Episode 132: Brendan Hartford – From Finance to Fintech

Self-belief and calculated risks. These have both been foundational elements of Brendan’s inspiring career trajectory from crunching numbers to crushing tech sales.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Brendan Hartford, now an Account Executive at Ontra, recounts his transformative shift from financial analyst to tech sales representative, and the way it pushed him out of his comfort zone, showcased his determination, and allowed him to work his way into a management role.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Brendan Hartford 

💡What they do: Account Executive

💡Company: Ontra

💡Noteworthy: Transitioned from a finance background to tech sales, marking a significant career shift.

💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn

Key Insights

From Finance to Tech Sales

Brendan Hartford, once a financial analyst, spent his days analyzing sales reports and appraising trend lines. Despite moving up the ladder to a senior financial analyst, he found himself going through the motions, lacking the drive to excel in the finance field. He realized he was more interested in the valuation and future growth expectancies of companies, which led him to make a significant career shift to tech sales. This transition was not without challenges, but his determination and willingness to improve made him stand out.

The Power of Self-Belief

Brendan’s decision to bet on himself and make a significant career shift, despite the risk and the drastic pay cut, was the best decision he ever made. He joined memoryBlue as an entry-level employee, surrounded by colleagues fresh out of school. Despite this, he was determined to prove himself in every facet of his new role. His story serves as an inspiring example for those considering a career change and the potential rewards of taking risks.

The Art of Management

As an SDR manager, Brendan learned quickly that what works with one person doesn’t necessarily work with another. He had to figure out how to get the most out of each individual person, understanding their motivations and adapting his management style accordingly. His proudest accomplishment was turning an underperforming team member into a consistent quota hitter, demonstrating the power of effective management.

Episode Highlights

The Role of Finance in Sales 

Brendan Hartford discusses his background in finance and how it influenced his understanding of sales. He explains his role in analyzing sales reports and trend lines, and how he found the valuation and future growth expectancies of companies more interesting. 

“I was appraising, looking at the trend lines, essentially creating all of this back analysis […] but I was just, you know, giving him the numbers and values for him to do that […] I was going through the motions; I wasn’t the best at my company.”

The Importance of Self-Improvement 

Brendan shares his approach to self-improvement and how it has helped him in his career. He emphasizes the importance of feedback and the desire to constantly improve, even when he’s doing a good job.

“I want to know what I can do better. To be honest, it’s probably a little bit of a fault.”

The Decision to Bet on Himself 

Brendan discusses the moment he decided to bet on himself and make a significant career shift. Despite the risk and the drastic pay cut, he describes this move as the best decision he’s ever made. 

“Take a huge gamble. And I mean, I’ll get into it, but let me just say it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

The Value of Adaptability 

Brendan discusses the importance of adaptability in his role as an SDR manager. He emphasizes the need to understand the different motivations of each team member and adapt his management style accordingly. Brendan also shares his experience of not actively seeking a managerial role but proving himself in every facet of his job first.

“To be a manager, you need to know what motivates each of your direct reports, or you can’t be an effective manager.”

Transcript:

Marc Gonyea: [00:00:00] Brendan Hartford in the house, Corcoran. The pride of the Commonwealth of 

Brendan Hartford: Massachusetts. Thank you for having me both.

Chris Corcoran: Yeah, thanks for coming and meeting us. We’re thrilled to sit down with you and talk about your background and what you’re doing these days. I think. I think the listeners will 

Marc Gonyea: learn a lot. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s the model of memoryBlue. Sometimes people think it’s kind of funny. They’re like, what do you mean the client can hire the person?

Mm-hmm. And you, we’ll get into this, but you were only with this for five months. Yeah. You know, I reached out and you said, Hey, let’s do this. So people want to hear your story and Chris and I want to hear it too. Absolutely. So let’s get into it. The best way to do this is kick it off by telling us a little bit about you, where you’re from, where you grew up, what you were like as a kid, that sort 

Brendan Hartford: of thing.

Perfect. well I grew up North Shore, Massachusetts. so hold 

Chris Corcoran: on. We have a lot of listeners who aren’t from Massachusetts. Okay. So what does that mean? Yeah, 

Marc Gonyea: so you’ll just describe it for me. Yeah. And for us too, actually. Yeah. 

Brendan Hartford: You could pretty much break down Massachusetts in four areas. [00:01:00] It’s North Shore, south Shore, Boston, and then Western Mass.

Okay. Oh wow. Okay. Yep. And so North Shore, 30 minutes north of Boston, you know, grew up in a normal suburban town. and you know, my whole life just had a bunch of friends in my town grew up playing sports. numerous activities. It was very sociable. was friends with siblings. Older brother.

Older brother. So you, the 

Marc Gonyea: younger brother? 

Brendan Hartford: yeah, obviously. Yeah, the older brother. I have a younger sister, so. Okay, okay. Yep. And you know, even just in our neighborhood, my brother and I had a bunch of friends. We’d always play, you know, backyard football or whiffleball, growing up. Jeremy 

Marc Gonyea: Wood, the Jeremy Wood of, Massachusetts.

Yeah, 

Brendan Hartford: right. Yeah, no, Jeremy’s great. I can, I can go and talk about him too later, but Yeah. yeah, so I think just, I was always looking to, you know, be active [00:02:00] kind of with, you know, my friends and my groups, you have a favorite sport? I played football in high school, played lacrosse in high school.

And it’s funny, I, I’d make this joke to my friends and it’s, I was never the most talented athlete. So when it comes to baseball, which yeah, was more of a skilled baseball, and a thinking man’s game, I’d say that that’s 

Marc Gonyea: true. You rub in my face all the time. 

Brendan Hartford: but basketball also takes a lot of talent, skill work on your shot.

while I played football and lacrosse where I, started to excel more because I was good at running around and essentially, you know, hitting people. You know, I’m not a violent person, but I never found. It’s a violent 

Marc Gonyea: sport. It is. It can, yeah. Doesn’t mean you’re 

Brendan Hartford: a violent person though.

Exactly. Yeah. but no, I was never just like the most talented, so. Mm-hmm. I always had to work to be,Good at these sports. And where [00:03:00] I found my ability was, you know, putting the work in, in the weight room, sprints, getting faster, getting stronger. you know, my brother was captain of both football and lacrosse. Okay.

High school. He was always, you know, you guys were in the high school together? Yeah. He was a year and a half older than me, but just a grade year above me. Okay. Um, and so, and then even all my buddies, they were, you know, I would say more talented. So the hard hit in Hartford Brothers. Yeah. That’s actually, that’s actually a good, good one.

