Episode 35: Katie Lowry – Own Your Territory
Katie Lowry is competitive by nature. Her drive to compete led her to participate in 12 seasons of six different sports (with nine of them at the varsity level) while in school and eventually to a career in professional sales.
After graduating from James Madison University with bachelor’s degree in digital communication and media/multimedia, Katie landed her first job at memoryBlue as a Sales Development Representative. She thrived thanks to her drive to get to know prospects and their challenges. In fact, because of her ability to book many high quality meetings, she became a legend at memoryBlue, earning the nickname “Katie the Killer.”
That mentality helped her get hired by cybersecurity firm ZeroNorth, where she quickly elevated into an Account Executive role and earned a spot as a Finalist for the 2020 memoryBlue Phenom Award.
On this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Katie shares how she became interested in sales as a career path in college, how she uses LinkedIn strategically to help connect with prospects and why you shouldn’t act like the stereotypical “dumb salesperson.” According to Katie, knowledge is power and it will help you succeed in tech sales.
Guest-at-a-Glance
Name: Katie Lowry
What she does: Katie is an Account Executive with application security automation and orchestration platform company ZeroNorth. With her active sports background, Katie’s competitive nature has driven her career in software sales.
Company: ZeroNorth
Noteworthy: Katie originally started out as a marketing major but quickly realized it was more quantitative rather than qualitative, and she needed more engaging and creative classes. Katie was also a memoryBlue Phenom Finalist in 2020.
Exit Year from memoryBlue: 2019
Months at memoryBlue: 6
Alumni Path: Hired Out
Where to find Katie: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Lead write-ups are more important than you think. Usually, lead write-ups are maybe one or two paragraphs, but Katie’s are single-spaced and one or two pages. In her mind, these lead write-ups reflect the type of sales professional you are and whether you put in the effort to learn about a prospect. “It was really important to me to get all of the information in there so my rep could understand exactly what happened and could take the conversation further once he started the intro call. I wanted to have good meetings and close deals that I sourced.”
Your main motivation can’t just be about making money. Katie realized early on that to do well, you need to find passion for the software products you sell. “When I first started, I was following all the salespeople on LinkedIn, listening to daily sales tips, podcasts, reading sales books. Once I got that foundation, I realized that what’s going to make me better is knowing my buyer’s day-to-day so that I can genuinely empathize with them rather than going through the motions of generalized sales tactics.”
Don’t lose touch with prospects, even if they did not qualify the first time around. You never know when a disqualified prospect’s situation might change, so staying connected is vital. Katie stays connected with prospects regardless of if they qualified or not because she wants to grab the opportunity if their situation changes. “I have people who we disqualified based on their environments or it just wasn’t a fit in my network. I frequently just say hi to people because I know that in the future, they might become relevant again, and we might be able to help them with a different company or if we have future updates.”
Episode Highlights
Build relationships by getting to know your prospects
“I feel like I already have a very large network of almost friends in the security industry, whether they took a meeting or not. I just admire my prospects. I’m genuinely curious about their thoughts, which is unexpected from a salesperson. So I’ve built a lot of relationships with security professionals. I just treat them as humans. I’m not really wanting to pull the whole ‘I know I’m just a dumb sales guy.’ I truly want them to know that I care about what they do, and I work for a company that’s trying to help them solve challenges.”
You’re not just selling a product — you’re selling security
“We all just trust the websites we go to to handle our data properly. If you think about how insurance companies are so successful, [it’s] because they don’t sell insurance — they sell peace of mind against unknown attacks. It might seem over the top, but that’s how I’m able to find passion in my work. I’m really in an industry that is making a difference for society and this crazy digital age we live in.”
You can’t eat looking over the fence at your neighbor’s farm
“I think I was like most people: I was nervous about what client I was going to get and if other people would have better ones than me. I just think that’s the biggest mistake you can make — thinking others have a better campaign than you do. You can’t eat looking over at the fence of your neighbor’s farm.”
LinkedIn can be your best friend and secret weapon
“I think I really liked LinkedIn because I like being able to see some context up front about what they’ve done and I need some sort of loophole. I really don’t like just knowing someone’s title and trying to get them interested. I really want to know about what they do in a day to day to see if I can actually help them. And if I see a good profile, I try all angles. I call, email and then I’ve been sending videos to people.”
Don’t think being a woman in tech sales will hold you back
“The reality is it’s not like that and women are actually really good by nature at modern sales. There’s actually a lot of research done. I think I heard this from a psychologist Jordan Peterson, and it really stuck with me, is that men are generally more interested in things and women are generally more interested in people. And what do you do all day long sales work with people and not to mention, of course. We’re extremely empathetic and good listeners, and that translates very well to sales.”
