Heidi Solomon-Orlick is a force to be reckoned with. In our conversation she will talk about her career in sales (currently now Sr. VP, Bus Dev at Arise Virtual Solutions) and the impetus to launch her organization, GirlzWhoSell. Heidi has amazing amounts of energy as it seems she is always working on a new project or idea for more women in sales.  I met Heidi when we both lived in New Hampshire and I was impressed with her networking to key people, and for believing in the idea to put a book together with 30+ women sharing their sales journeys to inspire other women to consider a sales career. GirlzWhoSell has a non-profit foundation and an academy where young women can learn about sales and be mentored. 

I met "my people" when I met Elyse Archer - she has a big abundant mindset and is helping men and women entrepreneurs and professional sellers to gain success through mindset, too. Elyse has a soft spot for women and founded She Sells to offer programs specifically for women - also a She Sells podcast. Elyse is also a personal brand strategist and a video confidence coach.  I hope you find this episode inspiring - would love any feedback. Check out Elyse at https://elysearcher.com/ 

Samantha McKenna is Founder of #SamSales Consulting. We had an amazing conversation about the negative stereotype sales still has - and the wonderful attributes a sales career actually offers.  Do you have the ability to have a conversation, to run a process? You could be great in B2B sales. This is a profession where you can impact your earning potential by how you "run" your territory. It is very entrepreneurial. You can also customize your lifestyle with a sales career. "If you master the foundational skills in sales, you can crush it forever" according to Sam. Follow Sam on LinkedIn - Follow this podcast and please share it! 

Katie Walsh was a Division 1 College Field Hockey player and atributes a lot of her success in sales and leadership to her collegiate athletic career. Katie is Director of Sales at Hubspot. Unlike most of us in software and SaaS, she's been at Hubspot for the past NINE years. Yep - sometimes you find a great work home and have talented leaders who inspire you to stay and grow with the company.  Katie received a solid foundation in selling through her work at EMC making lots of calls and setting up meetings for the AEs there. She said that time at EMC, while not a career "fit" for her, was critical for her future success.  We talk about preconcieved notions about sales, growth within one company, and what the future holds. #sales #seeitbeit #shesells #womeninsales  

Our guest today wrote a fantastic book that will help you to build more empowered conversations as you rise through the sales organization or the company in general. Roberta Matuson is the author of "Can We Talk: Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work" Roberta and I had a rousing conversation and you'll find some gems to take away if you want to be a better, more effective communicator. 

Amy Franko is a keynote sales speaker and the author of "The Modern Seller: Sell More and Increase Your Impact in the New Sales Economy" Amy is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland where they are building an amazing STEM project for their Girls Scouts which we also discuss. Learn how Amy got into sales as an English and Communication college grad and how she's been drawn to tech during her career. Learn more about Amy at https://amyfranko.com/

Jen and I talked about a lot of different things but what grabbed me was her speaking about how becoming a podcast host helped her be better at storytelling. Storytelling is such an important skill within professional selling that I wanted to highlight that - we talk about a leader who made a big impression on Jen and our first sales experiences. Who you work for early on in your career matters - which is why we need female voices to help encourage women up and coming in sales today. Jen says, "There is a much wider network than within your company" Jen and I both encourage women to build their brand on LinkedIn. Build YOUR brand - not your company's brand. We can build trust at scale. It is important. Check out Jen's podcast as well. 

Natalia Gallo is a changemaker in the male-dominated world of roofing. She has risen through the ranks to Regional Sales Director and spent years helping to mentor and support other women to succeed. Natalia brought the idea of getting the women in sales within GAF together to learn from each other, and the WinS program was created. Listen to how she started as an architect and is now one of the top women in the roofing profession. 