I think we were, I think we were known for that, to be honest. That’s awesome. I think just what even sports kind of taught me was to, work at something. it never came like supernatural as it did for my brother or some of my buddies. Mm-hmm. And I always wanted to be good. I wanted to, you know, be out on the field and be recognized as a good player or mm-hmm.

anything in kind of in that nature. But it always led to me having to spend extra time, you know, working at it. [00:04:00] ‘Cause you know, some people were just, the quickest already. Mm-hmm. Or had the most skill and move this guy and everything. And, that just was never something I had until, you know, I spent the time, you know, working on it and trying to be, kind of that athlete I wanted to be.

And then, you know, we were just talking, kind of before the podcast started, but, senior year of high school I tore my ACL. And, I think that, you know, made me realize, okay, there’s. I’m going into college next year. There’s more to life than sports. you know, where do I wanna, take my, take that next step in my life.

And I focused on, you know, more of like academics and maybe like, you know, the social activities that these, universities and school offered, which led me to go to Bentley, which is a business school. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I’ll be the first to say my parents would back me up on this. I was never this person that, always had this drive to be in [00:05:00] business.

But there was, took AP Biology in high school and I was like, okay, well, you know, maybe science isn’t my thing. me too. And so I was always good at math and you know, I was just like, okay, I’ll go to Bentley. I’ll do finance, you know, that’s a high paying job. I’ll live a great life and. We’ll go from there.

So you thought 

Marc Gonyea: you were gonna go to go to college, major in business, but you did mm-hmm. In finance ’cause you had 

Brendan Hartford: the math inclination. Yeah, I know it sounds super basic, but that that was it. And I knew, but that’s how it works 

Marc Gonyea: most people actually. Exactly right. Yeah. It’s not basic. It’s pretty practical.

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I knew the lifestyle I eventually wanted in my life, which was, you know, being able to live comfortably and enjoy nice things and go on vacations. and, you know, everything I ever knew about finance and business was gonna help me get there. and you as you guys probably know, that has changed over time.

Marc Gonyea: well let’s even talk about [00:06:00] this a little bit more. Yeah. So you were in college, you had an internship right? In finance. I did. So you’re a finance major? Mm-hmm. And this is the questions people, people were curious about. You were a finance major? Yep. Sales. Was it on, did it pop on the radar at all?

No. In college. Right. So Bentley, maybe they didn’t talk about it or actually doesn’t matter. Did it pop on the radar and then you had an internship? Yep. And then when was that? 

Brendan Hartford: That was, uh, my summer of my junior year going into my senior year. 

Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You did such a great job. They offered you a job. Yep. Yeah, you took it.

I did. So tell us about, was that 

Brendan Hartford: Boston? It was, yeah. Needham, but Okay. Right outside of Boston. So, yeah. So you 

Marc Gonyea: plan and execute it, right? Go to college. Major in finance, get an internship. Did rugby in college? Had a great time, right? Yeah. 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah, exactly. 

Marc Gonyea: so tell us, tell us about the finance job. Yeah. What do you, what did you, what did you do?

What did you do in that role? 

Brendan Hartford: I, you know, for people that don’t understand finance, I just say I was staring at Excel for, 90% of my day. Yep. Working, [00:07:00] nine hours probably on average, every day. And essentially just, you know, pulling basic reports of the sales of these industrious companies.

I was appraising, looking at the trend lines, essentially creating all of this back analysis. So then I would hand it off to my project manager who would do what I thought was the more interesting part, which was, the valuation and future, like growth, expectancies of maybe what this company was capable of based off the market.

but I was just, you know, giving him the numbers and values for him to do that. And financial statements Of course. Yeah. Looking at, balance sheets and, even into the weeds of these inventory skew reports. and, kind of translating that into the current, you know, asset value of what they had as well as what they were selling.

So you [00:08:00] can look at, you know, the, I guess the profit loss revenue of each individual, like category of inventory or of their assets that they were selling. We do a book 

Chris Corcoran: value or, or kind of the overall valuation for the company. 

Brendan Hartford: I was strictly doing book value. Okay. But we, the ultimate goal was creating an overall valuation for the company.

Mm-hmm. So then the banks that would hire us to do this work would be able to, you know, Better predetermined loans that they were sure giving out or, you know, if a private equity firm wanted to invest in this company, they wanted to understand, the value of what this company was if they were to like go under.

I see. Yeah. 

Marc Gonyea: And he says a good job. You were there for a while you got promoted. Yeah, I was, 

Brendan Hartford: you know, moved up the ladder. Financial analyst. Yeah. After a year senior financial analyst, making it happen. Yeah. and to be honest though, like I was going through the motions, you know, I wasn’t the best [00:09:00] at my company in terms of the other analyst, and a lot of that was probably due to me not having the drive to be the best in that situation.

Sure. Because I didn’t like it. Like to be blunt. Yeah. I didn’t enjoy the work I was doing. A little too dry. Yeah. It was just, you know, and don’t get me wrong, I loved my boss, I loved my colleagues, the people at my level, a little above, a little below. We had a great time in the office.

And then Covid hit in 2020. And then I was doing the same job, working from home. Oh. Not seeing, my boss, not seeing my colleagues. And that was when I realized like how depressing I thought the work I was doing was. Mm-hmm. And just, it’s the same thing every day. Honestly.

Sometimes I was staying up till [00:10:00] 2:00 AM. 3:00 AM maybe even because I knew the minute I fell asleep, I had to wake up and do it all over again. Oh. ‘Cause it was just so dry. I just had no, yeah. I had no like, true passion for it. Yep. you just go through the motions. Yeah. but, you know, I, I look back even at my time at Bentley and I never, you know, I, I liked the finance classes.

Sure. I thought the concepts were interesting. take this money, put it there, make more money. Yeah. That sounds exciting and fun. But then when you’re actually in these analyst roles, you’re just cranking away. Oh. And it’s after two years, you’ve realized that, okay, maybe I’m working on this project or this project, but it’s all the same So like I look back and I was like, what did I really enjoy? And it was, you know, the rugby aspects. I was also an [00:11:00] RA at Bentley. Oh yeah. Are like two polar opposites in my opinion.the resident assistant role, a lot of people, you know, hate their RAs. Yeah. Like, this guy’s gonna get me in trouble.

Yep. why I enjoyed it was I had a good relationship with, my residents. I was an RA in freshman dorms. Okay. And, my whole view of it was I was helping these, incoming freshmen get adjusted to the college life. a lot of ’em would get homesick. They each had their own individual struggles going on.

and to kind of be that support system for them just made me feel good inside. Yeah. And then on the other end, I played rugby, Someone once said to me, rugby is a hooligans game played by gentlemen. And I do love that quote, just because that’s kind of how I felt about it. sure I’d have fun with my rugby buddies, you know, we’d party, have kegs and everything.

