Episode 114: Wes Juchnewicz – Create Your Own Luck

Luck shouldn’t be expected, it’s earned. Wes, a former mB Account Executive has grown to realize that he has experienced luck as a byproduct of the work he’s put in rather than something that was freely given. Work that has involved consistently challenging himself and pursuing different opportunities to increase his chances of success.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Wes Juchnewicz, a sales manager for DataDog, discusses taking risks and exploring different avenues in sales, the power of getting comfortable being uncomfortable, and the way he grew through his transition from SDR to AE.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Wes Juchnewicz

💡 What he does: He’s the sales manager at DataDog.

💡 Company: DataDog

💡 Noteworthy: Wes used to be an account executive at memoryBlue.

💡 Where to find Wes: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ You create your own luck. The harder you work, the more luck you will have. And that applies to sales too. If you work hard on pursuing different opportunities, you will inevitably increase your chances of success. Wes says, “Luck isn’t given; it’s not this magical thing. You create your own luck. It’s almost like a privilege that you end up earning. But yeah, I think you’re right; luck is something that is a byproduct or an output of what you do on the input side.”

⚡ Always challenge yourself. If you want to improve your sales skills, you need to constantly challenge yourself. Wes says, “Obviously, I can be an SDR; I can prospect my own business. I really want to take that next step and challenge myself in terms of, ‘Can I close that business?’ And again, I think just seeing these AEs and knowing that was kind of the next step. I wanted to be better than the AEs I was working with. They gave me a lot of insight. I thought they were great mentors at the time, but it was almost one of those things where I was ready to surpass my mentors. I want to get above them at some point.”

⚡ Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Nothing ever grows in the comfort zone, so you need to get uncomfortable from time to time. This is particularly important in sales. Wes says, “If you’re in a comfortable position, you’re probably not doing either one very well. The business may not be doing very well at that point. If you’re super comfortable, honestly, if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not going to grow. And I think that comes from a coachability standpoint as well. If you want to grow, if you want to learn, you want to be uncomfortable.”

Episode Highlights

Learn from rejection

“It was super exciting, but you got rejected a lot, and the rejection didn’t bother me. It was more about, ‘Okay, what am I doing that isn’t getting people to accept or want to talk to me?’ And I think that drove me to just get better at my talk track — getting better at understanding the business that I was going after.”

Working closely with account executives is highly valuable for SDRs

“Honestly, just getting exposure to those AEs was huge — working with your AEs very closely. They want to work with you; you’re an extension of their business. So, understanding how they’re going through that sales cycle gives you that leg up for wherever you go next to become an AE or wherever that takes you. AE jobs can be very easy because you already have that understanding of what a sales cycle looks like if you haven’t made a sale. But it’s very transferable very quickly.”

Know the business you’re going after

“I think that’s where the SDR work really comes into play — getting really creative on one, knowing the business that you’re going after, the persona that you’re going after, or the company that you’re going after and really driving the urgency and the pain on why they should be talking to you. If you’re just going in there cold — essentially making a cold call — you’re going to fail. But if you’re going in there with the mindset of, ‘Hey, I know your business. I know the problems and the challenges that you may be facing because of X, Y, and Z initiatives. Here’s how I can solve that problem for you. Is it worth solving for you? Should we be having a conversation?’ And that’s where people may not know your name, but if you’re talking about something relevant to them and their business, they’re gonna care about it.”

Will is more important than skill

“I’ve had issues with AEs not having that will. You just continuously scream at the scoreboard, and they’re just never going to get there. If you have someone who has that will, the coachability is very easy. They’re wanting to learn how to get better. They’re wanting to learn how to become more efficient. They’re wanting to learn how to drive processes. Nobody wants to be an SDR forever, and they want their business to be seamless and easy. But you have to start with that will to go out and find your own business before that can happen.”

Become the best SDR you can be and create value for your prospects

“Focus on the inputs, focus on the work, focus on being an SDR — being the best SDR that you can be. Honestly, having conversations outside of cold calls is very easy. That’s probably the first advice that I would give to anyone who wants to become an AE, ‘Become the best SDR that you can be.’ The second piece of that is, ‘Just know the business that you’re going after. Make sure that you understand the hypothesis of why they should be talking to you. Create value.'”

Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Wes Juchnewicz: People are better editors than they are creators. 

[00:00:02] If you sit back and you allow your prospects to drive the process, you will lose, and you will spend way more time, and you will end up paying them for your time, right? If you go to your prospect with what they need and what the process looks like, they’re gonna follow you. 

[00:00:40] Marc Gonyea: Wesley Juchnewicz in the house. Man, what’s going on? 

[00:00:44] Wes Juchnewicz: It’s good, man. I’m, I’m excited to be here. It’s been a long time, I know, you know, I talk about memoryBlue a ton, obviously having, you know, Joey Cohen on the team, I think one of the biggest things that I was excited to get on here was just I love talking about being an SDR, to be honest with you.

[00:00:58] Marc Gonyea: You do, I’m, you wanna get into it. Oh, Chris, he’s ready to go into it, this is exciting. Chris, say “What’s up?” to Wesley. 

[00:01:03] Chris Corcoran: Wes, good seeing you again.

[00:01:05] Wes Juchnewicz: Good seeing you, Chris.

[00:01:06] Chris Corcoran: Thanks for, uh, flying, not only the memoryBlue flag but the Robinson Secondary School flag out in Denver for us.

[00:01:13] Wes Juchnewicz: For sure, for sure, yeah, I’ve actually, I’ve met a couple people that I went to high school with out here, and I never knew them after, like, after high school or, like, in the high school. 

[00:01:22] Marc Gonyea: In your grade? 

[00:01:23] Just younger than me.

[00:01:23] Marc Gonyea: A big school man. 

[00:01:24] Wes Juchnewicz: Big school and this is, I feel like Denver is, like, Northern Virginia 2.0. It’s kind of weird. A lot of people from Northern Virginia are out here, so.

[00:01:33] Marc Gonyea: Dude, this place is awesome. Chris doesn’t have the opportunity to come out as much as he would like. I come out here, I’m like, man, I could see, I could see myself here. I, I like, I’m a fan. I have to go to Robinson two, three times a week now. 

[00:01:47] Wes Juchnewicz: Really?

[00:01:47] Marc Gonyea: If my kid plays soccer, they, I’ll drive down 123, and I’ll honk my horn, and Chris can hear me from his house, he’s like, “What are you doing? It’s 10 o’clock at night.” I’m driving back from Robinson. That’s only been the past six months. 

[00:01:56] Wes Juchnewicz: That’s amazing. 

[00:01:57] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about you.

[00:01:59] Wes Juchnewicz: Let’s get into it.

[00:02:00] Marc Gonyea: All right. You, just to kind of set the stage, you were with us, you started in May of 2014, up through November of 2015, so it’s been a little while.

[00:02:10] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, it’s been a long time. 

[00:02:11] Marc Gonyea: Which is, so, just to kind of give the listeners and Chris and I some perspective that, that, that, that was quite a while ago, but I think it’s a testament to you who you are as a person and, you know, our relationship with you, we’ve stayed in touch, you know? 

[00:02:21] We don’t see each other as much as we’d like, but everybody’s busy, but for sure, I think, I think it’s kind of rare a lot of times. 

[00:02:28] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally, I mean, you know, I think it speaks for itself what this, like, company what you guys were able to, to offer and you know how I attached to, like, this profession essentially. 

[00:02:37] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, man. 

[00:02:38] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, it’s been great. 

[00:02:39] Marc Gonyea: So, why don’t you just drop it, start off, tell the audience a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, hit on where you, where you grew up, kinda what you’re like as a kid. 

[00:02:47] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally.

[00:02:47] Marc Gonyea: It’s good to kind of get to know you.