Natasha Hemmingway took her college degree in Biology and a leap of faith into pharmaceutical sales and never looked back. After eight years she pivoted into medical device sales, and did that successfully for another eight years. Now she runs her own coaching practice and is focused on teaching others how to Sell with Heart Not Hustle (R)  Natasha has a powerful story she shares in this episode about losing her full term baby and how poorly a situation like that is handled in most companies - many sales teams are not prepared to help women get back to their team after a devastating loss. Natasha went on to create her own company and coaches others on how to sell. I really appreciated our conversation and hope you do too. If you do, please share it with others. Rate it on iTunes. Thanks.

Before a woman leaves a sales role due to issues she isn't comfortable with - such as her environment or a life event, she needs to ask about a different accomodation rather than us losing another woman in sales. My conversation with Yamini Bhat, CEO & Co-Founder at Vymo covered the many unconscious biases there are in the workplace. Vymo is a sales enablement platform and so we talked about within her company as well as with clients and customers how women and men differ. It was a varied and interesting conversation sure to be of interest. We cover: Women exceeding men in conversion rates, but also women exceeding men in attrition. Join us as we dive into the data. 

In her new book, "Right on the Money - New Principles for Bold Growth", author and sales strategist Colleen Francis discusses the current sales landscape and offers some great strategies - and tactics - to win over today's buyers.  One of the #WomenInSalesAuthors with bold strategies for revenue growth. 

Precious Williams KNEW there was a STAR inside of herself - she was not raised with confidence but she learned to embrace herself and own who she is.  She is a world class master communicator and a shining light in our sales world (and the world at large)  Sales and pitching skills are vital to charting your own destiny. Precious shares part of her story and you should be watching for Precious - she is going big places! 

Jen is an author contributor to the new book, "Heels to Deals" with 33 women's stories about their journeys in B2B sales. It was pulled together by Heidi Solomon-Orlick of Girlz Who Sell and is a GREAT read!  Jen does a popular LinkedIn Live show where she shares stories, as she did in the book and on this episode about challenges she ran into as a woman in sales - in hopes that other women coming up in sales will learn from others and not get stuck in the same corner or be speechless if and when someone says something totally inappropriate or disrespectful. We cover a lot of topics in this one. 

Natasha has had a most interesting journey into and through sales. She grew up with a most unconventional upbriging (you'll have to listen to see what I mean) and had no idea what business was, let alone sales. Through her education and early roles she learned about sales and has been involved in it now for the past 20 years. Listen to Natasha's journey and get inspired. 

Andy Paul is a mentor, coach, supporter, and champion of more women in sales. He is also a global sales advisor and top podcaster. In his new book, Sell Without Selling Out, he shows you how to take charge of your own sales career without selling out using the four "Sell In Pillars" of connection, curiosity, understanding, and generosity. These are pillars women have used in sales for YEARS. Now it is a must for everyone in sales because these soft skills are what bots and computers cannot yet replace. Check out Andy's book and you will thank me! It is an easy read, and a one-sitting read if you are as engaged with the topic as I am. 

What does an inclusive sales culture look like? How do we get men to be our advocates, not just allies?  I talked with TikTok B2B Sales standout Leslie Venetz, Founder, Sales Team Builder, about her 15 year sales journey and how far we still need to go for more women in sales. We talk about working remotely and how that can be a game changer for a mom with child or kids at home - and how you don't need to be a "road warrior" to be a sales leader anymore. That is great for more women sales leader candidates and ultimately more women in sales leadership. #SheSells #SeeItBeIt @SalesTipsTok "Breaking Corporate Bro Culture"

Meg Hewitt has had a number of varied roles which we talk about this episode. She's been a rep, a manager, a head of sales dev, trainer, coach,  Director of Sales, Regional VP, and now a Strategic Account Executive, Retail & Consumer Goods at Salesforce. Meg shares that it's not the title but what you learn, and how you can work to plan out what it is you need or where you want to go in sales.  What is wonderful about B2B sales is that you can take your career many different directions. Meg shares about her geographical moves as well as climbing the career ladder. 

In this session Alli and I talk about the topic of feeling like an imposter and what you can do. Why is it so prevalent in women, and can men have it too? Join us and learn. 

