#SeeingIsBelieving: “Don’t ever feel like you can’t do it!”
Jennifer (Bambara) Majlessi is an Account Executive at Salesforce. She shares: her journey, how she’s pursuing what she loves most, the pros and cons of startups, and how she’s learned ruthless prioritization. Jennifer feels strongly that sales is going through a bit of a renaissance period and that relationships matter more than ever before. Read on for Jennifer’s advice on success in sales. Jennifer initially had a love for finance and we explored why she decided to transition to sales. I’m a MidCommercial Account Executive, with a specialization in High Tech at Salesforce. I’ve been in this role since March 2020, almost two years now. I studied finance at Lehigh University and graduated post-recession during a turbulent time. I vividly remember entering my core curriculum at the start of my junior year, during the onset of the recession, and my professors said, “If you don’t absolutely love finance, now is the time to switch majors.” I loved numbers and my mom was a trader on Wall Street, so she was big into math as well. But I’m very personable, so sitting in front of Excel spreadsheets, not talking to anyone all day, didn’t feel quite like it fit. I needed a balance of both worlds and sure enough numbers + social = sales. Upon graduation, I took on a sales role at a leading global provider of mission-critical data and insights to help companies accelerate revenue and manage risk. This was an impactful role during a recession as companies looked to protect themselves in order to survive. I began as an intern, cutting my teeth on cold calling, obtaining guidance from great leadership, and absorbing everything I could from successful account executives around me. I knew I had proven myself when I got the opportunity to take on a million-dollar book of business while a coworker was out on temporary leave. This allowed me to flex both my social and math skills which I loved. At this point, I was either headed into investment banking or into sales, and it was then that I realized the relationship building side of sales offered me more fulfillment. From there, I took on a role with the new customer acquisition team and set out to establish, manage, and grow my own relationships and book of business. You made a leap to a startup; how did that happen and what did you learn from that experience? Once you get the bug for building, it’s only natural that you consider the startup world. I wanted to know more about what was happening around me and about my customers. I wanted insight into the full customer journey, from how they are marketed to, to their influence on and use of our products. That was when I decided to join a startup specializing in point-of-sale systems that is now powered by Lightspeed. There were about 90 people at that point: few were women, fewer were in sales, and even fewer were women from underrepresented groups. The culture was welcoming and promoted friendly competition. The sale itself was very fast-paced and transactional, and our SaaS platform was powering SMBs to take back main street. We were helping them get back to what they loved about running their business, while providing better insights and faster sales captures. It was awesome to be a part of the digital transformation, migrating entrepreneurs from cash registers to iPads and completely changing the way they ran their business. After being promoted into a senior individual contributor (IC) role, I had my sights set on leadership. I still enjoyed interacting with our customers and wanted to remain close, so I took on a hybrid role (player/coach) which allowed me to lead from within, managing and selling throughout. This allowed me to gain credibility as a leader, being in the thick of it with them. It also allowed me to liaise between sales and product/marketing to inform our product roadmap, GTM strategy and shared valued perspective of our customers. Salesforce is quite the departure from the startup world, what was it that attracted you to Salesforce? Throughout all my sales roles, the one constant was Sales Cloud and working on the Salesforce platform. Best in class indeed, and it powered all of my sales efforts as an IC and a leader. In every business review, I was asked about my growth goals and they always included learning more about the power of Salesforce. I wanted to build my own reports and truly geeked out on the product. I thought, “I’ve always been passionate about this product. Why don’t I make it my job to learn more about it and share its value with others?” So, I transitioned back into the corporate world as an IC to learn the product and refine my skills, planning to keep leadership top of mind. Salesforce also felt like the right culture. They care about the community and their employees. Our work here is a true team effort. There is no room for a lone wolf because we win and lose as a team, together. I want to contribute and see my contributions, but I also want our collective success. In terms of learning, I wanted to hone my skills as a sales professional and knew I would be learning from, and among, the best. Thinking ahead about my future and career, I saw endless opportunities and a path to growth. Honestly, the pace of this organization feels like a startup, but carries the reputation and resources of an established brand. That’s something I didn’t want to lose, I love agility. We joke about the ever-changing product names and speed with which new products launch, but it is truly impressive. That’s the kind of energy and speed I loved in a startup – that energy with the expertise, resources and collaboration that come with defining a solution as a team, felt like the best way to support our end users. And Salesforce encourages you to bring your whole self