Transcript:
Katie Lowry: [00:00:00] If you combined that learning about the industry and then just doing classic sales activities, like pairing the phones, sending out emails, when you can basically, how any SDR has trained at any company. Once you do that, then I feel like everybody should be able to start figuring out what makes them and not be micromanaged because I think everybody can Excel in different areas.
[00:01:11]Marc Gonyea: [00:01:11] Alright, everyone. Welcome! Today on Tech Sales Is For Hustlers, we’ve got the highly esteemed Katie Lowry. Katie, who, first of all, is a memoryBlue 2020 phenom finalist is also an Account Executive at ZeroNorth and hasn’t been out of memoryBlue all that long. We’re gonna get into that. She left memoryBlue in December of 2019. Katie, welcome.
[00:01:35] Katie Lowry: [00:01:35] Hi, happy to be here on both accounts with the phenom award podcast today.
[00:01:40] Marc Gonyea: [00:01:40] What’s going to be great about this, Katie, is you’re another one of these folks who came in and did such a great job with us. We’ll get back into this, but you were only with us for six months. So, it’s tough to have such strong people. Only work for us for such a short amount of time, but we will get to that.
[00:01:53] We kind of miss you dearly from what the people in Boston tell me, but let’s get into that. we’ll come back to that. So let’s familiarize the audience with you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about yourself and just kind of start where you grew up, where you were from. And we’ll talk about that kind of briefly. So people get to know you and then we’ll kind of get into memoryBlue and beyond.
[00:02:09] Katie Lowry: [00:02:09] Yeah. So, I was born and raised on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. It was a pretty traditional small seaside town growing up, knowing everyone, everything you imagined minus people thinking I ate lobsters of the Kennedys and parked my sailboat in front of my house. Living on Cape Cod year round is very different from summer vacation.
[00:02:29] In the summertime though, we were on concert vacation. It was a really awesome place to be brought up, but I’m really happy that I ended up going to school outside of new England to expand my horizons because being born and raised on an Island, checked each sheets by a bridge, it was a perfect little bubble.
[00:02:44] Marc Gonyea: [00:02:44] Yeah, did a little research on you. There’s some things I found out about you and doing this research that I didn’t know prior to you, you, and I know each other from you working at memoryBlue for those six months, but there’s some things that I knew about you. So tell us a little bit about, Katie growing up and kicking it in high school just briefly.
[00:03:02] Katie Lowry: [00:03:02] Yeah. So I have two half siblings and three full siblings. A lot of a big age range, played a lot of sports growing up. One of my favorite sports, most notably with hockey, which girls don’t usually play a lot, but it’s, the people usually are like, “Oh my gosh, you played ice hockey?” And I just liked it a lot because it requires sort of skills.
[00:03:25] Cause you can’t just pick it up like soccer, basketball. You already know how to run, which really intrigued me about it. I love the challenge. And the fact that you have to learn how to skate before even picking up a stick. And then from there, by not sticking anything and then shooting. I was absolutely terrible when I first started as a fourth grader and I was one of the two girls on an all boys team and the boys would tell the coach not to put me in.
[00:03:49] And then that just gave me a fire under my belly from there, and I really wanted to do well. And so then I started keeping up with the boys and by the time I was on an all girls team in sixth grade, I was doing really well. And once you can really play the game, it’s addicting to want to get on the ice.
[00:04:05] So yeah, I ended up being captain of the high school girls’ team and it was a huge part of my life growing up and made winters and Massachusets, very endurable, which can be hard to do.
[00:04:16] Marc Gonyea: [00:04:16] I mean, I need to say here. This is from Chris. This is good stuff here. As Katie closed out her senior year and outside the lines with Katie Lowry, her senior year of high school.
[00:04:24] And this is a trend I’m bringing this up, Katie cause this is a trend. This is indicative of kind of the path that you started blazing. I don’t know who knows when maybe an elementary and middle school. We can go back to that or start with high school, and then what you’re doing now, as I close up my senior year, I haven’t participated in 12 seasons in sports, six different and nine at the varsity level.
[00:04:43] I mean, you also ran the personal record of the mile 533, which when you’re doing everything, you only thing that kept you out of soccer, it was like you, somehow you came down motto, right? And you were furious about that, but you know, you were so all around badass.