We kick of 2022 with a new sponsor, Reprise. Big thank you to them. They have some amazing women in sales, including their head of sales. VP Sales Grace Tyson sat down with us to share about her journey and stops along the way to her current role.  We discussed the idea of product led growth and got some inspiration from a top sales leader. If you know of a woman sales leader or amazing sales rep, let us know - if they inspire, we want to share their insight and story here. 

We had an awesome, amazing year of interviews here at Conversations with Women in Sales. I'll review all 36 episodes and share what is ahead for Women Sales Pros and the She Sells Summit. If you know of a woman in sales or woman sales leader in B2B who would make a great guest, please refer them our way AND please share this podcast with your sales leader or company leader, whether they are male or female. We depend on our male allies to help affect change in B2B. Also, reviews are welcome and appreciated on iTunes as well as any endorsements on LinkedIn or elsewhere. 

Ashley is co-founder of Somersault Innovation and the author of "Naked Sales: How Design Thinking Reveals Customer Motives and Drives Revenue"  In this episode we discussed what design thinking is, what her journey in sales has been like, and some great insights she had to share with us. 

Shawanda Roberts is a force of nature - upbeat, positive, and always moving forward. She is VP Sales at Frost & Sullivan where she leads a team of talented and energetic Business Development Directors and Managers responsible for selling solutions to C-level executives focused on identifying, prioritizing and implementing growth strategies through research and custom advisory solutions. Shawanda is also a mentor for GirlzWhoSell. We cover a lot of topics in this conversation - I met her in person at the last event I attended prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk a bit about how such a worldwide disruption accelerated change in big ways.  Let's dive in. 

Top go-to-market teams are different. They create an authentic buyer journey by leading with buyer goals and payoffs rather their product across sales, marketing, and customer success . In this session, Brent (our very first male guest) talks about the power of empathy, communication skills, listening, and other traits women bring in big ways to sales conversations.  Brent is President of Winalytics and is focused on building go-to-market strategies across sales, marketing and customer success teams. 

On November 3, 2021 the first ever "She Sells Summit" will be happening. It is a B2B sales virtual event with most of the speakers being women who have founded groups focused on helping get more women into sales or into sales leadership. Learn how this #sales conference came to be, who is participating, and why it is historic. Big thanks to all of the sponsors of this event, as well as the participants. #sales #seeitbeit #shesells #womeninsales #allieswelcome

As a people first leader, Jaime's passion is for building strong teams, running toward complex problems and "digging in" to help clients deliver outcomes during periods of massive organizational change & transformation. Over the last 15+ years while holding sales leadership roles at Gartner & Microsoft, her teams overachieved year over year growth targets by building trust based CXO relationships to drive millions of dollars of net new revenue. Today she consults and advises clients on how to attract, inspire and maintain high performing teams (specifically) during times of change.

Jen Miller is passionate about sales strategy, networking, and training. She is Senior Vice President, Producer Development, at Marsh & McLennan Agency where she has helped thousands of sellers get the onboarding and training they need to be successful in their roles.  Jen has been writing a post a week since the pandemic began and writes about sales leadership, mentorship, trust, the sales journey, credibility and other great topics. She also shares the power of LinkedIn for sales pros. Seeing her content will help grow your career. 

We had a fabulous panel discussion on how to deal with the unique issues women in sales roles - and parents in general need to deal with when it comes to variable pay, ramp up, quota and other issues that standard corporate family leave policies often don't take into account. Listen to Alicia MacDonald of Brandwatch, Jordan Arogeti of Salesloft, and Michelle Benfer of Hubspot speak about their stories, insights, and lessons learned over a number of years discussing these issues. Company leaders should listen to better understand how to attract and retain more women in sales for their companies based on the policies they create. 

