Last night, we attended the Women in Sales Event with Sales Confidence @ Pendo.io HQ. The drinks were flowing, the canapés were delicious and the atmosphere was electric. The room was filled with so many incredible women from different SaaS & Recruitment companies - it was very interesting hearing about the experiences we as females go through in this day and age!
The wonderful James Ski, CEO of Sales Confidence, kicked off the event with an introduction to the evening. He was then followed by Danielle Kempson - Recruiting Manager, EMEA and APAC at Pendo, and Matthew Blanchard - GM EMEA at Varicent - who both said a few words before the speakers took to the stage.
First up was Becky Butler - Senior Account Executive @ Jiminny. Her chosen topic was ‘Feeling the Fear & Doing it Anyway’. She was the perfect first speaker, we all felt incredibly empowered once she’d finished! The main points we took from her 7 minutes were:
- Her boss once said to her ‘to be a master in anything, we need to have done it for 10,000 hours’
- As salespeople, we are driven by overachieving and hitting targets. Take a deep breath, some of the most successful sales people just get the job done
- Everything you’ve ever wanted is just one step out of your comfort zone - nothing comes from being in a comfort zone - push yourself and go that extra mile
- Focus on what you want to achieve, Rome wasn’t built in a day! Take 6 months to a year to focus on just that and build
- Women struggle with perfectionism - don’t let fear of failure stop you from doing it in the first place
- Find people who you can aspire to be and look up to!
Next to the stage was Coralie De Robert - Sales Director @ Salesloft. Her chosen topic was ‘The Motherhood Penalty in the Workplace’. Coralie’s talk was very eye-opening - there were a lot of very surprised faces in the room, us included! Her main points were:
- All about The Motherhood Penalty and what it is
- There is an 11% pay difference between women who have kids and women who don’t
- This means that per child, women get a 4% pay cut (and men get a 6% pay increase)
- Always check the maternity leave policy (if you want to start a family) before starting at a company
- Choose the right managers - this can shape your career
- Know your worth and fight for it! Negotiate when you are smashing it - your manager will give you what you want
Third to the stage was the amazing Nicole Kent (who’d flown in from the States to join us!) Nicole is EVP Product Strategy and Customer Success @ Varicent. Her chosen topic was ‘How Do You Get A Seat At The Table In Sales?’ Nicole spoke all about Women in Leadership roles, and how women must always elevate other women. Her main points were:
- 49.8% of ‘Sales Roles’ are held by women (cashier, travel agents, d2d sales)
- 86% of females achieve quota, whereas 76% of men achieve quota
- Women led sales teams continue to outperform men led sales teams
- Men in the workplace are known to underestimate your knowledge, think we’re too weak, underestimate general abilities/negotiation abilities
- When asked about this, 1/4 men said there’s no gender bias!
- As women, we need to drive outcomes, continue learning and improving and connecting, collaborating and shaping solutions
The fourth and final speaker was Denisa Morariu - Sales Development Manager @ Contentsquare. Her chosen topic was all about ‘How to Find Yourself in Your Sales Role’. Some of Denisa’s main point were:
- Sales is a complete minefield!
- Companies and people define who they are in two ways: explicit, ambitious, looking for new people and inclusive
- It is so important to define who you are, otherwise someone else will be doing it for you
- You need to be open to experimentation - otherwise it can be very hard to understand who you are
- Experiment with everything, a week, a month, 3 months - see if it prevails!
- Feedback is someone else’s hand me down
To wrap up the fantastic evening, Joan Yabani - Corporate Account Executive @ Pendo.io held a panel with the speakers. She was asked what it’s like being a black woman in sales - and her answer was one we couldn’t not share on this post. She said:
- I am very aware of my privilege
- I refuse to not be myself - I am the same person with my CEO as I am with my colleagues
- I will always show up as myself, and will fight for people who don’t look like me - LGBTQ+, Hispanic etc
- When we allow inequality to progress; it leaves us behind!
Thank you so much to Sales Confidence and Pendo.io for such an amazing evening. Team V all left feeling incredibly inspired and full of female empowerment. See you all at the next event :)