[00:04:59] Katie Lowry: [00:04:59] . Yeah. I just wanted to try everything and see what I could succeed in. I pretty much played all sports. Had to give up basketball because hockey was more important to me, but yeah, I was also in soccer and lacrosse and I remember I offered to play goalie because no one did when I was a freshmen on junior varsity team and we had no goalies, so I offered to play and then they wanted me to be the varsity goalie from there.
[00:05:26] So then I became the lacrosse goalie, which wasn’t my favorite, but I did it because I knew I could. And then yeah, with soccer, I got mono my junior year, before the season started and they said I could play contact sports. So, I wasn’t going to not do anything. So I joined the lacrosse country team and ended up doing really well at that. So then I decided to also do track, that senior year too. And yeah, that’s why it was so many different sports.
[00:05:52] Marc Gonyea: [00:05:52] Wow. That looks great. There’s lots of places we can go with that, but let’s hop into school. So you ended up leaving and left Cape Cod and decided to go to wonderful James Madison University. Talk to us about which major there and the way you fight maybe you want to do become out of school.
[00:06:07] Katie Lowry: [00:06:07] Yeah, so, it was really just me and my sister in the house growing up because my brother went to college at Georgia Tech when I was 10 and my past siblings were already married with kids in other States. And so, I didn’t know I wanted to do sales at all when I was in high school. I was really into like branding, like websites and packaging, how that makes people want to buy it in the highly competitive market we live in. I like the psychology of it because it worked on me and I was also really good at computer tech. And this is around the time that they started introducing media and technology classes to high schoolers.
[00:06:40] And I think what I liked about it is how hands-on it was, it’s tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I’ll understand, but in between I’ll remember. So I wasn’t aware of the diversity of majors at liberal arts school at JMU. So I just knew I wanted to do, I guess, marketing and I applied to a bunch of different places.
[00:06:58] I knew I wanted to get out of Cape Cod because like I said, it was just a little bubble and all of my friends were applying to UMass. I just wanted a new environment and JMU just kept coming up on my college board. It’s something that would be good for me. And it wasn’t my first choice, but I visited the school and I loved it and ended up going down there.
[00:07:21] And I remember I cried on the way there because I thought I was going to Hicksville. Cause there was just cows and farms everywhere, but then absolutely fell in love with the school.
[00:07:30]Marc Gonyea: [00:07:30]
[00:07:30] So, Katie, let’s talk about your major and talk about, “Okay, going into my senior year. What would I want to do when I’m out? Where am I gonna live? What profession that I want to get into?
[00:07:39] Katie Lowry: [00:07:39] Yeah. So once I got to school, I was a marketing major and I quickly realized that I hated marketing. It was much more quantitative rather than qualitative and I just needed more engaging and creative classes. So, I found out that JMU had a school of media arts and design. And within that, there was a concentration called interactive design, which was all about user experience, web design and development.
[00:08:02] So it was perfect for me. It’s like a cross between human psychology and technology. And I absolutely loved it. I started getting really good grades by the time I was a junior though, I started thinking about the career path and I started growing my network and realized how hard it was to get a job in UX design.
[00:08:18] And then from there, it was really hard to get an upward trajectory in UX to the cream of the crop, like director of UX at a big firm should maybe end up making 150 K and I’m a salesforce thing. Clearly I’ve always been money driven. So I was like, “Nope.” And I went out with my sister who’s in sales and she was like, “You should do software sales. You like technology. You have the personality to be really good at it. And it’s a male dominated industry, so there’s a lot of ways to stand out.” And so some of my junior year, I was all for it. I started building my network, talking to salespeople that my siblings knew. And I think the only thing I was uncertain about is, I didn’t know what kind of technology I wanted to sell at that point.
[00:08:58] Marc Gonyea: [00:08:58] Interesting. And how did memoryBlue cross your radar? How are we fortunate enough to get in front of you?
[00:09:03] Katie Lowry: [00:09:03] Once I knew I wanted to do sales, I joined the professional sales club and I just didn’t want to work for the big dogs like VM-Ware or Oracle. I was like maybe a marketing company, because I’ve learned about that.
[00:09:15] I didn’t know, but maybe came in one professional sales per meeting and talked about memoryBlue. And I was like, “Okay, this might be a perfect fit for me. So then the career fair happened pretty early on in my senior year and people from IT staffing companies kept being like, “Oh, you’re looking for sales? Well, you’re in the right place.” I was like, not really, I’m not looking to sell people and then I found the memoryBlue booth, and I saw Abby Curtis, who was in my sorority. And she also loved it, they got me really excited about memoryBlue. And I was like, “Okay. So I don’t even have to decide what I want to sell.” Guaranteed high tech and I’ll get a client or maybe two and see my peers, clients to figure out where I want to end up going and I thought memoryBlue was kind of like a paid grad school for sales professionals. So yeah, TLDR and made it to the final round of interviews and drove up to Nova for my last interview on my way back to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving break.