Elizabeth Ionita is Account Executive at Allocadia and founder of COMWUNE. She grew up and lives in Canada - was 1st generation Canadian in her family. Elizabeth has raised two kids and been in a sales role, so we talk a bit about her maternity leaves and how coming back can be tough. Listen to her journey as a full cycle rep and what she was looking for when making a move to another role. Good food for thought for anyone contemplating change - to really know what type of company and environment will suit you well.  Also learn how she moved from selling to a different persona moving from one company to another. 

Irina Soriano is VP, Enablement at Seismic and author of "Generation Brand: Controlling your life-brand for likes, loves, and career advancement". She also has a terrific TEDx talk called, "Gender Parity Starts with Controlling our Life Brand". In this conversation we discuss how Irina rose in her career to a VP level, and how your brand can support you (or not support you) in your career growth. 

Tiffani Bova is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and a thought provoking change maker. She's has a storied career currently at Salesforce, formerly as a Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, and as a pioneer in technology launching or advising on cloud services and digital transformation in the 90's 2000's, 2010s up until now.  Tiffani Bova is author of the Wall Street Journal best seller book, Growth IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business. She is host of the podcast "What's Next - with Tiffani Bova". In addition to Tiffani's great successes in business and technology she is committed to helping build a more inclusive tech world - including within sales, where she got her start in tech.  We had a great conversation about building confidence, doing things that make us uncomfortable, establishing credibility, and how age gives us wisdom to not need to shout out the answer. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did 

Skills session: Julie Hansen provides the "missing virtual selling skills you need today.  Customers today are being bombarded with vendor video calls – a never-ending parade of missed connections, bad lighting, worse eye contact, extreme close-ups, and awkward pauses/talk overs.  This session with former sales pro and actor, Julie Hansen - who has written 3 books on presenting skills for sellers will talk through some of her best tips and ideas. This is a "skills session" which we sprinkle through out our sales journey here. 

Heidi is a Diversity and Inclusion champion and change agent, entrepreneur and mentor. She is committed to supporting women and girls by continuing to push for racial justice, workplace and inter-sectional gender equity. Heidi invests in the leaders, companies and products she wants to see in the world. She is an active aging advocate who believes that older women (and men) are not obsolete. Age = Wisdom and Experience. Heidi is truly committed to closing the gender gap in B2B Sales, which is why we had such a great conversation!

In this conversation, Annie shares SO much insight about being good at your sales role, how she got into sales, and how her mom inspired her to do her best and ASK for what she needs. We talked about the need for women to speak up and really advocate for themselves. She says, "You don't have to be salesy to be in sales!" 

Jordan wishes she had gotten the advice about sales being a "long game" - a marathon, not a sprint. Try not to measure yourself based on your dashboard. Jordan Arogeti is Sr. Executive, Financial Services at Salesloft. She is a mom, a wife, and also a partner in Arogeti Endeavors. Jordan says that she is in an intense season in life right now with so much going on. We have a great conversation about her career path since college and some of the wisdom she's learned in sales. 

Jula Pereira can be found on LinkedIn supporting and encouraging others in professional sales - and is helping shine a light on making sales more inclusive. She is an SMB Account Exec at Hubspot and a peer advisor at re:work training. In this episode Jula talks about self acceptance and how she learned to feel at home in her skin. We also talk about the power of resilience in sales and I reference her book, "Six Weeks to Sales Confidence - A Guide for Women" which is available on Amazon. 

Chaniqua "Nikki" Ivey is a force to be reckoned with. She brings high energy and positivity to the B2B sales world, working hard to make it better - to level the playing field for all. Listen how this lover of words, who studied journalism, relates to professional selling - the mark she has made so far, and what's ahead for her. 

Ellen Stafford is Director, Presales and Solutions at Vidyard which means that she leads business development as well as the Solutions Consulting teams - an unusual combination but it works for her. She started selling cell phones after college and then, through connections, got an opportunity at Salesforce.com. She went from the mammoth company to Vidyard which was truly a startup with 35 employees when she started there, and has risen through the ranks. 