[00:02:49] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. So, I was a little bit abroad, I didn’t, I didn’t move around a ton, but I was originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, moved up to, to Northern Virginia. Went to Robinson, played a little baseball there, got to, got to go play some college ball as well, so.

[00:03:03] Marc Gonyea: So, let’s talk about that. We’ll, we’ll come back. What were you like as a kid then?

[00:03:06] Oh, man. Some kid people were working, some doing sports, some people were doing schoolwork.

[00:03:10] Wes Juchnewicz: I was doing, I was doing a little bit of both. Honestly, school was not my, my favorite thing, but, I mean, obviously, I loved, I loved playing baseball. I worked a lot as a kid. 

[00:03:19] Marc Gonyea: What position did you play? 

[00:03:20] Wes Juchnewicz: I played second base.

[00:03:21] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:03:23] Wes Juchnewicz: I, you know, I actually love to, to catch, honestly, but, you know, as I got older, it was apparent that I was not the biggest kid on the team, so they didn’t really want me back there as a small target. 

[00:03:32] Marc Gonyea: The Dustin Pedroia of Robinson? 

[00:03:34] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, and Javier Lopez, too, I actually met Javier in like 2007 after he won…

[00:03:39] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. What happened to you? How come he… 

[00:03:42] Wes Juchnewicz: Did I? 

[00:03:42] Marc Gonyea: Where’s the talent fall off? 

[00:03:44] Wes Juchnewicz: Wait, we can get into that. I, I tried going into, into the minor leagues and that was, that’s tough, that’s you and, you know, 350 other people trying to do the same thing, and 

[00:03:52] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[00:03:53] Wes Juchnewicz: It wears on you after, you know, a couple months, and you have no money, nothing coming in. So, you’re like, “Hey, look, I gotta get outta here.” 

[00:03:59] Marc Gonyea: Right, but you were in high school playing sports, and you said you were working too or something? 

[00:04:02] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I was just trying to work as much as I could. I always liked, you know, just having my own cash, um, it was one of those things where, you know, my father was definitely kind of that old school guy who was like, “Hey, like, you gotta go get a job when you’re 15.” Right?

[00:04:15] Marc Gonyea: I remember this. Yep. 

[00:04:16] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, “You gotta go, like, just earn your own responsibilities.” Right? Like, figure your own life out type of thing. 

[00:04:22] You know, my, my dad wasn’t hard on me by any chance, but I think he just kind of pushed me to, to be independent very, especially as an only child, I think it was just good for me to get out in the world, do my own thing, so.

[00:04:32] Marc Gonyea: It’s interesting, right, because life can be more hard on you than, like, anything your parents can probably do to you. So, he didn’t have to be hard on you ’cause he was pushing you to get out there to let life take its cuts?

[00:04:43] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally, yeah, and I think it was, like, it was good for me to get out there early into kind of that workforce and just understand that, you know, hey, if you keep your head down, you work hard, right? Like, you learn and, and you kind of take those experiences for, for what they’re worth, like, you know, it all works out, I mean, I’m in a great position now. 

[00:04:58] I love where I’m at now, you know, I think it’s kind of like a snowball effect of, you know, where you went, and you know where you are.

[00:05:05] Marc Gonyea: So, real quick on that, of those gigs, what, what was one of those early jobs that you kind of find most memorable? 

[00:05:11] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh, man. Most memorable, I would actually say working at my uncle’s car garage, so. Had a little, little mini shop, like, I don’t know, a couple miles from his house in Fredericksburg.

[00:05:20] Chris Corcoran: Okay.

[00:05:20] Wes Juchnewicz: So, I would drive down there every weekend, like, work in the shop, doing, you know, minor tune-ups, nothing too crazy, you know, working with random clients, and then I also lifeguarded for a while. 

[00:05:30] Marc Gonyea: In, in, where? In Burke?

[00:05:31] Wes Juchnewicz: Right in Burke, yeah. 

[00:05:32] Burke, where? Right off of Roberts Road in, I can’t remember.

[00:05:35] Chris Corcoran: Burke center proper? 

[00:05:36] Wes Juchnewicz: No, it was, it was, I mean, it was two minutes from Robinson right off of Roberts, uh, is that Braddock? Yeah. 

[00:05:42] Chris Corcoran: One Country Club estates? Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter.

[00:05:45] Wes Juchnewicz: I don’t know what the pool name was called, but I was there for, for a while, probably for, you know, until I went to college, essentially. 

[00:05:51] Marc Gonyea: I can remember that. 

[00:05:53] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a great job, I mean, I got a little tan, made some money, didn’t have to work too hard, but, no, it was a good gig. 

[00:05:59] Marc Gonyea: All right. So, baseball, sports, and college, that was a reality for you. 

[00:06:04] Wes Juchnewicz: It was, it was, I got really lucky, I didn’t get highly recruited coming outta high school, but I wanted to play, you know, that was just something that, like, I didn’t, I didn’t really want to give that up, I, I felt like I, you know, had a lot to offer, so I got accepted to Longwood University. I went down there, I walked on, and I ended up getting a scholarship at the end of my freshman year, so.

[00:06:22] Marc Gonyea: You did it.

[00:06:22] Wes Juchnewicz: I was able to play all four years, yeah. 

[00:06:24] Marc Gonyea: How’d you get that? 

[00:06:25] Wes Juchnewicz: Honestly, I, I just told the coach, I said, “Hey, like, I wanna play for you guys, like, I don’t care what that means if I, you know, have to just stay as a walk-on, you know, if I get a partial scholarship.” And it was kind of surprise, like, at the end of the year that they were like, “Hey, we have another opening for a scholarship that we’re gonna give away, and we wanna offer to you.” So, I got really lucky on that. 

[00:06:41] It felt great, honestly, it, it, it, it didn’t feel like a reality, and, and it almost was a, an aha moment for me in terms of, like, things can come and go very, very quickly. And I think that was kind of like my first, like, probably my first time really feeling I had complete control over what I could, could do and, like, you know, what could come my way. 

[00:07:01] So, it’s one of those things where I, I knew I, you know, this is a big opportunity, and I didn’t wanna let that go, so I just kept grinding, right, and I think that really kind of turned me into, I don’t know, the person I am today and I dunno, the person I came into, to memoryBlue as, right, like, I’m sure we’ll get into it.

[00:07:17] Marc Gonyea: We will get into it.

[00:07:17] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah.

[00:07:18] Marc Gonyea: Chris, you like how Wes says, “I was really lucky.” He said I was really lucky I got the scholarship. What are you talking about? 

[00:07:25] Chris Corcoran: I mean, I guess timing is for, timing is everything

[00:07:28] Wes Juchnewicz: For sure.

[00:07:28] Chris Corcoran: But like, they’re not, they don’t, they don’t give those things out at that level ’cause they, you know, this guy had the right five numbers.

[00:07:36] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally, and, and I think, when I say lucky, I, and, and I think this has grown on me as I talked to my sales career, luck isn’t given, or, like, it’s not this, like, magical thing. You create your own luck, it’s, it’s almost like a, a privilege that you end up earning. 

[00:07:54] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. There you go. There you go.

[00:07:55] Wes Juchnewicz: But yeah, I think, like, you’re right, luck is something that is like a byproduct or an output of what you do on the input side, right? 

[00:08:04] Marc Gonyea: Yep. So, you’re, so, you’re playing ball. What’d you major in?

[00:08:06] Wes Juchnewicz: I majored in criminal justice and chemistry. 

[00:08:10] Okay. At the time, I was like, maybe I go into, like, forensic science or something like that. I ended up graduating with a bachelor’s degree in science, honestly, didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was like, maybe I don’t want to go into law enforcement, right? 

