses to challenge herself and those around her to make change for the better. She focuses on her growth to advance her career, she challenges her team to improve every day, and through challenges, she believes she can help sales newbies build successful sales careers. If you’ve wondered if you have what it takes to have a successful career in sales, I invite you to read Kristin’s story and learn how she went from serving in the US Air Force to a sales leadership role. The SDR Route – Here’s One Idea to Move Into Sales.One way to start a career in sales is to become a Sales Development Rep (SDR). SDRs are responsible for researching and reaching out to prospective clients (leads) and introducing the leads to your company. Transitioning from the Air Force to Sales After graduating from college on an ROTC scholarship, Kristin served in the US Air Force. She was stationed at Travis Air Force base, about two hours outside of San Francisco. With her proximity to Silicon Valley, Kristin saw so much opportunity bubbling up in San Francisco that she started working at Jhana, an online education-based company, and began exploring other industries once she finished her Air Force tour. The trucking industry kept coming up on her radar, so she decided to learn more. After conversations with recruiters and the high-energy, friendly team at KeepTruckin, it was an easy decision. Emerging and Groundbreaking Opportunities in the 21st Century Trucking Industry Kristin spoke passionately about the trucking industry. I don’t know about you, but prior to our conversation, I didn’t realize the crucial role trucking plays in the modern economy. With the explosion of e-commerce, every time you go to your door and there is a package, thank the trucking industry and the tech solutions that keep everything moving! The trucking industry in the United States: Q: First Kristin, thank you for your service! What sparked your interest in tech after your time in the Air Force? A: Honestly, if I hadn’t been stationed near San Francisco, I might still be in the Air Force! Seeing all the opportunity in tech in the city made me curious about what opportunities might exist for me in the tech space. I took a leap and found a 25-person tech startup where I started as a Sales Development Rep (SDR), also known as a Business Development Rep (BDR). I didn’t necessarily know that sales was what I wanted to do at the time. Still, I figured that cold calling, emailing, and reaching out to companies would give me the tech experience that I needed to pivot later with some experience. I just ended up loving it. I’m very goal-oriented; in sales, you have monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals, and I love to hit those milestones. Q: Tell me more about your journey from SDR To Manager. How did you make that happen? A: I carved a path to a team lead role and wrote the description for the job I wanted. It was terrifying when I proposed it to the internal leadership team, telling them my team could benefit from a team lead, and that team lead should be me. It was a big leap, but it paid off. I remember being scared in meetings. I would be so nervous about speaking that I could hardly speak up for myself. I didn’t know what I would be asked or what might be coming my way. Q: How did you get over your fear of speaking up in meetings to become the confident, poised, and articulate leader you are today? A: Practice! Planning and preparation will build your “Speaking Up Muscle.” Here what I do before a meeting: a) review the meeting agenda; b) identify 1 or 2 points where I feel my input could be beneficial or necessary; and c) research and make a note about what I want to say. Also, I make little goals for myself. Like, I’m going to go into this meeting, and I will speak three times at these specific points in the agenda. It might seem silly to count the number of times you speak in a meeting, but the more you do it, the more you build that muscle of speaking up, and the easier it becomes. Eventually, your confidence will make speaking up a habit. You will add value to meetings with cross-functional teams and company leadership. It’s all about building the muscle. Q: What does it take to be a successful SDR? A: Definitely adaptability and grit! SDRs are on the front lines of communication with prospects, other teams marketing and ETS, different sales teams. Enablement is always very curious about what we hear on the phones. As an SDR, you can get a lot of rejection in this role – a lot of people telling you they’re already in a contract, that don’t care about your services, and don’t want to hear from you. You have to realize that if you make that one additional call, that might be the one that gets you to quota or beyond. Q: What advice would you give someone applying to an SDR role? What’s one thing they could do to set themselves apart from other candidates? What makes somebody stand out as an SDR? A: Demonstrate two things: that you’re solution-oriented and self-driven. During the interview process, I always look for the applicant to demonstrate that they see challenges as a chance to move forward, regardless of what’s going on in their life. I’m not looking for
#KeepGrowing: From Retail to SaaS Sales: Growing Your Passion Through Sales