Mm-hmm. But, it was the sport itself.[00:12:00] you had to be smart with it. You have, no pads or anything. You had to work hard. If you weren’t built up and hitting people, you’d get hurt. so it was this combination of being an RA where I was helping people in rugby where essentially I was playing with know, width and against all these huge kind of knuckleheads.

and sounds like sales a little bit. Yeah, it is. It is like sales. but yeah, that was a great experience and, 

Marc Gonyea: So what triggered, so when did you decide, okay, hey, I’m, and lemme ask you question real quick. When you were working in that sort of finance role, how many people are you 

Chris Corcoran: interacting with on a day-to-day basis?

How many 

Marc Gonyea: different people in, in that, in that position, I guess, is it the same group of people? Is it a wide span of people? 

Brendan Hartford: Is it, well, so I think that’s what hit me in 2020 was I was interacting with all of my colleagues in the office. Yeah. And then when I was to go into the office, I was talking to my direct manager twice a week.

Yeah. And the rest of it was, [00:13:00] emails or, a quick slack message. Yeah. ’cause I had the four or five projects I was working on, there were certain due dates of them get one done, keep cranking on the next one. Yeah. And, you know, unless there was a problem or anything like Yeah. We weren’t really talking too much, and I was at the point where I was able to do the work.

Yep. so, was nothing too much beyond that. but yeah, when, when I was working from home and just doing that every day I reaching out to friends. Like, okay, how do you like your job? You know, what, what are you 

Marc Gonyea: doing? People in sales in particular or just market 

Brendan Hartford: Started with people in finance.

Oh, I see. And I was just maybe trying to see if there were other finance careers, other finance positions that I would enjoy further and sure there were some that maybe were more interesting. but the work all seemed the same. And then I started venturing out and that was when I started talking to people in sales.

you know, friends of [00:14:00] family, friends, friends’ friends. even one of my good friends, like I was talking to his dad, I was trying to find out everything about sales because every conversation I had, I enjoyed and I thought it was something I would find extremely interesting. But I wasn’t about to leave my job and leave finance unless I was fully confident that this was the step I wanted to make.

 after a few conversations and my first go at, I interviewed somewhere, one place I interviewed, I made it to the final round and then I got told no. And the reason I got told no was ’cause I didn’t have any sales experience. I was like, okay, but I have two years of finance experience. it was hard for me to put kind of that.

Pride aside and like kind of take that as you don’t have experience. And so I applied for other, probably [00:15:00] non-entry level sales roles. Kept getting rejected, kept getting projected. and then, you know, probably three months later I was like, okay, I’m miserable at where I’m at. I’m definitely getting outta what I’m doing.

I need to find something else. And I applied to a bunch of entry level positions. And let me be honest, I never heard of memory blue before I was doing this process. Sure. And one of ’em was memory blue. I think it was a simple resume that I sent in. And how did how you found the company?

I think it was like LinkedIn, just LinkedIn entry. I was looking, I literally was searching entry level sales roles I hopped. And then I got an email saying, Hey, we’d love to talk. It was the recruiter. Do you remember who it was? Um, no. Gosh, I can’t remember at the time right now. Bob. And he was like, okay, I’ll call you, you know, this afternoon.

looking at the memory blue role again. I was like, okay, so [00:16:00] sales development rep consulting firm. So would I be trying to sell companies on sales development consulting? I’m talking to him and he is like, well, we do have a team of that, but that’s not what you’d be doing. You’d be an SDR, working, as an outsourced employee for a tech company.

And I was like, oh, okay. Never heard of this type of model before. And I did more research, did more digging, exchanged a few more emails with, the recruiter. And I’ve realized, okay, This is an entry level position. I’m going to learn sales. Let me pursue this more. I had, you know, the interview, and I got the job and it was the first sales job that I, got.

 I was excited for it. and [00:17:00] then even after getting it, I’ll have to admit, like I had, doubts because at that point in time what I was making, yeah. And then what I would be making in this entry, entry level sales role was 45% less. Wow. You’re stud, man. It’s 45% less. But it’s all hard.

Yeah. And I moved to Charlestown. Well, wait let’s 

Chris Corcoran: not run past that. So yeah, that’s a big step, right? That’s huge. And most people aren’t willing to take a step back. So walk, walk us through kind of your decision making of like, Hey, I know my life. I’m not happy with my, my career, but it’s a lot more money.

This is somewhat interesting. A totally unproven, but almost for half price. Yep. So how did you kind of reconcile that and, and decide to do it?

Brendan Hartford: It wasn’t,

 my parents knew how unhappy I was and, you know, thank, you know, [00:18:00] thank the lord for my, supportive parents because shout out to mom and dad. Yeah. Shout out to mom and dad because at that time, you know, I, I was paying Ryan. At home? No, Charlestown in Charlestown. Paying rent in Charlestown.

All right. That’s out of Boston. And that salary cut was, I couldn’t afford it. Mm-hmm. the options I had were to, you know, take all my savings and drop it in. But even if I were to do that, I would, I still couldn’t afford it. Mm-hmm. so, my parents were supportive. They understood that there was opportunities for me and memoryBlue to make more money if I perform well.

Yep. I didn’t want their money. Yeah. But I knew if I needed to, they were gonna be there, which did help me decide to take the leap. Okay. But I [00:19:00] know I didn’t want their money, so I was going to do everything my power to not. Get to that point. Yep. but it was still a hard decision. Sure.

Because, again, I went to Bentley. I wanted to do finance to make this happy, livable income and to accept that, I was taking that much of a pay cut to accept that I was essentially taking that much of a step back in my career. Yep. Was mentally challenging. That’s 

Marc Gonyea: an understandment.

Yeah. Most people wouldn’t do it. Most people don’t. they would choose to be miserable in finance. Yep. And just figure it out. Own your misery. Own it. Yeah. Don’t put it on me, bro. Yeah. Right. So, 

Chris Corcoran: wow. So you ended up deciding to make a ticket to bet on yourself, essentially. Yep.

Take a huge gamble. Yep. 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. And I mean, I’ll get into it, but let me just say it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. [00:20:00] Wow. Boom. That’s great. Yeah. 

Chris Corcoran: That’s great When it works out. A podcast. Now we gotta hear all about 

Marc Gonyea: this course. That’s a joke. We love the 

Brendan Hartford: podcast now. Yeah, well, I mean, so I joined Memory Bloom, 

Marc Gonyea: but I’m glad we, we took a pause there, man.

‘Cause that’s a big, 

Chris Corcoran: big deal. I mean, if you think about it, you go to Bentley, you invest four years of your life, kind of become a skilled in finance. You have an internship, turns into a job, you get promoted, you’re talking six years of your life mm-hmm. And you’re like, man, I’m essentially gonna flush that all down the toilet.