[00:08:22] Like, very rigid, I didn’t really like being super, like, oh, you know, militants, essentially, right? “Hey, you gotta do X, Y, and Z.” You know, not to say that I wouldn’t follow orders or like, you know, follow any rules, but it just, it didn’t seem, like, the life to me, I mean, I didn’t go to the military because I didn’t want to do that, right, but 

[00:08:40] Marc Gonyea: Yep. 

[00:08:40] Wes Juchnewicz: My, my father was also like, “I don’t think you’re gonna like going in the military, so probably don’t do that.”

[00:08:45] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:08:46] So, yeah, I mean, I kind of came outta school not really knowing what I wanted to do, and that’s kind of where I got into canvassing in DC. 

[00:08:54] Marc Gonyea: Yes. And when you were at the pool, you worked your way up to food chain, right? 

[00:08:58] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:08:59] Marc Gonyea: So, I mean, you kind of act like you’re sitting in the chair, but you managing people.

[00:09:01] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. I started managing couple lifeguards, I actually started managing a bunch of pools. I was, like, going around and, and obviously making sure them, like, doing their job, whatever it was. 

[00:09:10] Marc Gonyea: Yep. Trains are running on time. 

[00:09:11] Wes Juchnewicz: Trains are running on time. Yeah. 

[00:09:12] Marc Gonyea: So, so you got outta school then. How’d you get into canvasing? 

[00:09:15] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, so, one of our friends, she started working for this non-profit, and, again, I was fresh outta college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and I was like, “Yeah, why not?” Like, I’ll go, you know, give it a shot in the corporate world, I’ll try to just kind of get my, you know, toes wet in terms of, “Hey, I, I’ve worked for this company,” or whatever it was. 

[00:09:32] And at the time, like, you kind of think like, oh, non-profit, like, maybe I’m doing something good as well, like, hey, make myself feel good. I think that company was probably a little shady in terms of, like, how they delivered their cash or whatever, but yeah, it was a really good experience, I mean, I was canvassing on the street of DC, right?

[00:09:47] So, like, iPad in hand, I had to stop people who were going to work, right? These are some of the like, most affluent slash, like, hardworking people walking through the middle of DC, having to stop them and pretty much have them, like, adopt a child in another country to put them through school, get them supplies, whatever it was, right?

[00:10:07] So, you know, it was crazy to, one, get them to sign up for that, but two, to have them stick with it and not just turn off as soon as they paid you a dollar or whatever it was, right? Yeah, that was a crazy time in my life, and it was worth it, I mean, I think it just made me realize that, like, yeah, hard work will, will get you to a lot of places and

[00:10:32] I don’t think there was anything harder in my life that I’ve ever done than canvassing and trying to stop people on the street.

[00:10:37] Marc Gonyea: We interviewed, right, when you started with us, me and Chris interviewed. 

[00:10:40] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh yeah.

[00:10:40] Marc Gonyea: I remember this, and I remember walking, Chris and I probably talked about it, we might have interviewed other people, I was like, “Chris, this guy would stop people dead cold stone in the streets of DC and get them to sign up.”

[00:10:53] Chris Corcoran: Oh, yeah, yeah. On a subscription based on… 

[00:10:55] Marc Gonyea: You did it for a while. 

[00:10:56] Wes Juchnewicz: I did that for nine months. 

[00:10:58] Marc Gonyea: That’s a while. 

[00:10:58] Wes Juchnewicz: It is a long time, like, nine months, and honestly, I did it because, one, again, I thought I was doing something good and, like, kind of felt good, right? Like, helping kids out, but two, like, the guy that I was working under was making an, a certain amount of money on, on doing that. 

[00:11:15] And I was like, “This is crazy that, like, you’re,” he’s making, like, 90K, almost a hundred, and at the time, coming outta college, I was like, a 100K is a lot. 

[00:11:22] Marc Gonyea: That’s a lot, yes. 

[00:11:23] Wes Juchnewicz: That’s a lot of cash, right? So, yeah, I mean, I, I stuck it out, and then Jess will never let me live this down, my fiance will never let me live this down. She found, 

[00:11:31] Chris Corcoran: Shout out to Jess. 

[00:11:31] Wes Juchnewicz: she found the opening for memoryBlue, and she was like, “If you can, if you can talk to people on the street, like, you can go be a BDR, you can go talk to people on the phone and, like, get into like technology, like, you should go do that.” And that’s kind of where 

[00:11:47] Marc Gonyea: Jess found job, I think I…

[00:11:50] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, she, I mean she reminds me all the time, she’s like, you’re where you’re at because of me, I’m like, “Okay, I get it.” 

[00:11:54] Marc Gonyea: The woman behind the Wes. 

[00:11:56] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:11:57] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, I had, do you remember that when you came in the interview? Do you even know what a BDR was, though?

[00:12:02] Wes Juchnewicz: No, to be honest, like, when, when she first told me about it, I, I mean, you know, I think one of the things I really like to do is understand and, like, really do the research on, like, companies, or like, you know, what I’m going into a conversation about, right? I, I was like, “Yeah, I don’t really know what this is,” but I started reading about it, and I was like, “Oh yeah, like, this is very similar, but like, I’m actually selling solutions, or like, technology or working with, like, these bigger technology companies that, like, you know, open me up to a new world, right, a new profession essentially.” I remember having the interview with you, I remember having an interview with Ben Decowski as my first manager.

[00:12:38] Marc Gonyea: Oh, oh, I, every time you hit an alum I have to do Chris’s job. 

[00:12:42] Wes Juchnewicz: There you go. Yeah, I, I remember, I think Nimit was actually probably one of my, one of my interviews as well. So, yeah, I remember that day very vividly.

[00:12:53] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about the job from what you remember, early days. 

[00:12:56] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh, man. Getting in there, very first day, I remember Ben saying like, “Hey, you know, these are gonna be your accounts, right?” Like, you know, I think the first thing he wanted me to do was starting to understand the contacts I was going after, doing some training, just around, like, you know, cold call script, and honestly, all I remember was I wanna get on the phone ’cause I heard everyone around me literally talking on the phone.

[00:13:16] And I was like, “How do I, how do I start doing that?” I was like, “Ben, like, what am I doing here?” And I think like, one, the training that I got from memoryBlue, honestly, I think there’s, there’s two parts of my life where I’m like, “I’ve never had the same training in my life.” One, memoryBlue training in terms of, like, being able to cold call and, like, essentially going to school as, as being an SDR, and then also here at DataDog, like, two very different trainings, but very impactful, right? And I, I went to a company after memoryBlue that where I didn’t have any training, they didn’t, it was a very, like, new sales organization,

[00:13:50] and there wasn’t really a lot of growth in terms of, like, my profession, or like, my sales career, but the biggest times of growth for me were definitely, obviously, memoryBlue, being able to get in there, understand, like, how to talk to engineers, how to talk to people, how to really work with, like, you know, other AEs, understanding the sales cycle of technology, and then, obviously, at DataDog as well. My, my biggest kind of life-changing, I don’t know, schooling, if you will.

[00:14:16] Marc Gonyea: Yes. Well, besides that and just finding the job plan and then 

[00:14:20] Wes Juchnewicz: Just, obviously, just finding the job 

[00:14:22] Marc Gonyea: Wanna get to that. So, when you were in an SDR, let’s talk a little bit more about your SDR journey, but I’m really excited to talk about the path from memoryBlue to where you are now. 

[00:14:29] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:14:30] Marc Gonyea: ‘Cause I know Chris is too. What, um, just talk to us about the, the, what you remember about being an SDR. What did you learn, maybe what you got good at? 

