Across New York City, tech companies are looking to expand their sales organizations in an attempt to get their products in front of more customers.
Two such companies currently hiring are Smartly.io, a software platform that automates customers’ social advertising, and Clyde, a product protection platform. While each salesperson has their own quota to meet, Corinne Demadis, Smartly.io’s Vice President of U.S., East, said the entire department works together as a team.
“Each account executive takes time to help and support their colleagues when they need it, which creates an environment where every win truly does feel like a team win,” Demadis said.
Built In NYC checked in with Demadis as well as Clyde’s Director of Revenue Alex Mackenzie to learn more about how their respective teams work together to win. According to Mackenzie, those wins have resulted in significant enthusiasm over Slack since employees have been working remotely.
Adtech software Smartly.io is designed to automate customers’ social advertising by combining media buying, creative and data into one platform.
Winning as one: “Oftentimes in sales orgs, there can be an ‘every man or woman for him or herself’ type of culture,” Demadis said. “What I find to be extremely unique at Smartly.io is a true team culture that goes beyond the standard of team meetings, celebrating as a team, etc. Of course, we do all of those things, but on top of that, there is a genuine sense that, although everyone has individual quotas, we are working and winning as a team. Each account executive takes time to help and support their colleagues when they need it, which creates an environment where every win truly does feel like a team win (for the sales team and for sales development, sales engineering, customer success and legal).”
We do a great job of truly understanding where prospects have challenges.”
Open communication: “One of the most valuable sales lessons I’ve learned while working at Smartly.io is how critical it is to have a frequent line of communication with our product team. Our sales org does a great job of truly understanding where prospects have challenges and where they need support. We often need to view ourselves as the eyes and ears of Smartly. We are lucky to have a nimble, fast-moving product team that relies heavily on our feedback to help mold the product roadmap. In order to best serve the market today and in the future, we need to ensure prospect and client feedback makes it out of the sales meeting and into the product org so they have a solid understanding of where to focus.”
Clyde is a product protection platform that’s designed to help companies drive revenue. The company works with organizations of all sizes to add extended warranties and accident protection into their existing workflows.
Sharing wins big and small: “For a Series A startup, I’ve never been surrounded by a more talented team,” Mackenzie said. “The team really cares about each other, which leads to awesome results and collaboration. While we are remote, all of our CRM notifications are tied to Slack. So anytime we do anything, the emojis start flying — from people in the C-suite to interns.”
Our content library is an incredible resource for our team.”
On the lookout for hunger and patience: “The most valuable lesson I have learned is that when you are creating a new category, you have to be really patient. Just because everyone inside the four walls of our company believes in what we are doing does not necessarily mean the market is ready to be early adopters with us. Educating the market while evangelizing our product and mission is extremely rewarding when we deliver results for our clients. Hiring people who have the right balance of hunger and patience has not been easy, but I am very proud of my coworkers and the rate at which we are all improving.”
Taking advantage of legacy knowledge: “Since we are remote, it has been a challenge to share tribal knowledge and level up our skills. We have leaned heavily on our sales enablement tool called Allego. With Allego, we are able to record bite-size videos and how-to’s so that SMEs are not repeating themselves over and over again. Every time we close a new logo, Allego notifies the rep to record a ‘win story’ where they describe how we found the opportunity, why they bought, as well as shout-outs to other team members who helped us get the deal closed. Our content library is an incredible resource for our team and we can already point to an improved win rate.”