Yep. And for half price. Yep. And so those are, those are tough decisions 

Marc Gonyea: to make. 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. And that’s truly what it felt like. Yeah. ’cause you know, when I walked into memory blue, I think majority of, my colleagues and even the people I was just starting with were entry level. Yep. Right.

School, right outta school. [00:21:00] Maybe coming from, maybe a communications major at a public school where they didn’t have as much debt as I did from going to Bentley, a business school, private school. there was a little bit of me that was like, wow, I cannot, like, I, I’m like even walking in, I’m still like, I felt like I was still taking this huge step back.

Sure. That I did have to put like my pride aside to accept, The job and move forward with it, but it was still tough initially. Sure. And you know, I had a great manager, Ellie Miller. Ellie Nice. Yeah. She was, phenomenal. She pushed me, she challenged me, which is what I needed. you know, not saying I wouldn’t have done it myself, but to have someone also push me to the degree I wanted to be pushed.

Yep. was, Perfect. and going into the, the role I [00:22:00] remember, you know that everyone, everyone in your team is working on some different Yep. tech or they’re working for some different company and all these different industries here I was. And I’m working for a tech company that was selling to financial services, so Sure.

Perfect. I experience, yeah, that’s great. But I was selling legal technology. Okay. Which I also, I knew nothing Yeah. About the law. at that point in time, Hey, this is your 

Marc Gonyea: first real, 

Brendan Hartford: this is your first sales job. First sales job, yeah. Yeah. I think some of the things I remember, initially just was, okay, so I’m doing this job and I’m selling, and you, you kind of get thrown right into it.

And I remember like hopping on the phone with these people or prospects and not even knowing what I’m saying. I didn’t even understand what I was. Asking them or telling them, you’re so 

Marc Gonyea: bad when you first [00:23:00] start. It’s not even funny. Even like a month in, if you look back on your first week on the phone, you’re in July.

I can’t even believe they hired me. Oh, you know, gosh. Right. 

Brendan Hartford: ‘Cause it’s hard. I, I hope there’s no recordings of like the first two months of me in that role because I would never want to hear that again. it’s almost 

Chris Corcoran: like, me showing up at a rugby game. No, I don’t even know how to play it. No rules.

Yeah. Corcoran, you’re the pitch. Yeah. Why, what? Kicking 

Marc Gonyea: the ball out of ball. Like, well, there’s no running in baseball, so there’s a translate. I can figure it out though. But 

Brendan Hartford: actually the irony of that is when I did join the rugby, team, my freshman year of college, I was a hard worker. Yes. I proved myself in practice and I did start the very first game and I still didn’t understand the game.

So it’s funny because I still what to do guys, and that’s exactly how I felt at memory book. Yeah. It’s, I don’t. I, I didn’t even understand sales. I didn’t understand what, the product I was selling. And it’s, it’s a [00:24:00] complex Yep. Process. I mean, the intricacies of the law is not common knowledge. most financial services firms are not college, common knowledge.

Nevermind, you know, investment banking and private equity, which are the firms I was selling to. Okay. I felt I was way over my head. Yeah. Like, what am I doing? Why are, the memoryBlue people trusting me to do this better yet why is, entre trusting me to do this? which, I had to quickly stop thinking that.

Yes. Yeah. And I had to quickly start doing whatever I could. So I would spend. Hours, after work, like researching, you know, what is this agreement mean? What does this provision mean? Mm-hmm. what’s a compendia, what’s a side letter? All of these that probably, you know, maybe you both aren’t even sure what No, those mean.

No, no clue. [00:25:00] These are things I had to talk about every time I hopped on a cold call. That’s cool though. Yep. Yep. It is. Cool. what it made me learn was the best way to, you know, figure it all out was just ask questions. Yep. And it was asking questions with, I got to meet with the head of sales at Entre once a week.

and the senior managing director, they both were great. They were very supportive, which made me. Feel like welcomed and made me feel comfortable with them. And then I’d hop on these phone calls and I’d say my shtick at the beginning, and then I would just, they would give me an answer.

Yep. It’s like, you know, tell me more. Hey, I’m not a legal professional. Can you elaborate a little more? And to this day, even having been, SDR manager at Entre, Howman ae, the most I ever learned of what is done in the industry I work at is from My [00:26:00] prospects I talk to, it’s not from Yep.

The training. I mean, you know, my company provides good training, right? But to truly understand the pain that, my prospects are seeing and having. Was the only way to figure that out was to ask and to truly understand what they were doing was to ask. Mm-hmm. I think the whole discovery element of sales is truly learned at the SDR level.

it is probably the most important part of, being even a closer. Sure. 

Chris Corcoran: Without question. However, you took that like a lot, there’s a lot of SDRs that don’t do that. I’m sure you, you’ve probably worked you have to have that curious mind, ask lots of questions, be fascinated with what you’re hearing, learn more about it, write it down, learn, learn, learn, learn, research it, and, and really kind of take a step back and, and understand like, man, this is such a great.

Position on the field. Yeah. Right. I’m getting to learn. I’m being educated by my [00:27:00] prospects. We’ve had clients that said, Hey, you know what? Oh, I had a CEO of a company say, course I wish I was an SDR at, at one point in my career. Yeah. I thought he was crazy. I was like, why? He’s like, kinda what you’re saying that is Dartmouth.

Yeah. He’s like, this is such great experience. You get to know exactly what the market feels by just asking questions and hearing front firsthand what’s going on. It’s like, oh, okay. Yeah. Tech guy, Ivy Leaguer, hardcore tech guy. This 

Marc Gonyea: guy’s pretty smart. Yeah. That guy’s brilliant. So the message questions are, you were back in the office, you in the office in Boston?

Yeah. Yeah. This is after Covid kind of settled down a little bit. Yep. We were in the office. What was that like being, you were on Ellie running her squad with other people mm-hmm. Making calls. 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. Yep. We were all making calls doing, you know, the call breakdowns. Yep. Even together.

and, I, I remember. I didn’t get to work with him as much, but Ryan Carey was in the office. Ryan Carey. 

Marc Gonyea: But you gotta hit, hit 

Brendan Hartford: somewhere here, but we’ll hit for him. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Ryan Carey. You know, I come in, [00:28:00] everyone knows Ryan. Yeah. Everyone’s talking to Ryan. He is on the top of the leaderboard.

Yeah. Every time. And well now I know, you know who’s at the top Yeah. And where I need to try to be. Yeah. now Ryan wasn’t on Ellie’s team, but someone on Ellie’s team that I thought was truly impressive on the phone. Who? Tyler McCone. Okay. Tyler. Okay. Yeah. And so I would, we would do call breakdowns.