[00:14:38] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh, man, I think what I learned was just refining, being able to talk to people on the phone, right? I mean, you have, like, 10, 15 seconds to, to catch someone, you know, get them to agree to a meeting, and I was like, it was very exhilarating, it was super exciting, but you got rejected a lot and I, the rejection didn’t bother me, it was more about, like, okay, what am I doing that isn’t getting people to accept, or like, want to talk to me? 

[00:15:04] And I think that kind of drove me to just get better at, you know, my talk track, getting better at understanding the business that I was going after. It also kind of taught me to manage accounts, honestly. I mean, I, I, when I first started with memoryBlue, I had a couple PPM meetings, or accounts I was working and I was working SunView software. That was kind of my first exposure of working with AEs that have gone through a full sales cycle.

[00:15:27] And then, obviously, moving over to MarkLogic, like, working with that and just getting exposure to bigger and broader AE teams. So, I think, you know, one, it obviously taught me to be a, a great cold caller, someone that was pretty fearless at, like, yeah, time to be creative on the phone or your outreach in terms of your email, right?

[00:15:46] Wes Juchnewicz: And, and, and getting prospecting. But managing accounts and, and, honestly, just getting exposure to those AEs was huge, working with your AEs very closely, they wanna work with you, I mean, you’re an extension of their business, right? So, like, understanding how they’re going through that sales cycle kind of gave you that leg up of, you know, wherever you go next to become an AE or, you know, wherever that takes you,

[00:16:05] like, that AE jobs can be very easy ’cause you already have that understanding of what a sales cycle looks like if you haven’t made a sale, but, you know, it’s very transferable very quickly. 

[00:16:17] Marc Gonyea: I remember, Corcoran, when I think I, I remember you being on SunView, and for whatever reason that campaign, the client, we got what they needed, they, we departed, parted as friends, and I remember MarkLogic coming up, and I was like, “Dude, this guy’s gonna crush this.” And like, that’s exactly how the business is, in some ways, designed to work, right? We get you or go-getter, competitive athlete, right? Also, understand money and the value it can bring.

[00:16:43] And we got you in off of canvassing, and I did remember saying, “Is this guy crazy for doing this canvassing job?” But like, it’s such a great skill set, then you came in, did a good job for our client, and we put you on a client where you just knocked, you know, baseball attended, knocked it outta the park. And you were on MarkLogic for a while? 

[00:16:58] Wes Juchnewicz: I was, yeah. I was on MarkLogic probably for six months or so. 

[00:17:02] Marc Gonyea: Who else were you on that with? 

[00:17:03] Wes Juchnewicz: Frank Taylor was on there. 

[00:17:05] Marc Gonyea: FT Three? 

[00:17:05] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. Frank Taylor. Who else was on that team? I remember Mike, I don’t remember Mike’s last name, to be honest. 

[00:17:11] Marc Gonyea: Oh, yeah, I, I know who we’re talking about.

[00:17:14] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:17:14] Marc Gonyea: The guy, the Massachusetts guy. 

[00:17:16] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. 

[00:17:16] Marc Gonyea: That Mike 

[00:17:17] Chris Corcoran: Mike Kenny. 

[00:17:17] Marc Gonyea: Kenny, Kenny, yeah. 

[00:17:19] Wes Juchnewicz: Yes. That’s awesome. Man, there was also one really memorable person, I, I don’t know why I can’t remember his name, I think he went to work for Blackboard or something like that afterwards. Yeah, we had, we had a, we had a very close, close squad, James Holt.

[00:17:32] Marc Gonyea: Oh, that’s right. Okay. 

[00:17:33] Wes Juchnewicz: He, that’s right. I, I’ve kept in touch with Jay over the, over the years, he’s, you know, he’s, that guy, I think looking at JJ was almost an inspiration for a lot of us watching him climb the ladder so quickly. 

[00:17:46] Marc Gonyea: He had more experience than you guys, right? Did he come in and, like, 

[00:17:48] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, but he, he 

[00:17:49] Marc Gonyea: He was a go getter.

[00:17:50] Wes Juchnewicz: I mean, he went,

[00:17:51] Marc Gonyea: He was a go-getter. 

[00:17:51] Wes Juchnewicz: He went from being an SDR to an AE immediately. And then from an AE, is he, I think he’s now, like, he might be a director

[00:17:58] Marc Gonyea: I need to get him on podcast.

[00:17:59] Wes Juchnewicz: of an enterprise. Yeah, he’s he’s killing it. 

[00:18:02] Marc Gonyea: And so, you were working with some like-minded individuals, right? What did you think you wanted to do as you kind of got in, be like, “Oh, I wanna be an AE.” Is that…, and why? 

[00:18:12] Wes Juchnewicz: For sure. I think, honestly, like, watching and learning from, like, the AEs I was working with at MarkLogic. One, I don’t know, call me egotistical, but I was like, “I could do this. Like, if this guy can do this and he’s not even calling, he’s not even doing the job that I’m doing, I can certainly do his job.

[00:18:30] I can certainly run a sales cycle to say, ‘Hey, I have a solution, you have a problem, let’s try to solve that together, right? Can we solve a problem that, that, you know, is worth solving for you?'” And that was kinda, like, my motivation to say like, “Where can I, like, go to do this on my own?” Right? Like, I, and, obviously, I can be an SDR, or I can prospect my own business,

[00:18:50] I really want to take that next step and challenge myself in terms of can I close that business. And again, I think just seeing these AEs and knowing that, like, that was kind of the next step, like, I wanted to be better than the AEs I was working with, right? They gave me a lot of insight, I thought they were great mentors at the time. But it was almost one of those things where like, I’m, I’m ready to surpass my mentors, right? Like, I wanna get above them at some point. 

[00:19:10] Marc Gonyea: That’s great, man. 

[00:19:11] Wes Juchnewicz: Coach put me in, yeah, at any point, honestly, you know, I think we talk about it more and more now as a, as a manager, but trying to get away of, of being comfortable, right? Like, if you’re in a comfortable position, you’re probably not doing either one very well. The business may not be doing, like, you know, very well at that point if you’re super comfortable, honestly, like, you know, if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not gonna grow, right? And I think that comes from, like, a coachability standpoint as well. Like, if, if you’re wanting to grow, if you’re wanting to learn, you’re wanting to be uncomfortable. 

[00:19:42] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, that’s right. 

[00:19:43] Wes Juchnewicz: That’s kind of my mindset there. 

[00:19:45] Marc Gonyea: So, you know what I remember, too, about Wes, Chris, which is a test, I want you to elaborate on this a little bit. You did, you, you put the time in, too. 

[00:19:53] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh, yeah, yeah. So, I, and this, this is, I mean, even when I left memoryBlue to become AE, even at DataDog, as well, like, I knew that, one, first of all, if I could get paid for, for being high on activity, why wouldn’t I do that? Like, I’m not gonna allow Frank, I love Frank, I’m not gonna allow Frank to outwork me, right? I wasn’t gonna allow Jay to outwork me.

[00:20:17] I just, I think that was kind of where, like, the baseball and, like, just, you know, the, the independence early was, like, I’m not gonna allow someone to outwork me because I know I can outwork them and I’m, I’m gonna make money because of it, right? That was a big motivation for me. But even moving into the AEC, I always found that, you know, why wouldn’t you want to get the, the volume out there? Why wouldn’t you wanna work hard to get your business where it is, right? Like, again, I think it goes back to being comfortable. If you’re comfortable with your business being, like, coming to you, that you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna succeed, right? 

[00:20:50] Like, you gotta go get your own business, create your own luck, essentially, right?, You talk about timing, timing’s everything with one of our, our accounts, right? So, you know, being able to create that, that timer, that luck for yourself is the only way that you’re gonna be able to, you know, succeed in, in sales, essentially. That’s my belief. 