Growing through your sales career is just as important as advancing your career. For Ebony Wiggins, a Commercial Account Executiveat KeepTruckin, growth means challenge.From her first retail sales job at 16 years old to her current role in SaaS sales, Ebony is always looking for the next opportunity to grow and challenge herself. During our conversation, Ebony stressed that she likes to challenge herself, not just with her job, but beyond her career as well. She challenges herself to do less talking and more listening, to get to know people a little better, to have real conversations and not to shy awayfrom hard conversations. Q: You started your sales career at 16. You were so young! How did you end up in sales? A:I like the challenge of sales. Both then and now, I always feel like I’m growing in this industry. In sales, every day is different and as an extrovert I enjoy the social aspects of the job. I like talking to people, getting to know them, and with sales, I get to do that and make money. I also enjoy the fast pace and go-getter environment of commission-based sales. I startedmy sales career at 16 years old, in retail, here in Nashville in designer liquidation, selling high-end overstock apparel. Customers were spending their hard-earned money, and they want to walk out looking fabulous. It was important to me to be honest with them. I have always sold with integrity, honesty, and tact – it is who I am at my core. I think this foundation has helped me have a successful sales career. Later I worked in sales at Postmates, a food delivery service owned by Uber, for about two and a half years. I was promoted four times while working on enterprise accounts with national brands like Potbelly, Chick-Fil-A,Cold Stone Creamery, andSubway. It was great to achieve that level of success, butI wanted to take my career to the next level; I wanted to do more.I wanted to get to know my customers, build a relationship with them and help them achieve their goals over an extended period of time. One of my friends shared her positive experience at KeepTruckin, soI decided to learn more. I joined KeepTruckin in September 2020 and it’s been a great experience so far. Q: Tell me a little bit about your ramp-up. What was it like getting started at KeepTruckin? A:The ramp-up period was excellent! It definitely exceeded my expectations.KeepTruckin hastools in place for ongoing virtual collaboration and communication. I was able to connect with the sales engineers for the demos, and sales managers are always available to offer solutions, navigate the sales process or the client buying journey and provide leadership and insight.My coworkers and other team members are ready and willing subject matter experts, there to offer help and assistance or just there to cheer you on.Also, KeepTruckin provides an incredibly detailed training program that got me geared up, ready to sell, and hit my quota. Q: When you’re not selling or working, how do you like to spend your time? A:So when I’m not selling and not working, I’m a Planned Parenthood activist, human rights advocate, andtravel enthusiast.I do a lot of advocacy work. I was a national speaker for Planned Parenthood and did a lot of lobbying.I attended the extraordinary Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Christine Blasey Ford accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault. I’ve spoken on behalf of Planned Parenthood, advocating for safe and legal access to reproductive healthcare. I’ve spoken at presidential forums, including the 2018 presidential forum, and had the opportunity to speak with Bernie Sanders. I also spoke at the first-ever presidential forum that focused on reproductive rights. All of the 2020 presidential candidates were in attendance, includingElizabeth Warren, Cory Booker,and now President Biden and Vice President Harris. During the pandemic, I have spent more time on phone banks and virtual coaching with storytellers to register people to vote and encourage people to vote. Q: That’s awesome! In terms of your career, what’s something you’re working on right now that inspires you, or something exciting within the industry that you’d like to share? A: Something that separates KeepTruckin from a lot of other SaaS solution providers is that our technology is developed in-house, and it’s designed to ensure it’s easy to navigate. It’s easyfor the drivers to use, and it’s easy for safety and fleet managers to view, monitor, track, manage and ensure compliance. The ELD (Electronic Logging Device) rule – congressionally mandated as a part of MAP-21 – is intended to help create a safer work environment for drivers and make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage, and share records of duty status (RODS data). We focus on providing a complete solution: trucking companies get everything they need with the dashcam, and it syncs with that vehicle gateway, the asset gateway and tracking devices onthe trailers. All three of the devices can sync together and be managed and operated from one place, so I think that sets us apart. Additionally, we are continually adding new features. We just launched the smart load dashboard, which allows drivers or companies looking for a load to pick up and dispatch. Drivers can go on to the smart load dashboard and find jobs for their drivers. Q:It sounds fascinating to work withthese new cutting-edge technologies! When you think about your career and where you are, what’s the best career advice you have been given? A: Make sure that whatever you’re doing, you do it with integrity. Also,put your best foot forward. Work with dignity, respect, and humility. It’s easy in sales to get a big head, but it’s critical to remember that you’re not any more important or any better than anyone else. Whether it’s a customer or a coworker, it doesn’t matter their position. Everybody deservesthe same level of respect, and everyone deserves to see the best parts of you. Ultimately, it always comes back to integrity which has been so critical and