This story is about OwnBackup’s EVP of Global Sales Charles Johnston and the continued success and growth of the company in recent years — but it’s also about Kevin Tiernan and the many others like him that have found success on OwnBackup’s sales team in the past few years.
In 2017, Tiernan joined the company as a commercial account executive. It took him a while to find his groove, but Johnston recalls how the relentless Tiernan was in his pursuit of something more.
“He was the first person in at the beginning of the day and the last person to leave,” Johnston recalled. “When you heard Kevin on the phone, you could tell he had a great way of working with customers.”
Fast-forward to 2019, and Tieran was the top-producing account executive on OwnBackup’s commercial team. Today, Tieran — just four years removed from being an AE — is now a regional vice president of sales.
“We have a large number of stories like Kevin’s at OwnBackup — many of our managers were individual contributors when they began their career at the company,” Johnston said. “It’s awesome to watch people grow and, in many cases, alter their life projection.”
Recently, Built In NYC sat down with Johnston to learn about the driving forces behind the success of OwnBackup and its people, chief among them a top-down sales philosophy, ever-growing market needs for OwnBackup’s product, and a very recent $167.5 million Series D investment.
As the EVP of global sales at OwnBackup, Johnston is responsible for hitting the revenue goal. “But just as importantly,” Johnston said, “maintaining a healthy culture, the well-being, career path and overall success of our sellers, managers and leaders.”
What are some of the most unique or notable features of working in sales at OwnBackup?
First, almost every Salesforce customer is a potential customer. That creates a massive opportunity. Second, we are in a unique position to de-risk the decision for our customers. This is very special — because with most technologies, there is a significant implementation effort and time lag before value is appreciated. This is not the case with OwnBackup, where the benefit is immediate. This is important today, as we are an integral part of our customers’ digital transformation projects. OwnBackup protects their data, speeds their ability to deliver innovation and enables archiving of appropriate data, all of which are more important than ever in the COVID-19 era.
How does that translate for members — and future members — of your team?
With OwnBackup, our solution can be deployed in minutes so we can demonstrate how our solution will work and benefit our customers’ environment even before they buy. This is an incredible differentiator for our sellers, but more importantly, for our customers as they prioritize their IT projects.
Today, our segment of the software industry is experiencing hypergrowth, so there’s a tremendous opportunity. Data is an important asset for our customers, and as soon as we explain the importance of what we do, our customers get really excited. It doesn’t get much better than that.
As soon as we explain the importance of what we do, our customers get really excited. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
With more than 20 years of sales experience, what key lessons or fundamentals have informed how you lead at OwnBackup?
I was extremely fortunate to have amazing mentors from the very beginning of my sales career. They taught me the importance of making every interaction with a customer unique to the customer’s specific situation — this is perhaps the best training I received and is something I still believe strongly in.
Very simply, I teach the same principles today and expect everyone on the team to make our customer’s experience world-class. Additionally, it’s important to me that everyone on the team knows that their managers and I are focused on our individual contributors making their personal goals. I spend a lot of time coaching and asking questions about our team members and customer opportunities.
My view is that if our account executives are successful, the entire company is successful — so we put a lot of time into individuals’ ability to succeed, what is driving that for them and why is it important.
Are there any specific success stories that come to mind?
There are several that come to mind, but one of my favorite stories is that of Kevin Tiernan, one of our regional vice presidents. When I joined, Kevin was an account executive who took a while to get “in the know.” But it became apparent to me rather quickly that Kevin was special. He was usually the first one in and the last person to leave at the end of the day, and when you heard him on the phone you could tell he had a great way of working with customers.
Kevin was the top account executive on the commercial team in 2019, so we promoted him to lead a team of his own and he is having great success We have a large number of stories like Kevin’s at OwnBackup — many of our managers were individual contributors when they began their career at the company. It’s awesome to watch people grow and, in many cases, alter their life projection. This has been one of the best elements of the past 10 or so years of my sales career.
In your nearly three years at OwnBackup, you’ve moved from VP sales, Americas, to EVP, global sales. What or who facilitated that growth, and how do you ensure your colleagues also grow?
Since joining OwnBackup, the company has grown more than 10x. This means everyone has had to take on more responsibility and grow their skills.
Our CEO, Sam Gutmann, and our CRO, Ori Yankelev, have a unique ability to see what is one to two years ahead. We talk all the time about career growth opportunities and who may be ready for more responsibility or a new challenge. This is truly the best group of people I have ever worked with. I can’t express how fortunate I feel to be part of something so special.
What is very rewarding to me is promoting an account executive to a manager and seeing them succeed in leading others as an example. It’s also providing individual contributors a career development path. I’ve seen some of our people promoted three or more times. It is important to me to be able to provide a visible career path and OwnBackup definitely supports that.
OwnBackup recently announced a $167.5 million Series D. How do you think that will impact the sales team and affect the future of sales at the company?
It certainly provides stability and more ability. As a seller, you want to know that your company has the resources to pour money toward R&D and provide world-class support to customers — OwnBackup certainly does both well. Moreover, we are investing heavily in more products for our sellers to offer to their existing and new customers.
On the horizon, I really see continued success and more opportunities for growth. We have built an amazing team, best-in-class products and our customers are very well-supported. I am very excited to have our expanded product offerings launched so we are able to expand the data we protect for our customers.
