Julianne Sweat

How did you first find out about memoryBlue and what initially attracted you to the company?

In college, I completed in an internship with University Directories (now The AroundCampus Group), selling ad space for a print planner, website, and mobile app. University Directories (UD) has career partners — companies like memoryBlue — that understand the value of the training and experience that we get during our internship. Through this internship, I gained closing experience, something a lot of people don’t have coming out of college. It really lays a good foundation for sales.

Now as a search consultant, I’m talking to VPs of Sales and other C-level executives, trying to help them identify, attract, and hire sales professionals with one to five years of experience closing deals in the software industry. I was the first to be recruited from UD by Chris Corcoran, and this spring, we have several more people from UD coming on board.

I interviewed with almost every UD career partner, but as I was going through this process, memoryBlue was always in the back of my head. One thing that really sold me on the company was that when I came in for my interview and was sitting in the lobby, every single person who passed me was around my age, and they all said, “Hey, can I get you any coffee or water?” That was the type of culture I wanted to be a part of. And you’re not going into an office where everybody has five to 15 years of experience. You’re all on the same page, working toward the same thing.

What do you like best about working at memoryBlue?

It’s a great group of young, driven professionals who are all looking to elevate their careers, and those are the type of people I want to surround myself with. There’s competition in the office that really drives me to excel. We actually just had a sales contest and I won two free plane tickets. I like that in my company — you’re rewarded for the work that you do.

I’m the chairperson of the Culture Club. We do company happy hours once a month, we go to concerts, baseball games, and we went to Atlantic City together. We just started a dodge ball team, and we’re doing kickball in the spring. I also set up a gym membership for the company. That way people can be around each other after hours and talk about things other than work. It really boosts morale in the office and just creates a better culture overall.

What is the training like for new hires?

The training is really extensive. We do a lot of things to make ourselves better salespeople. That’s what memoryBlue prides itself on. When you start, you are given a mentor who listens to your calls, gives you feedback, helps you get on track. About three months into my employment, I was selected to be one of those mentors.

Being made a mentor was a huge honor for me because I like to coach. I was an athlete in college, so I like those one-on-one interactions. Before I was promoted to search consultant, I led a presentation in a training called, “Being a Sales Athlete.” The same types of things that make a great athlete go into making a great salesperson — teamwork, competitiveness, leadership — those types of traits.

Did you always envision a career in sales?

I actually always wanted to work in professional baseball, but I was pretty disappointed with the offers I got financially. I thought, “I want to do something more serious with my life.” I’m still extremely passionate about baseball. Now I can just buy season tickets and go to the games instead of working them!

If you were to ask me six months before I started my job here if I would’ve been in technology sales, I would’ve said absolutely not. But I knew I wanted to be in sales. After I spoke with Marc [Gonyea], he really sold me on the idea of tech sales. People who get into sales are “people people.” A lot of them want to do things like event sales and ad sales, things that seem more “fun,” but tech sales really is a better opportunity from my experience so far.

Has any book or person inspired your approach? If so, how?

I am a big Dale Carnegie fan. The first book I read of his was, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” which I read for a sales class in college. It’s not really a sales book, it’s a “this is how you talk to people” book. The main point is: It’s not all about you. And that’s one of the hardest parts of sales. People always told me growing up, “You’ll be good at sales because you love to talk.” What I had to learn was, to be good at sales you have to listen.