Mary Shea, PhD is an innovator in the B2B sales space, and she believes that with an innovation mindset, anything is possible. Now Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach, Mary had a distinguished career as Principal Analyst at Forrester. She is a change agent and passionate about making the sales department an inclusive place. To think she began her career as a professional musician. Mary shares her thoughts about how we can change the face of sales in our conversation. 

Reva Pellerin has spent over 10 years in B2B sales. She did not know what selling technology even was when she got her first BDR role at Oracle but it opened the door to technology and SaaS sales. She is glad she took a chance and in a roundabout way ended up in a fantastic career - now at Vidyard. We had a fun conversation and Reva discusses her journey that could help others listening in. 

Kelly is a regional sales manager with years of experience managing sales managers and has inspired hundreds of sales reps. She works in a male majority industry and is a standout leader. Listen to how she talks about selling as a helping profession and how a servant leader mindset can help you become a great leader. 

Amy Volas is Founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners because "great sales teams aren't built on guesswork." Amy is Co-Founder of Thursday Night Sales, along with Scott Leese. Amy is incredibly proud of TNS because it really has helped create an amazing community where people are heard and can find insights to solve their issues as SaaS sales professionals. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation - good for leaders and reps alike to hear. 

She had me at "B2B sales literally changed my life." I heard it as "B2B sales SAVED my life" and although Jenny Anderson didn't say it, what a stable, well-paying career in sales did for her was revolutionary in her world. Listen to her journey and how she is working to pay it forward so other women and men can rise into this great career. 

Educated at Cornell, Zoya initially thought she might want to work in hospitality but had jobs on campus cold calling and working in fundraising. She recently moved to Gong as a Strategic Sales Development Manager. Her number one passion is developing people. 

Alexine has been in SaaS software sales for over 8 years. She and host Lori have some things in common- we had influence in our youth by relatives who were selling all around us, and impacted us. But with a dad who received his PhD from MIT and other interesting possibilities for Alexine, she did end up in B2B tech sales, specifically software-as-a-service (SaaS).  Additionally she is a rising voice for more women in sales and we champion her as she co-leads the Clubhouse "Women in Sales" club on Saturdays with Gabrielle Blackwell. Alexine also volunteers with great organizations like Aspireship, Victory Lap, and Re:work. 

Dr. Jane Sojka is Professor Educator, Marketing at University of Cincinnati. She teaches undergrad and grad students and does research. Is responsible for developing the professional sales program, implementing course curriculum, coaching the UC Sales Team and advising the UC Sales Club. Professor Sojka runs an incredible "Women in Sales" course at UC.  We have a great conversation about confidence and resiliency in women and men. 

Astha immigrated to the U.S. from India  in 2006 and talks on this episode about how she ended up in professional selling in a male-dominated industry.  As a researcher in a solar startup, she realized her passion for sales and mustered the courage to ask for a chance to be in sales at that company. Shining there and progressively making it through in a traditional all boys club of the electrical industry, she now leads a team of field sales reps managing a $100M+ quota. She balances being a great mom and being a passionate sales leader which she says makes life interesting.     

As a C-level Microsoft executive and thought leader, Gavriella Schuster leads a global portfolio of channel partners that has influenced over $1 trillion in ecosystem revenues. She brings over 20 years of leadership in digital and cloud transformation roles, driving strategy and execution spanning all aspects of business model and product development, launch, marketing, sales and partner development. Gavriella currently leads global recruitment, enablement and engagement of Microsoft’s fast-growing partner ecosystem. Check out her TEDx talk, BeCOME an Ally; How to Achieve Gender Equity. 

Lindsay is Americas Asphalt Supply Coordination Supervisor currently at ExxonMobile and has been in sales and logistics roles for the past 15 years in the oil and gas industry.  Lindsay is a believer that you don't have to fit the typical mold to be successful in sales. Many people opt out of sales careers early on, but she believes that we all have innate abilities that with awareness and  practice can lead to a rewarding career in sales. This is why she also writes and speaks on the topic of Authentic Sales.