[00:21:08] Marc Gonyea: That’s, that, I mean, you’re a sales manager at a tech company, so that’s a pretty applicable belief. Alright, so but how did you make the transition? Like, I, I remember you, did you and I sit down? Like, what, what, how? 

[00:21:20] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, so I think at, at the time, I was probably right at my 18 months. 

[00:21:24] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm,18 months, Chris. 

[00:21:26] Wes Juchnewicz: 18 months, I didn’t wanna leave, I just love, I love being on the phones, I love crushing, crushing the, the activity there, too. 

[00:21:33] Marc Gonyea: That experience is so valuable, though. 

[00:21:34] Wes Juchnewicz: It’s very valuable.

[00:21:35] Marc Gonyea: Doing it for that long, people get a little anxious and impatient, and they take the first thing, and, you know, having that experience gives you so much perspective and skill. 

[00:21:44] Wes Juchnewicz: It, honestly, it, it, it’s one of those things where you’ll never forget it, like, you’ll never forget to be an SDR, and I think that’s something that a lot of AEs and a lot of people who, you know, maybe, you know, for good reason why they’re jumping from, from job to job, they forget about, like, how to be an SDR.

[00:22:02] They forget about, like, the work that they have to put in to create business, to create pipeline for themselves. And I’m, I’m just, I’m not in that position to let someone else decide, like, what my success or what my business is gonna look like, right? So, I, I’d rather continue that SDR work, right?

[00:22:18] Yeah, 18 months you were like…

[00:22:20] Wes Juchnewicz: 18 months, yeah. So, you and I sat down, you brought Netuitive to me, at the time they were called Netuitive, they were an on-premise, and then moving into the cloud monitoring, which I’m still in today, obviously, with DataDog, we call it observability now

[00:22:33] Marc Gonyea: With, what’s called? 

[00:22:34] Wes Juchnewicz: Observability.

[00:22:34] Marc Gonyea: Observability, okay. 

[00:22:36] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, um,so, I, yeah, I started talking to Bob Farzami, who was the CEO at Intuitive. I started at Intuitive, maybe February of

[00:22:45] Marc Gonyea: We kind of outplaced you there, you had some options, right, but we were like, “Hey, this guy’s a baller. 

[00:22:49] Wes Juchnewicz: It may have been, it may have been November of 2015. Maybe November, December of 2015 is when I started there.

[00:22:55] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:23:57] So, I started there, started as an AE there, you know, the company was doing pretty well, and then they made the transition, they said, “Hey, we’re gonna, you know, go all in on the cloud. We’re gonna go all in on AWS monitoring.” So, they did a rebrand. They moved from Netuitive to Metricly, we got brand new investors,

[00:24:14] Wes Juchnewicz: a company cut itself in half. So, it was me and a AE team of seven or eight, I think, who got to stay on board and, you know, really kind of take that, that startup to, you know, where we hopefully wanted to, to go public someday, or, you know, get bought out by a company like AWS, right? So, I was at Metricly for just around 2017, 2018 is when I decided, “Hey, like, you know, I really like this space, but I think I could, I can go to a better company, right? I can go to a company that’s gonna allow me to up-level my, you know, my career, right, in, in sales.” And that’s when I moved out to Denver, I moved out to Denver in 2017, I worked remote for that company for two years. May 2019 is when I got a call, my now senior director from DataDog and I started interviewing DataDog and the experience I had from Netuitive to Metricaly was obviously very transferable into what DataDog was doing ’cause we came up against DataDog in every single one of our deals, and I started in the mid-market seat for, for DataDog then. 

[00:25:17] Marc Gonyea: Wow. 

[00:25:17] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. 

[00:25:18] Chris Corcoran: As, as an AE?

[00:25:19] Wes Juchnewicz: As an AE, yeah, mid-market. So for, for us, I, I lead a mid-market team now, we deal with 1,000 to 5,000 employees. At the time, it was 2,000 to 5,000 employees. We’ve done some, some changing of accounts and territories, but yeah, we deal with any company from a 1,000 employees to, to 5,000. So, I was the second AE out here in Denver.

[00:25:41] Chris Corcoran: Wes, uh, for the listeners, um, it’d be helpful if you could share what it’s like selling for a company that may not be very well known versus one that has some market share and kind of the differences between the two because you’ve done both.

[00:25:54] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally. Yeah. So, honestly, I will say, even now, and, and I think there’s a, there’s a big turn happening within the industry, within the market, especially within observability. When you think about, like, observability, it’s, it’s kind of saturated by a lot of these huge legacy companies, think about, like, Splunk, you think about SolarWinds, you think about, like, AppDynamics, who owns by, who’s owned by Cisco, right, like, very old legacy, you know, technologies. 

[00:26:21] And I still think today with DataDog, you say DataDog to some, some of these companies that we’re going after, I mean, you know, we’re dealing with Delta Dental, we’re dealing with Pacific Life, right? Some of the biggest insurance and, and financial institutes out there.

[00:26:33] They don’t know who DataDog is, and it still kind of blows my mind, even though, you know, we’re the, you know, third best company in the world, essentially, when it comes to technology, right, we’re only continuing to grow at a, at a pretty amazing clip. 

[00:26:46] But yeah, I will say, I think that’s kind of where, like, the SDR work really comes into play, right? Getting really creative on, like, one, knowing the business that you’re going after, right? The persona that you’re going after, the company that you’re going after, right? And really driving the urgency and the pain on why they should be talking to you. If you’re just going in there cold, right?

[00:27:09] Essentially making a cold call, you’re gonna fail, right? But if you’re going in there with the mindset of, “Hey, I know your business, I know the problems and the challenges that you may be facing because of X, Y, and Z initiatives, here’s how I can solve that problem for you. Is it worth solving for you? Should we be having a conversation?” 

[00:27:26] And that’s kind of where, like, again, like, you know, people may not know your name, but if you’re talking about something relevant to, to them and their business, they’re gonna care about it, right? People love talking about themselves, people love even more talking about the people that they, that they manage, right?

[00:27:41] The teams that they manage, the companies that they manage, like, that’s their baby. If you say something about their company, their team, they’re gonna listen, they’re gonna say, “Oh, what, what are you talking about my team about?” Right? Like, “How, how do you know about our initiatives? How do you know about something that I’m driving?” Right? 

[00:27:55] So, that’s kind of where, like, you had to get creative, people didn’t really know us at Metricly, but they, you know, they responded very well to AWS monitoring, right? Because the cloud was blowing up, and similar with DataDog, I mean, people didn’t really know who DataDog was when I started in that space,

[00:28:09] you know, dealing with some of these larger enterprise companies, they’re, you know, 4,000, 5,000 employees, they’re, you know, using some of these older technologies, they’re moving to the cloud, making that transition. So, they don’t really know who DataDog is either, obviously going public with DataDog, and,

[00:28:24] Wes Juchnewicz: you know, gaining a lot more market share to your, to your point, in terms of the enterprise, right? People are starting to understand that we are making a huge, huge impact into, into the industry and, and a huge disruptor when it comes to these older legacy tools. 

[00:28:38] Marc Gonyea: There’s a bunch of places to go on from that, I think, but let’s, let’s talk real quick about just a couple things. People like to hear this. How did you, I wanna focus on this actually, Chris, ’cause we don’t get a lot of sales managers. We, we, we have people who are progressing their career, alums, but we don’t have people reach where you are, right, so you’re managing team now?

[00:29:01] Wes Juchnewicz: I do, yeah. I manage a team of six AEs. 

[00:29:03] Marc Gonyea: Six AEs 

[00:29:04] Wes Juchnewicz: Cohen, one of them, shout out.

[00:29:05] Marc Gonyea: Joey Cohen. Look, I gotta hit it for Joey. Joey Cohen’s graceful enough or gracious enough to come in here and do a fireside chat last time I was here,

[00:29:12] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, it’s awesome. 