We’d listen to his calls and, he’d ask questions about, what is your current situation with this? What’s your current process? And. They would just like shut ’em down and he’d take this huge step back and said would just say, what are your responsibilities? what’s your role? what is the hardest thing you’re trying to accomplish right now?

Mm-hmm. And, and I remember I listened to a 25 minute cold call from Tyler and he went [00:29:00] through probably 15 minutes of nothing that was valuable for what he was selling, but he was able to connect with the person. Yeah. Allow that person to talk about themselves and, directed into the, conversation he wanted to have.

Yep. But he took, instead of just going right for it, he took this huge step back. And that’s when I, realized, obviously sales is about helping people. You gotta believe in your product and know that it can help people. But you can’t help people unless you connect with them. Mm-hmm. And they need to, be able to trust you.

 Tyler’s approach to it was something I really admired and I would just listen to his calls. at the very beginning, I would listen to Ryan Carey’s calls as well. and I just tried to learn from some of these top, cold calls. Different styles between the two. Right. Oh, very divery different styles.Yeah. Ryan like, made it work in such like an [00:30:00] efficient way where, um, he said, he just said like, all the right things when he needed to. Tyler took an approach of, truly connecting, figuring out the prospect rather than. The situation. Mm-hmm. At the company and slow jams.

Yeah. 

Marc Gonyea: [00:31:00] So what was it like going from being in finance office to working from your house to now you’re in this office, it’s kind of rough and tumble, right? You got carried to the top. There’s a board, there’s rankings every day. Yep. There’s these competitive things going on. Like, did you, you like, okay, some of this like, I like this.

Were you like, okay, I made the right choice? Or were you still okay, I’m all in on this, like had you, had you ever decided that or were you still nervous? Like too much in be like, oh shit, maybe I should go back to finance. You know, 

Brendan Hartford: I never once thought I should.

Marc Gonyea: Alright, good. 

Brendan Hartford: That, that much is clear. I’ll be honest. Was it, How much 

Marc Gonyea: of a culture shock was it? I guess that’s huge. 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. I felt like I was in college again initially. Yeah. Yeah. You know everyone. That’s the part you [00:32:00] probably didn’t like though, 

Marc Gonyea: right? Or you didn’t like? 

Brendan Hartford: I mean, I enjoyed it, but.

I took this huge step back in my career. I was serious. Yeah. And I think some people were offput by how serious I was. Yeah. Um, it’s so great to have someone 

Marc Gonyea: like him in the office. Yeah. Yeah. You, 

Chris Corcoran: you have a lot tof hese people right outta college. They’re, they’re just experimenting. They have, they have no idea.

Versus you’re like, this is my chance. This is a huge opportunity. This is a chance, like Yeah. You get the vets. Yeah. Right. 

Marc Gonyea: So you’re just, I’m taking care of business. I don’t have time when the child is antics 

Brendan Hartford: Yeah. At, at first. Definitely. Yeah. and, months passed, I started performing a little better and Sure.

You know, I’d play foosball Yeah. And know I had a break with different coworkers and everything. But No, it was very different. but what I loved about it was, you know, it goes back to being a kid and like playing a game. Yeah. Because, in finance, there’s no scoreboard 

No one’s saying you’re above this person, or this is [00:33:00] how you’re comparing to every other analyst. Yep. you know, I got to see, the numbers. I guess I’m a numbers guy, but I got to see the numbers of who is performing well, what were they doing, and you know, obviously Memory Blue teaches very cold call forward.

Mm-hmm. Which I also agree that that’s mm-hmm. Probably the best avenue to get someone to tell you what you want and, as quick as possible. But yeah, it’s, who’s making the most amount of dials, who’s having the most connects? You know, is it morning, is it afternoon? Like doing the analysis of what was working.

over time I was able to figure out, you know, the analysis of what worked with me as well. And so whether it was, hopping on that, you know, end of the day cold call blitz. Maybe even 15, 20 minutes earlier, because I knew the afternoons was where I had the most success. Yep. Or, oh, lunchtime came around and, okay, west Coast is [00:34:00] live, like West Coast is working, you know, I’ll call them then.

but I think the biggest thing that helped me with cold Call is when I started to get a little better with it. I did look at it as a game, I see, I knew every time I was gonna have a conversation, it was to ultimately help, you know, whoever the prospects were. You know, give them a solution that’s gonna make their lives easier.

Yep. but cold calling is a game because objection handling is arguably, objection handling and discovery that. If you don’t effectively do those two things, you won’t succeed in cold calling. Yeah. Because you hop on a phone, I catch you at a bad time, they say, yes, you hang up there. Like that’s, you’re done.

You’re done. And when you call ’em again, you think they’re gonna give you the time after. Right. So you, you gotta, you play with it. Say something, even just mind if I tell you why I’m calling to see if it makes sense to call back, put ’em on the spot. some of the best [00:35:00] meetings I ever booked was from, handling those objections to three, four times in a given call to then have the conversation I knew I wanted to have.

But also taking like Tyler’s approach and, asking the prospect more about them and just, figuring out what, you know, what’s even top of mind for them in the given week or the given month. You know, are you guys? In, or you know, what stage of, this process are you guys in, what’s your focus right now?

but yeah, when you have a call that you had to handle, you know, four objections, you had to ask all these discovery questionavoided getting happy too early and rly and like immediately saying it and kept going with the conversation. Yeah. And then booking that meeting, it’s way better for me, it felt way more rewarding than the generic email that got a hit randomly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Marc Gonyea: ell, 

Chris Corcoran: one’s sales. Yeah, 

Brendan Hartford: exactly. One is sales and [00:36:00] the other is just 

Chris Corcoran: email luck. Yeah. You know, chat GP T will take thatt job pretty quickly I’m sure. I’m sure. But being able to get on the phone and talking to someone, ChatGPT ai, that stuff is not coming anytime soon. 

Marc Gonyea: Good luck with that.

Yeah. So you’re doing the job. Mm-hmm. we’ll get to that in a second, but you’re exposed to this client Yep. And that’s what you eventually ended up going to work for. I 

Brendan Hartford: still work for them. And that’s, and that’s 

Marc Gonyea: where you’re at now. Yep. Talk about the exposure you got and like, did that continue to affirm like your belief and like, oh, I’m in the right spot and like, and ’cause you ended up gonna work for them and you could’ve, that’s the choice of yours.

You have to do that. Yeah. So talk about kind of what you learned about sales by interacting with them. 

Brendan Hartford: I had so much respect for them. the two people I were talking to every week was the head of sales at Entre and the senior managing director, you know, right below ’em. they were intrigued with my process.

They had their own, SDR team. [00:37:00] Oh really? Of six. Okay. Now that was, there was between 80 and a hundred employees. Now we’re a company of 350. wow. I think we have over 25 SDRs now globally. but yeah, they had their own team of six at the time, and they’ll be the first to say that at that point in time, it wasn’t the most, the team wasn’t super effective.