[00:10:09] And while I was home for Thanksgiving break, I got a call from Libby probably said yes, before she even asked. So I was going to start in the summer at the DC office. And then she gave me a call that the Boston office is opening up sooner than expected. And that’s where that really started.
[00:10:27] Marc Gonyea: [00:10:27] That’s amazing. We’re a fortunate enough to have you. I remember going up to visit that office and say, “Who’s this person? And how somebody from Cape Cod with the JMU working for our office in Waltham, Massachusetts?” But all of a sudden you were great. So again, I’m so thrilled you worked for us, even for a short time. Tell me about what it was like when you started, because you hadn’t done anything like this before most people had not.
[00:10:49] Katie Lowry: [00:10:49] Yeah. So, My first day, I sat next to Emie Moore, who also went to JMU. So that was a nice connection to have. And she was really helpful getting me ramped up to make sense because she’s the DM now. And my crew was the OG Ryan Carey and Ryan Graziano and Jake. We’d started getting lunch with them a bunch once I got over trying to make half my dials during my lunch break so no one had to listen to me. And then, Ellie Miller and Emily Shlapak came on and Andrew Biedermann and others. So we had a full off at that point. By the time I was leaving, people are coming on. There’s a bunch of people I didn’t get to meet. But some, I do know like Daniel DellaPenna and Eli Sullivan. But yeah, it was wild ride.
[00:11:33] At the beginning, I really didn’t know anything about sales or what to do. And I just really ramped up around this time last year.
[00:11:41]Marc Gonyea: [00:11:41] Walk us through what it was first to getting on the phones.
[00:11:43] Chris Corcoran: [00:11:43] Oh wait, hold on a second, Katie. Just listening to that cast of characters up there. It sounds almost like it’s James Madison University – Waltham Campus.
[00:11:53] Katie Lowry: [00:11:53] Yeah. I feel like it’s just, you guys have a great presence at JMU on campus and surprisingly, there’s a lot of people from up North that go there. And a lot of my friends, that grew up in New England live in DC now. And, I hope to live there again. I miss all the people that I met at college.
[00:12:11] Marc Gonyea: [00:12:11] You know what? That’s a good thing. I’m happy to hear that. What was it like getting on thephones?
[00:12:15] Katie Lowry: [00:12:15] Yeah. So when I did my mock cold call is probably the best one I ever did. I was so over prepped for it in the interview. But yeah, on the first day when I started getting on the phone, like I said, I was just mostly didn’t want other people to hear me. I was fine with failing, but I don’t want other people to see me fail.
[00:12:35] So, it was super nerve-wracking, but it was mostly because I was nervous about my client being cyber. I didn’t fully understand what they did, so I didn’t want to sound stupid over the phone. So that’s the only thing that held me back. But then over time, as I really understood security and the space that I was in, I really enjoyed when I was able to get someone on the phone and have a conversation because the space that we’re in is it’s something that a lot of security professionals are really focused on and have a lot of thoughts on.
[00:13:05] Marc Gonyea: [00:13:05] Were you on ZeroNorth from day one?
[00:13:07] Katie Lowry: [00:13:07] Yup. From day one, I took a look at the website what Jeremy told me it was my client and it was absolute gibberish. And so I just picked myself up by my bootstraps and realized I needed to spend a lot of time acting as of Durham arts at the college course before I was going to get really good at this.
[00:13:29] So I spent a lot of time learning about the industry insecurities, but I didn’t actually know what I was talking about before I even focused on my sales skills.
[00:13:38] Marc Gonyea: [00:13:38] Well, I will tell you, I didn’t want to open up the intro like this, but some people might get the wrong idea with you somewhere along the way were coined was a moniker Killer Kate or Katie the Killer. I don’t know which one it was. Katie the Killer, that had to start on the ice rink.
[00:13:53] Katie Lowry: [00:13:53] It did not actually, my sales rep, who I was looking to use for, when I was at memoryBlue, Greg Cranley, he was, the only like sales rep they had besides two other peers who was running the entire sales team.
[00:14:06] And I started booking a lot of quality meetings and they hadn’t had an SDR before, so they were thrilled and he just coined Katie the Killer and it stuff throughout the company and people still say it.