[00:29:13] Marc Gonyea: in Denver. Let’s get right. He’s a, he’s a superb hire my captain, Wesley. How, so, when did you know, so you were an AE in Metricly for, like, three and a half years? Plus or minus couple months, and then you went to DataDog. And how did they know to call you, by the way, were you going head-to-head of them in deals? Like, I was curious about that.

[00:29:30] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. So, I actually

[00:29:32] Marc Gonyea: For yourself.

[00:29:32] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, I, uh, you know, again, I, I came up against DataDog in every single one of my deals. I took a, a pretty large account from, from Datadog at one point, and I actually had the AE from Datadog reach out to me and, like, talk to me about, like, “Hey, like, you know, how did you end up doing that? Just from, like, one step?

[00:29:49] Marc Gonyea: Post mortem?

[00:29:50] Wes Juchnewicz: Post mortem, yeah, um, and it was crazy ’cause his mom was on the board of this company. So, it was like, it was like he was as shoeing to win that business, and I was like, “Oh man, that’s, that’s tough, but,

[00:30:01] Chris Corcoran: Dude, that’s the ultimate bitch slap right there, man, I mean, damn.

[00:30:06] Wes Juchnewicz: That one hurt, right? So, I, uh, I actually started, uh 

[00:30:09] Chris Corcoran: Dude, how’s that happened? 

[00:30:10] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, I don’t know, I…

[00:30:11] Chris Corcoran: What, you, you wanna talk about signature wins, smaller, smaller company stole the business whose, for the rep whose mom is on the board?

[00:30:24] Wes Juchnewicz: Tough, tough for the guy. He was, so, when I started, when I started at DataDog, he was probably one of the first people I met, he came right up to me, and was like, “Dude.”

[00:30:34] Chris Corcoran: Can I have your autograph?

[00:30:36] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. He’s like, “I don’t know if you remember.” And I was like, “Oh, it has never been the same.” Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:30:41] Marc Gonyea: Is he still there? 

[00:30:42] Wes Juchnewicz: I don’t think he is.

[00:30:43] Marc Gonyea: It doesn’t matter.

[00:30:43] Wes Juchnewicz: I think he’s moved on, but I started networking within the, the area, honestly, at that time, Metricly was, like, in this weird position to where they were changing their, their model, they were moving away from monitoring and observability, and they were moving more towards, like, cloud costs.

[00:30:58] So, they were going after the cloud health of the world and, and essentially taking revenue away from the potential of the AEs, right? So, like, instead of doing this subscription model, now, companies could essentially just turn the solution on, look at their, you know, AWS or cloud cost, and then turn it off, right?

[00:31:16] So, there wasn’t a lot of growth in terms of where this company was going, it was very much, like, people don’t need us to turn something on or turn something off and, and now I have no control over being able to upsell or sell more of a product. So, it was, it was a weird transition to me, it didn’t really feel right,

[00:31:34] didn’t really, I wanted to stay in, like, the monitoring space because we touched so many different technologies, I mean, I was working, and especially now at DataDog, I work with so many different technology companies and, like, partners, and just, like, the sheer breadth of, like, technologies I got to learn at DataDog has been huge.

[00:31:51] So, I kind of took that as like a, I don’t know, more of a, “Hey, maybe there’s something out there that I can go do.” And I saw that DataDog was hiring in, in Denver, they were building a commercial team and a mid-market team, and I hit up, I hit up a bunch of recruiters out there, and that’s when my senior director hit me up.

[00:32:07] Marc Gonyea: I see. 

[00:32:07] Wes Juchnewicz: And started having conversations. 

[00:32:09] Marc Gonyea: I mean, I think what this is a lesson, Corcoran, is, like, Wes is so engaged in this profession and his job, right? It’s clear when we listen you talk about it. 

[00:32:18] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, I’m very passionate about it, to be honest with you. I, Jess will, Jess will always say, like, “You’re, you’re way too into your work.” And I, I don’t think it’s one of those things where like, I don’t want to be around the people I love, or like, you know, my friends or anything like that, I just truly love being in the space, I mean, I think it’s super exciting, it’s, you get to meet a lot of different people and, I mean, you just, the growth is so quick in terms of, like, what you’re doing and, and what you can be doing, it’s just,

[00:32:46] you don’t really get that anywhere else, like, I mean, unless you’re, again, like a super athlete, or like, you’re climbing Mount Everest or something like that, like, you don’t really get that type of growth, especially from, like, a mine perspective anywhere else. 

[00:32:59] Marc Gonyea: Well said.

[00:33:00] Chris Corcoran: If you don’t care, you’re gonna lose to someone who cares more than you do.

[00:33:03] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally, totally. Yeah, and that happens all the time, right? Like, I honestly think a lot of deals that we get into my, my directors, my, and my VPs would be like, “Is, is the other rep just, like, sleeping from the other company?” And I’m like, “Dude, who knows? Don’t care.” Right? Like, don’t care. 

[00:33:20] Like, I will, I will, honestly, always keep in touch and ask, like, the hard questions and, like, want to, I think one thing that has, has kept me really wanting to, to be in the space. My mentor, my previous manager told me “People are better editors than they are creators.” 

[00:33:37] Marc Gonyea: People. So, repeat that. 

[00:33:38] Wes Juchnewicz: People are better editors than they are creators.

[00:33:40] Marc Gonyea: So, what does that mean? 

[00:33:41] Wes Juchnewicz: If you sit back and you allow your prospects to drive the process, you will lose, and you will spend way more time and you will end up paying them for your time, right?

[00:33:52] If you go to your prospect with what they need and what the process looks like, they’re gonna follow you, and they may say, “Hey, can we tweak this a little bit?” Now, it becomes a collaborative sell, right? Now you become more of a consultant for them, I guarantee you there’s no one in our space, and the reps at different companies are not doing that.

[00:34:11] They’re thinking, “Hey, you have a project. It’s your project. You tell me how I’m gonna help you.” And they just sit back and wait. And if you’re gonna do that, you’re gonna waste nine months, and you’re, you may lose business, right? So, now you’ve just paid them nine months outta your time. So, I’d rather be ahead of the game,

[00:34:26] I’d rather bring them what they need to get something done and tell them, “Hey, this is how the process works.” They follow it, they follow it, we close business. They don’t follow it, “Hey, you’re not my champion, you’re not my guy, I’m gonna move on, not worth my time, essentially.”

[00:34:40] Marc Gonyea: Protect your time, right? Wow. Okay. So, you’re, you’re obviously a successful rep. Let’s talk about when did you decide you wanted to go to management. How did that occur? ‘Cause, so, you were a rep for almost three years at Datadog? 

[00:34:58] Wes Juchnewicz: So, I was a rep for two, yeah, two and a half years essentially. I got promoted from an AE to a senior AE, and I was kind of in this position where it was either going to the enterprise AE role, which, you know, definitely not outta the question for me, but essentially, I didn’t wanna leave the mid-market space, right? And, and I’m, I’m a very collaborative person, I love helping out my team, I love, like, seeing other people succeed.

[00:35:22] I also love just driving sales cycles and, and driving business and trying to kind of just rub off on other people, essentially, you know, what I can provide, ’cause I feel like that’s kind of what, like, you know, memoryBlue did to me, DataDog did to me, right, I, I wanna be able to reciprocate that. So, I decided, “Hey, you know what? Like, I wanna be in this space. I really like the, the companies that I’m working with, this is very much an enterprise motion, I honestly believe that the mid-market’s not a stepping stone to enterprise, it’s, destination where people should really put their time into and, and we’re seeing and, and reaping the benefits of it now, and that’s gonna continue to grow.