Mm-hmm. They were getting the results they’d hoped to get. but I was, especially January of 2021 was probably, I think that was the first time I hit quota, which was 10. Then Ellie proceeds to raise it to 12, which Thank you Ellie. Yes, 

Marc Gonyea: yes. No, it was great.great. I love that. I love hearing that. Yeah.

So it was great. You said it was great. 

Brendan Hartford: Well, no, which obviously it made me work harder Of course. So, I hit that in February as well. And 

Marc Gonyea: hardcore outbound. Yeah. And we’re not, so everybody listening, we’re [00:38:00] not dealing with any warm things. 

Brendan Hartford: Right. Yeah. This is all cold calling. No, inbounds.

The company wasn’t giving any leads. Right. And they were actually, saving the, you know, top level accounts. Right. Big sponsors for their internal team. Of course. So you were probably smoking, I was calling all these middle market firms. and yeah, in March, you know, I found out after I joined the company, but I think I had 14 like just meetings.

Yeah. Which beat out the entire internal team. Entire team. How many people were 

Chris Corcoran: six? Six. Six. 

Marc Gonyea: I wish I could say I was surprised. There’s no reflection on, oh man. That’s happened in the industry. That’s what happens. So, as you’re working with them, they’re like, they said, they’re, you said they were intrigued with your process.

So you got to know them and then, but just talk about how that relationship formed and then tthen them saying, Hey, you come and join us? 

Brendan Hartford: the head of sales of my company is a former lawyer. Mm-hmm. Actually, most [00:39:00] of the high level closers, account managers, they were all former lawyers.

Okay. Some of them maybe had some sales experience, maybe they were former lawyer, went into sales a little or went into, you know, customer success management. and, but they didn’t grow up learning sales. They, my head of sales would probably be the first to admit that he wasn’t truly confident at the time that they were doing the right thing.

And actually he knew they weren’t because in February of 2021, they went out and hired their Head of business development, their head of sales development. Okay. who did come from a more tech focused sales role. Okay. he came in and started, you know, changing the ways things worked. I mean, but again, like he wasn’t gonna come in in immediately in March.

They were going to all, go crazy. Right. Um, takes time. Yeah, it takes time. But he started in February. He then started hopping on those week calls, you know, every week. [00:40:00] And then, come March, he like calls me and he asked me if I’m interested in, in joining full-time. And he was like, I want you to be a leader on this team.

 I want you to come in. our team’s not cold calling. They weren’t. They weren’t cold calling at all. They were just sending emails. Mm-hmm. and probably, you know, and this is no fault to their own, like they were great, probably baseball players or something. No comment. but like, no, they didn’t have the structure of what a true sales, team should run and should function. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. and the head of sales development, he’s still at the company. He does great. And the structure’s now there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it wasn’t. Mm-hmm. he looked at me as an opportunity to be a leader and help get them to where they need to be, I felt that respect coming from them, which.

Even in my first job, like I didn’t feel like [00:41:00] someone looked at me as someone who could truly make a significant impact as he did and, and Wow. Essentially as they 

Chris Corcoran: did. And how, how long were you at the company at this point? Well, you’d working for us? Yeah. No, had 

Brendan Hartford: it started in November of 2020. so you’re 

Chris Corcoran: like five months in.

Yeah. Less. And they’re like, and then, and they’re like, you gotta explain to me how you do this. And like, yeah. 

Brendan Hartford: And again, the head, the head of the sales team was, and I said he was intrigued. And what I mean by that is would actively, like would say, Hey, and I was on this phone call and I heard, I used this terminology and they didn’t know what it meant.

And so, You know, what are some other ways of me saying, the term was obligations, and like a legal obligation, but it’s also just, legal action items maybe within,you know, an agreement that people have to act on. Mm-hmm. Or, yeah, just like, yeah, the different action items that are within provisions.

and he would like answer the question, but then he’d go in and, [00:42:00] okay, so tell me more about that cold call. he told me he was jealous of me, he’s like, your job’s so like fascinating. And I was like, you’re amazing 

Marc Gonyea: you’re like, stupified, befuddled. Like, you mean the person picked up and then you 

Brendan Hartford: said this.

I mean, this guy went to Harvard Law. He worked at a big law firm, worked at a big investment banking firm, and he was intrigued what I was doing on a day to day, and It made me feel important. Sure. When I feel there’s probably a lot of SDRs that don’t feel important. Right. and I definitely, was maybe lucky in that sense, but he was, he admired kind of success in the work I was doing and found the questions I was asking him to just be like, helpful to even, you know, what they were trying to do, what were still doing.

So how’d that make you feel? Made me feel like I made the right decision. Yeah. I mean, especially [00:43:00] when, they were like, we want you to come in and work for us. And I’ll say I’m humbled to a fault where I. I didn’t even feel like I was doing, Ryan’s still at the top of the leaderboard.

I wasn’t there yet. Yeah. I’m not at my best, how am I supposed to come in? I haven’t learned everything that memoryBlue has to offer. Mm-hmm. I remember even having that conversation with Ellie, having that conversation with Jeremy. Yeah. because I truly felt I wasn’t there. I wasn’t like they respected me.

They felt like I was important, but I didn’t think I’d showed enough. I’d done enough. I’d learned enough. I was never going to say no when they asked to hire me out. Right. But that was like, my fear was if I leave memory blue now, after seeing how much I’ve learned, seeing how successful I have been for my, you know, the client.

Mm-hmm. Am I fully capable of [00:44:00] doing this role? And, you know, I knew their sales team was still figuring things out. Luckily, the head of business development, early, let me know that he had a plan for me and he had a process for me and he has all this experience. Mm-hmm. So I knew I was still gonna learn and I did still learn, but there was still part of me that’s like, memory blue taught me this.

Mm-hmm. am I not gonna learn as much as I can if I go to entre now? Right. I proceeded to still go to Entre though. Yeah. Yeah. This is where I move. Yeah. Yeah. it goes back to I took this bet on myself. I didn’t want, you know, I. I was starting to really dwindle on my savings. and financially it was the right move and for my career it was absolutely the right move.

Marc Gonyea: 

Yeah. I mean, your five months for us, based upon your life experience before and what you sucked up the five months with us was plenty. Yeah. You’re gonna gonna learn all that stuff anyways, obviously. Right? So it’s the perfect example of the model working [00:45:00] great. Yeah, exactly. Like a tech company recruiting you, you turn yourself into a five year, five-star recruit after five months with us versus this company would never even considered hiring me 

Brendan Hartford: before.

