Conversations with Women in Sales

• 205: From Events to Leading Customer Success to VP Growth, Laura Lakhwara, Soapbox

  Laura Lakhwara leads GTM teams and customers in transformative strategies that empower businesses to streamline operations and scale efficiently with AI, automation, robotics, and data-driven insights. She has an incredible background from working at IBM, a first-ever partnership with IBM and Apple, and other companies like UI Path and Softbank Robotics.  We had a great conversation - her expertise spans market entry strategies, enterprise sales, customer success, and fostering customer-centric cultures that drive revenue growth and long-term partnerships. Follow Laura:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralakhwara/   More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.  subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/ 

  --------  

  25:46

  --------

  25:46
• 204: The Activator Advantage, What Todays Rainmakers Do Differently, Karen Freeman, Co-author

  I had a great conversation with co-author of the new book, "The Activator Advantage"'s Karen Freeman. Here is some information about the book from DCM Insights:  There is a growing problem in the professional services industry that is often acknowledged but rarely discussed openly: clients—even long-standing ones for whom firms have delivered unquestioned value in the past—are much less loyal to firms and partners than they once were. But top performers have figured out a radical new approach that is redefining what it means to be a "rainmaker" in today’s professional services market. Drawing on a comprehensive, quantitative study of nearly 3,000 professional services partners, The Activator Advantage identifies the five types of partners found across the professional services landscape and shows how only one of them—the Activator—drives consistent growth. Karen and I talked about what activators do: commit, connect, and create.  Take a look at the book information here: https://www.dcminsights.com/activator-advantage More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.  subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/  Thank you for sharing these stories! We want to inspire women to consider a sales career, stay in a sales career, and / or get promoted into leadership in B2B sales. We champion our male allies as well.   

  --------  

  25:54

  --------

  25:54
• 203: From Construction Engineer to Successful 2x Company Founder, Tracy Young, TigerEye

  Tracy Young has been on our radar for some time, having co-founded PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk) and now co-founder of TigerEye - a GTM modern analytics platform. As a successful co-founder, Tracy has a natural sales background combined with her engineer background - a powerful combination.  On the TigerEye website, the company's core values are: Wholehearted, Humility, Kaizen, Trust, and Simplicity. Tracy discusses how she leads the company and has battled in her own head what a construction CEO or a tech co-founder looks like. It looks like her: a petite, Asian woman.  Tracy belives that the focus on a great leader should not be whether they are masculine or feminine but rather how they build their team - they have a vision, they're authentic, genuine, and are great communicators who care.  Follow Tracy on LinkedIn More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.  subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/   

  --------  

  18:12

  --------

  18:12
• 202: Supporting and Leading a Global Team in a We Culture; Erica Ettore, Workiva

  Erica has helped build a global team at Workiva where everyone has a "me vs. me" mentality - working to improve ourlseves, not a competitive "me versus you" attitude. How can you get better? How can you deliver the best to your clients and internal consitutents.  Erica was named "Manager of the Year" and she says it is because of her incredible team.  We talked about holding people accountable - such an important issue for leaders to demonstrate.  I love when Erica discusses what she looks for in top sellers (17 min in)  Erica has people on her team from Amsterdam all the way to the West Coast of the U.S. She spent time at Morgan Stanley in Institutional Wealth Services, a few years at Direxion, and has now been at Workiva for 4+ years.  More about Erica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaettore/ More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.  subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/ 

  --------  

  25:17

  --------

  25:17
• 201: Pivot and Grow in Your Sales Role, Amber Hayes, Voices

  Amber Hayes is currently Director of Sales at a Toronto company called Voices, which is the #1 marketplace for voice-over. We had a great conversation about how you need to pivot and embrace change within your company so that it doesn't outgrow you.  She started at Voices as a Project Administrator, and listen to the episode to learn more about her move to sales, and now sales leadership. Amber is in her 11th year at Voices - unusually long tenure so we know good things are happening there! Amber says,  "We're in a really fast-paced industry and it's changing all the time. This company has had a refresh in our approach, I would say every year to every other year. It's never been stagnant. When I signed on. What was important to me is that the leadership wanted us to continue to be like a head competitor in the industry. And to do that, you need to pivot, you need to try new things, you need to change things up. And you do tend to cycle through leadership because the company can outgrow you if it's growing at a fast pace. And I think people miss that a lot, but I got firsthand exposure to it. So I was seeing some of our leaders that were great where we were at. They were doing an amazing job. But for the next steps we needed to go to, they weren't elevating as quickly as the company maybe needed them to. So you saw people kind of cycle through leadership at this company as the company outgrew certain, maybe certain people in certain roles, or maybe people wanted to step away from where the company was going." More about Amber here. More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.  Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.  subscribe: https://bit.ly/thewspnews Contribute: https://forms.gle/v9rRiPDUtgGqKaXA6 Past News Issues: bit.ly/past_news_issues https://womensalespros.com/podcast/   

  --------  

  27:21

  --------

  27:21

More Business podcasts

Trending Business podcasts

About Conversations with Women in Sales

Conversations with Women in Sales: Podcasts in Family