[00:35:57] Wes Juchnewicz: So, you know, I, I wanted to just say, ‘Hey, look, I would love to be a mentor to people, I’d love to, you know, take on more responsibilities.'” And that’s kind of where my director said, “Hey, like, we’re gonna grow, you know, more teams, like, is leadership something you want to do?” And I kind of jumped at the opportunity saying like, “Yeah, you know, it’s not something that I’ve ever done, I’ve never managed people before, I’ve managed sales cycles.” Obviously, forecasting, right, is a, is a huge part of that. But, again, a new challenge, something that was a little uncomfortable for me because I didn’t, I’ve never had to, you know, teach someone or have someone report to me, right? So, now I have a lot more responsibility on my plate and it’s, it’s been an amazing experience so far. 

[00:36:36] Marc Gonyea: What, what do you look for in an AE? Now, now that you, that you, uh, that’s what people might wanna know the most, but I got questions to you about learning how to be a manager, but just tell us about that. So, you’ve got a team of six, you know?

[00:36:47] Wes Juchnewicz: Totally. Honestly, I, I’m looking for, and I think like the buzzwords, right, are like coachability grit, right? I, I think for me it’s that will, right? Like, if I talk to you about your career and what you’ve done, if I’m not hearing that you have that drive to, to go prospect, to go make those cold calls to actually be an SDR,

[00:37:09] I honestly, like, that’s that gut feeling of, “Hey, you, you may not be the best fit.” Right? Like, we’re an outbound shop, and we’re, you know, you’re never gonna get, like, these easy wins, which sometimes you do, right? Sometimes you get those inbound, but if you don’t have that will to drive your own business, it’s gonna be a very, very hard road for you,

[00:37:29] and, you know, that’s kind of where like, I don’t think you can really teach well I mean, the only time that, you know, I’ve had issues with AEs not having that will is like you, you just continuously scream at the scoreboard and, like, they’re never just, they’re just never gonna, if you have someone who has that will, the coachability is very easy, right?

[00:37:47] Wes Juchnewicz: They’re, they’re wanting to learn how to, how to get better, they’re wanting to learn how to become more efficient, they’re wanting to learn how to drive processes, right? Like, nobody wants to be an SDR forever, and they want their business to be seamless and easy, but you have to start with that, with that will to go out and find your own business before that can happen.

[00:38:04] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Well, tell me, go into, what do you mean screaming at the scoreboard as a manager?

[00:38:08] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. I think more like activity, right? I think as you get older in your sales career, right? I think that’s kind of the, you know, the taboo thing of like, you know, these enterprise AEs don’t do any PG and, and it’s kind of quite the opposite. 

[00:38:18] Marc Gonyea: What’s PG?

[00:38:19] Wes Juchnewicz: So, PG for us is pipeline generation, PG. So, it’s, it’s something that, you know, I think, every company drives, but I’m not really sure if it’s really thought about too, too often. I mean, look, your, your business can’t be successful unless you have pipeline, right? You can’t drive business unless you have opportunities.

[00:38:38] So, PG is the most important part of our day to day. If you’re not closing business, you better have a really, really high PG quarter, you better have a huge pipeline going into the next, the next, and that’s really what drives our business, I think our win rate right now, as an organization for, for the mid-market is 33%, 34%.

[00:38:59] Marc Gonyea: So, what does that mean? 

[00:39:01] Wes Juchnewicz: That, that just means, you know, 34% of the, the opportunities that we open, they close, right? So, you know, play the numbers game, right? The, the more opportunities you have, the more successful that you’re gonna be, right? If you don’t have opportunities, if you’re not hitting the KPIs, I think for us it’s about nine ops a quarter to open up, nine ops at, like, 60, 60 KMR is our KPIs. 

[00:39:23] If you’re not hitting those, right, you’re gonna be hard pressed to, to hit your number, to hit your quota, you know, and that’s just, that’s something that we drive all the time, most of the time if you have really high PG, if you have really high pipeline, you’re gonna close a lot of business, that’s just the nature of the beast, I mean, it’s a numbers game through and through, and, you know, again, I think PG, creating your own luck, right? 

[00:39:44] Marc Gonyea: You guys tell us about, tell, tell the audience and Chris about PG Wednesday. 

[00:39:49] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. So, we have, we have something called PG Wednesday for our teams and, and really for our mid-market. So, obviously, you should be PGing all the time, right? There, there’s not one day where you’re not reaching out to prospects, right, pushing and progressing opportunities forward, but, you know, sometimes like your, your calendar and you get, you know, you get lost in those opportunities, right? Like, you get kind of tunnel vision on, “Hey, how do I, how do I drive the business that I have?”

[00:40:13] And you kind of forget about, like, okay, after I close this business, do I have pipeline for the next, next quarter, right? So, we dedicate an entire day to PG, we dedicate, you know, to only outreach, right? So, there’s no meetings on PG Wednesday, if you have a meeting and you throw a meeting on the calendar with a prospect, it’s gotta get approved by me, it’s gotta get approved by our director, our senior director, to be able to have that meeting on, on PG Wednesday. And it’s, you know, it’s, you’re hard-pressed to get that approved, to be honest with you. 

[00:40:44] If, if it’s a closing call, or it’s a pivotal call to close something before the end of the, the month, the quarter, maybe, but, you know, hey tho, honestly, those customers can wait, right? If, if you’re doing your job, you’re driving that process the entire time, they can wait. What can’t wait is PG, right? If you, if you allow PG to slip, you’re gonna be in the hole, right? You’re gonna be trying to climb out of that hole for a long time.

[00:41:08] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, that’s all, Pipeline Generation Wednesday that’s what you should be doing all day. 

[00:41:12] Wes Juchnewicz: All day. Yep. 

[00:41:13] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And what does that look like? That’s like, that’s why you said at beginning you’re in love with being an SDR. 

[00:41:17] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah. I mean, for us, that looks, like, probably an average of 80 to 100 touches per AE, I think right now, we’re averaging two or three discovery calls booked during that time per AE. You know, sometimes we get lucky, and we, we open up ops on that day too, right? Like, guys, you know, during that call, they’re trying to book a, a discovery meeting, and suddenly, the guy goes, “Hey, I actually have a project.” Right?

[00:41:41] Like, yep, you know, this is our scope, this is what we need to do, and we open up, you know, opportunities, but, you know, really what I’m driving with my team, there is, is focusing on the inputs, right? Again, like, success will come if you create that success, right? You can’t, can’t close business if you don’t have business to close.

[00:41:57] So, super important that, you know, we’re driving that and, and honestly, it’s, it’s not what you see on that day, but the work that you put in that day is gonna, it’s gonna come around, right? Whether it’s the next week, maybe the next day, somebody gets back to you, whatever it is, but it’s, you know, proven to just be a huge day for us where AE is the next, you know, week, they’re having, you know, six, seven discovery calls just based off that one day. So, it’s, it’s been a huge success for our team. 

[00:42:25] Marc Gonyea: That’s a great habit.

[00:42:27] Chris Corcoran: Wes, is that something that you installed, or was that installed by, uh, other, other members of the DataDog team?

[00:42:33] Wes Juchnewicz: I think it was, it was more of collective, right, across our team. So, we have, we have three, four teams, four teams on the East, two teams in Denver here to support the West. And then, we have three teams in the EMEA, and that’s kind of where, like, again, for me, our team was setting the bar in terms of that, and that’s kind of where, like, our directors were like, “Hey, guys, like, you know, clearly there’s a correlation between activity, and like, how we build pipeline.” Right? Like, it’s not, you know, if you

[00:43:02] Marc Gonyea: That’s the beauty of it. 