Never. Right? Yeah. But they wouldn’t have never. And I truly believe that. And you know, I’ve never said that to them, but I think they would admit it as well. Yeah, 

Marc Gonyea: of course it’s okay to them to say that, but that’s, that’s how business works. We’re filling that market gap, that opportunity. Make ourselves available to people like you or people similar to you Who are making a transition or they don’t have the skills yet to be a valuable asset. Yeah, right. So a phenomenal story. So you went over there and you said Jeremy, Jeremy Wood kind of help you? You talking about us with Ellie and Jeremy? Yep. Yeah, I called Jeremy, I said Jeremy, hey, I gotta give this guy Brendon

and I’m looking at him on LinkedIn, I don’t even know him. You know, maybe we met, but like there’s so many SDRs. Do you think he’d be on the podcast? You make him on the podcast? So, so I’m glad he said yes and I’m glad you agreed to come on. so just talk a little bit about what you did there and [00:46:00] then the transition into the AE role.

But I know you’re a manager. Yeah. So let’s talk cause people kinda wanna know. People always wanna know what happens, what happens, how, how’d you get, how’d you be an SDR manager? Did you realize you wanted to be a manager or you said not wanna be an ic? Like, talk 

Brendan Hartford: about that. Yeah. So again, 

All of the closers and the directors were all former lawyers. Yeah. Okay. and so when I joined as an sdr, I performed well. 

Chris Corcoran: when you were an sdr, were you working from their office? Yeah. From your house? Both. They had an office in Boston. 

Brendan Hartford: That’s a great point. they didn’t have office in Boston.

but live with my fiance now. she has a job in New York. Okay. And so when I got the full-time offer, I worked in Boston until the end of my lease. Okay. which was June, I don’t know, of 2021. And then I moved to New York City and they had an 

Marc Gonyea: office. I’m gonna jump in. This whole fiance topic.

When did you guys start dating? We [00:47:00] started 

Brendan Hartford: dating, My junior year. Her senior year of undergrad. Alright. Alright. 

Marc Gonyea: So, well I know we gave your mom and dad a shout out. We gotta give her a shout out too. Yeah. Shout out Chelsea. Right, because she was on the, on the train with you when you were like, Hey, I’m thinking about take a 50% pay cut to go work at this company called Memory Blue.

Yep. Right. And she was along for the ride. So it must be very emotionally fulfilling for you too for her to see you, make that leap and then progress. Right? 

Brendan Hartford: Absolutely. I mean, again, though, she experienced firsthand how much I hated my other job. Yep. And so it, it was that bad I think, to my friends and family, and her that I needed to make a change.

Mm-hmm. And I think that’s why everyone was so supportive, of it. And I worked. Yeah. I mean, I. Still work. Yeah. at it a ton. I’m pretty 

Marc Gonyea: sure you do. So Brendan, so 

Chris Corcoran: you, you joined the company? Yep. When you moved to New York, your sdr, [00:48:00] is the SDR team all in New York at that 

Marc Gonyea: point? 

Brendan Hartford: no. actually majority of them were, there was one in London, and one in la.

Okay. Yeah. But 

Chris Corcoran: then, so there was no other SDRs working with you? 

Brendan Hartford: No. Sorry. There were SDRs working with me in New York. Yep. Okay. Yep. Okay. 

Chris Corcoran: And so what was that like? So you end up working with them and 

Brendan Hartford: they didn’t have, you know, the, no one was making cold call blitzes.

It was different. Most of what everyone was doing was emailing, you know, people would make five, 10 calls a day. Okay. And I’m learning this process and figuring it out. to be honest, my numbers right when I joined weren’t great. And I had a sit down, and I met with my manager mm-hmm. And I was like, I’m trying to send out these personalized emails and everything, you know, I’m making, you know, 20, [00:49:00] 25, 30 calls a day.

Yeah. And I’m not performing. And he was like, well start, what worked at memoryBlue? I was like, wow, I was making a hundred calls a day. He’s like, and forget about the emails and what everyone else is doing. Do what you do best. And I think after he said that, I made like, 60 calls on a Monday and booked like three meetings and he is like, yeah, see, this is what, we need.

so it was very funny. but, we started growing, the team started building and I realized, The people that were there before me. Some were great, some were still struggling. Yep. And I’ve realized I did have this experience and a skillset that was lacking. Yep. know, I even kind of took it upon myself to start these, we called ’em like BDA breakdowns instead of an S D R and at Entre.

They’re BDAs. but we go into SDR breakdowns where I, I would lead them and I’d, you know, share one of my own calls Okay. And talk them through the process of [00:50:00] my, like, discovery and what I was doing. we would meet, you know, once a week. then I started, I knew about the industry and different, personas and what they cared about in certain things.

So I started kind of just teaching my knowledge. Yep. And then I would bring in other, You know, SDRs that were performing well, and I have them talk about it. through that whole process, I definitely became that leader that the head of our business development saw on me before I even joined. Sure. come seven months later, we grew, to, triple the SDR size that I joined started.

Wow. he promoted me along with, another North American, SDR to become, managers. So he was our boss and we were the managers. 

Marc Gonyea: So I forgot the name of the the company. It was inCloud Council. In Cloud Council. I was intimately involved in the sales cycle for that. Mm-hmm. With Brian. 

Brendan Hartford: Yep.

Brian, head of our sales, 

Marc Gonyea: the head of the sales, and he had, they had spoken to a competitor. We were late to the party and we went through the whole model [00:51:00] and the model, the operating model was what want us to work. Because we were breaking down people. Yeah. On LinkedIn. We were doing all the stuff I love to do.

Yeah. And this is just perfect that the whole model worked out. I can’t remember all these things. Yeah. It worked out perfect. Thank you Jesus. Right? Yeah. Because you came in, I was, they went with us because of the model. Mm-hmm. Because of taking people and, and training and developing ’em and you know, getting people like you who you weren’t gonna settle for an SDR job and there’s no disrespect to SDRs.

So everybody knows my opinion on how valuable that job is and, but we’re, we’re looking to develop and mold people to get ’em to the next level. That’s why they elected to work with us and it worked out perfectly ’cause then we found you and plugged it in. Yeah. All right. So you were the SDR manager?

yeah. 

Brendan Hartford: Little while. Became an SDR manager or BDA manager. Yeah. BDA/ SDR manager. Mm-hmm. I started December of 2021. and it’s interesting, Because I, you know, I know Ellie at the [00:52:00] time she was interviewing and, picking her team members. Yep. I was given, you know, team members.

Yep. some were doing well. Yep. And some were underperforming. And so to hop into that role, never being a manager before. Oh yeah. And having to, figure out how to get the most out of each individual person. I learned fast that not everyone has that discipline mindset that I had where I needed to work at it, and I needed, I had something to prove.