[00:43:03] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. If you can be that AE to where, like, you’re a sniper and, you know, every call that you make becomes a discovery call, amazing, I don’t know one salesperson that can do that all the time, right? So, 

[00:43:15] Marc Gonyea: Not even Joey Cohen? 

[00:43:16] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah, not even Joey Cohen. So, high activity’s always been the thing, and obviously, it correlates, you know, very, very well to creating pipelines. So, that’s kind of where, you know, we said, “Hey guys, like, understanding that we have a lot 

[00:43:26] of opportunities coming our way,” and, and, you know, we find that a lot of people are stuck in those opportunities, they close business that, that quarter, the next quarter, they don’t have pipeline, right? So, that’s kind of where we wanted to implement the fact of really focusing, again, on those inputs and, and knowing that the success or the outputs right of, of opportunities to close business that will come your way as long as you, you do, you know, the work that’s necessary. So, it’s more of a collaborative thing to where hey, you know, let’s dedicate one day to this, so we can make sure that we’re making the best use of our time. It’s easy to manage, it’s easy to be part of that, you have schedule’s around it, you have more people to be together maybe in the office doing it. 

[00:44:04] Yeah, it’s a great, I mean, especially being able to come back to the office, we get the entire team, so we have, you know, 12 AEs, you know, hitting the phones, like, essentially it’s very similar culture to here, right? It’s very, very collaborative, it’s awesome, we’re turning around, we’re talking about, like, our conversations, we’re talking about, you know, the, the, the companies that we’re talking to, we’re sharing messaging. It’s, it’s awesome to see, it’s very high energy, and I can’t, I can’t help it but get on the phones with them. I had a, an AE that was out in paternity leave for, you know, four months or whatever it was.

[00:44:36] And I had 40 accounts sitting there in his territory, and I said, “You know what? I, I gotta open some business here. I, I can’t just watch these accounts, you know, like, I can’t just let them sit there.” So, I, I started, I, you know, I throw out spits all the time, like, “Hey, whoever can book more meetings than me gets a hundred bucks.” Right? Or “I’ll take you out to dinner.” I think I only give that out once, that one’s gonna be great.

[00:44:57] Marc Gonyea: Chris, we gotta let Wes go, do you have any closing questions you wanna ask? I, I might have one, but I’ll let you go, maybe we’ll take yours.

[00:45:05] Chris Corcoran: Uh, what advice would you give to someone who wants to become an AE? You know, they’re, they’re just getting started, they’re an SDR, they’re just starting as an SDR, but they have aspirations to be an AE.

[00:45:15] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. I’ve said this word or this phrase multiple times, focus on the inputs, focus on, on the work, focus on being an SDR, being the best SDR that you, honestly, like, having conversations outside of cold calls, very easy, very easy. That’s probably the first advice that I, you know, I, I would give to anyone who wants to become an AE, become the best SDR that you can be. The second, you know, piece of that I, I think is really just know the business that you’re, you’re going after, right? Make sure that you understand the hypothesis of why they should be talking to you, create value, right? Create that urgency, if, if you’re going to somebody with just generic messaging of, of outreach, they’re never gonna listen to you.

[00:45:54] I mean, you know, try calling one of you guys, right? And talking about something that doesn’t matter to your business, you don’t care, you’re not gonna talk to that person, right? So, I think obviously, like, doing the research at hand, understanding the business, being able to create a hypothesis of why they should be talking to you and continuing to grind, right?

[00:46:12] Continuing to, to hit the phones, have high activity, have high volume, right, like, what’s the worst thing that happens if you have high volume, right? You, you get more people to talk to, like, you get more at bats, 

[00:46:23] Marc Gonyea: You learn. 

[00:46:23] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, I, I don’t see the, the downside of, of doing more activity, obviously.

[00:46:28] Chris Corcoran: Excellent. Very good.

[00:46:30] Marc Gonyea: Wes, thanks for joining us, man. It took us a while to get this on the calendar, but this is awesome. 

[00:46:35] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah. I love doing this. 

[00:46:36] Marc Gonyea: It’s great to have you here. We’ll probably have you back ’cause you’re, you’re, you got a lot, you have a lot to share. 

[00:46:40] Wes Juchnewicz: I, I hope so. And, you know, hopefully, again, I do love sharing the story. I am very passionate about just sales in general, especially in the technology space, but I think it’s a, it’s a very, it’s an interesting space, right? Like, everyone has a different motion, everyone has a different idea of how to sell and, and it’s super intriguing to watch people go one way or the other, and honestly either battle them or take away, like, what they’re doing to, to create, you know, your own sales profession or cycle, right? So, yeah, I, I love this space. I love talking to you guys. It’s awesome. 

[00:47:15] Marc Gonyea: Student of the game, student of the game, Chris. 

[00:47:18] Wes Juchnewicz: Always, always. 

[00:47:19] Marc Gonyea: All right.

[00:47:20] Chris Corcoran: I, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t wanna have to sell against you, man. I don’t wanna, I don’t want you, like, taking, uh, you know, having my mom or whatever.

[00:47:28] Wes Juchnewicz: Oh my, you’ll love this, actually, I had a deal last quarter where we had one of the engineers, like, my director said, “Hey, you’re gonna be working with Wes.” And this was, like, one of my, like, first accounts I got as a manager and I, you know, was trying to figure out my territory. So, I was taking on, like, some accounts and doing, like, the whole sales cycle.

[00:47:47] And this random manager, like, engineer just goes, “Yeah, I know Wes, and like, I’ve worked with him before.” I have no idea who this guy was, I was like, “I don’t think we’ve ever worked before together.” But he had come from a company that I had just done a, like, 11 or 12-month sales cycle with, and I, like, you know, was working with probably 40 different engineers on that call, and he was a part of that team, and he was like, “Yeah, I heard your name probably, like, every single day for six months when we were trying to implement DataDog.

[00:48:15] I’m like, “Oh my God, dude, like, that’s kind of crazy to think about.” Like, and again, that’s kind of where like I tell my AEs, like, if they don’t know your name or don’t know DataDog, someone’s gonna say no to you, someone’s gonna say, “No, no, no, like, shut it down. I have a better connection.” Like, and I guarantee you other AEs aren’t doing that to where they’re going out and finding other people in other departments, or like, you know, creating what we call that ground swell, which I thought was like pretty amazing, I was like, “Dude, that’s kind of ridiculous that you remember my name after a year.” So, pretty cool to be in that space, it’s very, honestly, tech sales is very small when you think about, like, the people that you work with, 

[00:48:53] and I’m, I’m finding that now, like, I’ve had a ton of engineers move from one company to another and, you know, I continue to work with them, so. Definitely keep, you know, continue to network, could be another piece of advice, too, right? Like, yes, always stay close to, to the people you sell to or even if you, you know, even if you have a, a sale that fails right, or drops or doesn’t, you know, doesn’t close, right? Like, those people are gonna be your biggest advocates, you know, at some point in your life, so.

[00:49:17] Chris Corcoran: That’s right. It just goes to show you that people are watching every move you make. 

[00:49:24] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, every time. 

[00:49:26] Marc Gonyea: All right, Wes, this has been great. 

[00:49:28] Wes Juchnewicz: This is awesome. I appreciate you guys having me in here. This is awesome that you guys have that office out here, too.

[00:49:32] Marc Gonyea: I know, it, too, we were a little behind the curve, right? You set the stage for us, you moved out here, we had to, like, catch up a little bit. It’s a great office. There’s a lot of great people who live in Denver already, in Colorado, great people who are moving here, continue to move here. 

[00:49:46] So, it’s, it’s great to find some of those folks and help them get their life going out here and then get their career really established. So, we just gotta find more of ’em and kind of get them to listen to these podcasts and take some of this advice and, and, and grind. 

[00:50:02] Wes Juchnewicz: Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate the time. This is awesome.