Yep. which, you know, for any manager out there, they probably agree. It’s what works with one person doesn’t work with any, The other Right. Or anyone else. And, still to this day, my proudest accomplishment, personal proudest accomplishment at the job was have turning an underperformer, that potentially was, on like the verge of a performance action plan.

Like you have to start doing better, like way under quota. Yeah. [00:53:00] Into a consistent quota hitter. and what I did with him didn’t work with other people though. Yeah. Or, and so it’s very interesting to, be in that role and figure out, I know all this about cold calling and I know all this about the industry, but, and I know what motivated me, I mean, To be a manager, you need to know what motivates each of your direct reports.

Yep. Or you can’t be an effective manager. Right. And you know, that’s, I think Ellie did a great job of that. She knew what motivated me. Yep. She knew I wanted to be successful. I didn’t, you know, anytime she sat I didn’t care when people said I’m doing a good job. Like,to a fault. Yep. Id to a fault. Yep. I don’t need to hear, I’m doing a good job.

I want to know what I can do better. to be honest, it’s probably is a little bit of a fault. Yeah. at times. And he, my current boss who’s a different boss than the head of sales development, he’s a managing director of closers. But, he challenges me, [00:54:00] the way, Ellie did 

It’s, very helpful to have someone that does that. But I do appreciate, you know, when it is, Hey, you did this really well. Good job. Now let’s focus on what you like. That’s all I need. Yeah. and that’s, what works best for me, but boy does that not work with other people. it’s really interesting, on how to manage.

But again, when that, SDR manager opportunity came to me every closer, was a former lawyer, I actually didn’t think a closing opportunity would ever be there. Really? Yeah. 

Marc Gonyea: ‘Cause you were an attorney 

Brendan Hartford: Because I was never an attorney. Yeah. Yeah. And every closer a lot of those companies work. Yeah. Yeah.

but I mean, I joined, that was like the 110th to 120th employee. now we’re over 350 and. We do have a team of, and none of us employer. and that started when I was a manager you know, my boss, head of business development, he came to me to be a manager. I didn’t actively speak it.

I didn’t say I want this job. [00:55:00] Right. Which I know probably everyone tells you like, you gotta go for what you want. I probably, I went for what I wanted, but I wanted to prove myself in every facet first. Sure. And manager. I still wasn’t sure if I’ve completely proven myself and manager, I did.

Well, how long have you a manager? 

Marc Gonyea: Wow. And then that’s 

Brendan Hartford: not, that’s not a long time. No. And in the last year, That was when, you know, my boss said, Hey, I was talking to the senior manager of sales. She wanted to know what you consider. And I was like, Ooh, like, my initial response was, I still feel like I haven’t fully proven myself as a manager.

Sure. And so it’s like this cycle where when I was at Memory Blue, I feel like I hadn’t completely proven myself when I became a manager. I feel like I hadn’t completely proven myself as a sdr then now I’m a manager and this company, you know, is asking [00:56:00] if I’d consider being an AE. And so that’s, that’s another huge green flag in this company.

Yep. And why I love it is they believed in me more than I myself. Wow. I started mid October as an executive. there I was the fourth account executive third in North America, and been in the role for six months. 

Chris Corcoran: What do you like better? AE or SDR Manager? 

Brendan Hartford: So, AE brings the role back to this whole game.

The game now, I will say it’s not as much of a game as an SDR is. There’s a lot more strategy that goes into it. I guess, an SDR was. an AE is me being an ra. Okay. That’s how I truly feel it. Sure. There’s bits and pieces of each. Yep. But I can’t just go into any pit with [00:57:00] this mindset of Okay. If they, you know, say, To this quickly come up with something.

It is. I mean, yoyou do, but there’s definitelyore strategy oit if asking questions that even I ask as an sdr, I have to know I’m asking these questions so then I can, show them the value or I can speak on the value. And what I realized

probably 10% of everything I need to know as a closer when I was in. And then I probably knew everything I needed to know as a closer when I was a manager. And what I quickly found out is, even though I understand the industry, I understand the personas, I understand what our products do. The intricacies of the internal processes and how our solutions help, it goes way beyond what I even [00:58:00] kind of thought or understood.

So, it’s forced me to be back into that starting at memory blue phase. Yep. Where, you know, I have the respect. I still have the respect, but I’ve realized I’m back at square one as a closer and now I’m doing everything I can to prove myself. you know, I had a decent q1. I think I was 80% .

Wow. but you know, in my mind, and I joke about this with my boss and it’s probably just how my mind works. It’s okay. Sure. I’m 80%, I’m close to the other AEs, but I wanna be, I wanna set top, like I wanna be at the top of the leaderboard. Stanley is 

Chris Corcoran: me. Yeah. Ryan, I’m coming for you. Exactly. Yep. 

Brendan Hartford: Ryan, I’m coming for.

and so that’s just how I work and function. I will, I don’t know, may, maybe one day if I am above and beyond every other person at my company, I’ll feel like I did it. Yep. But [00:59:00] never once going to any position have I felt like I proved enough, or I’ve achieved enough we’ll see with the AE role, but I’ve been enjoying it.

the closing role is different. it’s exciting.

I mean, Way down the line, I hope to be a manager again of AEs. Of AEs. Exactly. Yep. And so I will say, this is nothing against, know, the head of our business development. But when I was the end of a manager, I felt like I kind of was at a plateau where I was doing a good job.

My team was, you know, on average hitting a hundred percent a quota in the last few months. And it was great. I was helping create processes, improve systems with the marketing team, with sales ops. Mm-hmm. manager, I got alot of people in the company, but I couldn’t see the next step. I couldn’t see like, sure.

I didn’t feel I was driving. I didn’t feel challenged. Okay. [01:00:00] I guess that’s probably the best way of saying it. Mm-hmm. I didn’t feel challenged. I missed feeling challenged because that’s what made me fall in love with Yep. Is I’ve wanted to be challenged. Now, I think eventually one day I do wanna become manager again.

The most rewarding thing that ever happened, or I’ve ever personally done was helping, you know, an SDR that was underperforming, become, an over performer. and so one day, manager of AEs, there you go. And then the future, you know, maybe the head of a sales, department someday. but right now,

I’m not betting against you.

Chris Corcoran: For sure, themselves. [01:01:00] Take an opportunity and really seize it and kinda skys the limit and that’s what you’ve been able to do. So for the listeners, I know it’s been, inspirational, so thank you very much. Yeah, 

Brendan Hartford: no, I appreciate you guys both having me and I hope to know, hope I can hear similar stories with other people.

Chris Corcoran: Yeah, you’ll be both. Yeah, you’ll be both. Thanks Brendan. 

Brendan Hartford: Awesome. Thank you.

​[01:02:00]