[00:14:19] Marc Gonyea: [00:14:19] That’s a great nickname. I had in front of me. One of these lead write-ups that you did, and I’m kind of jumping ahead of myself, but the lead write up for those who don’t know what memoryBlue works from clients, SDRs book meetings and the body of the SDRs work is this lead write up. It’s when you qualify someone and you book a meeting with them, it’s usually within the next week or two. And then you have to set over to the client and copy your manager or your boss, the details of the conversation, who was it with, the title, where they work, what you talked about.
[00:14:48] And then most people would write these things and maybe there are a couple of paragraphs, Katie’s the single space, two and a half pages long. I want to talk about that. We’ll say, well, tell us why you put so much time into that, but then I want to back up a little and maybe you tell us. How you got so good at it, because you kind of said something nearly it was jibberish.
[00:15:05] You can go down. I wanted to hear about the process you went through to get good at learning about it. But talk to us a little bit about the lead by that and your philosophy on this thing.
[00:15:12] Katie Lowry: [00:15:12] Yeah. So, frankly, the reason why I’m a leader up through that way, cause I was very proud to get a meeting. It wasn’t like I was spoken like three or four a day. It was just another lead write-up. So when I did, I wanted to show everyone at ZeroNorth the effort that goes into booking a meeting and I was having really tactical conversations. So it was really important to me to get all of the information in there so that my rep could understand exactly what happened and could take the conversation further with once he started the intro call and I wanted them to have good meetings and close deals that I sourced. So I wanted to make sure that my name was on it from the start.
[00:15:50] Marc Gonyea: [00:15:50] And this is a hot button of mine this year is you do all this work to book these meetings, like you said, you don’t book three or four a day (in cyber).
[00:15:59] If you’re on cyber, working for this very unique technology, the proof, like your Sistine Chapel, is the lead writeup. So you want to make sure you put the energy into it and stuff. I got to document this and show this to every new SDR that starts this year and say, “This is what you should be striving to achieve.”
[00:16:15] Not everybody’s going to get this, but if you can get to this sort of level or this sort of brevity, but also great content and it’s short, but it’s so hard hitting, you’re doing a phenomenal job. You’ll be very successful here. So thank you for that.
[00:16:26] Katie Lowry: [00:16:26] Yeah and it’s also something that you want visibility for the entire company. It’s not just your rep in the meeting. I still do them because marketing wants to see it, our CEO wants to see it, the conversations we’re having at the start. And so it’s way more important than people think to have a good lead writeup, because otherwise you’re not showing all the hard work that you have.
[00:16:47] Marc Gonyea: [00:16:47] I forgot about that point. It gets forwarded around to everybody and their mom, everyone. And if you write a shitty lead write up, people would think you’re shitty SDR or city sales professional, so, right, exactly right.
[00:16:57] Chris Corcoran: [00:16:57] It’s essentially prospecting pornography
[00:17:03] Katie Lowry: [00:17:03] And it doesn’t hurt to get a little praise every time you send one out. It’s hard work. So
[00:17:08] Chris Corcoran: [00:17:08] I would love to get that. If I was an AE or even now, seeing something like that, I’m like, “Hell, yeah, Hallelujah, keep going killer.”
[00:17:17] Katie Lowry: [00:17:17] And even if it’s like an inbound demo request, just having the extra information too, like, I’ll go out of my way to see if I can find like a 10 chain form from the company, see if they have any need. Just doing that work upfront shows a lot of value and kind of work that you are.
[00:17:31] Marc Gonyea: [00:17:31] Absolutely. But let’s go back. How did you get good at this? Cause you don’t show up at day one and able to write two and a half pages long single space lead write-ups but you got to like walk us through the process and you got to this on your own with people help from your mentor, your DM tells you on your own. Tell us.
[00:17:46] Katie Lowry: [00:17:46] Yeah. So, I had no idea about software security. And when Jeremy, like I said, show me my client ZeroNorth, I really had to start learning about what it was and you just have to have the mindset of like, that’s the way she goes. So let me do the best I can. And if I fail, I know security isn’t for me.
[00:18:06] And if you can’t gather that positivity and grit and don’t take control of the cards you were dealt with and frankly sales isn’t for you? I don’t think a lot of people have that growth mindset early on and kind of just live every day as a new one dreaming about one day being rich because they’re in sales and sales will make you money, right?
[00:18:23] But that’s a product of what you put in and that can be a very naive outlook. I don’t think that money can be your motivation. You have to find your passion within the products that you sell. And I think I just really took my sales hat off in the beginning and teach myself about security rather than sales and definitely a student of my own work.
[00:18:43] When I first started, I was following all these sales people on LinkedIn within the daily sales tips, podcasts, reading sales books. But once I got that foundation, I realized that what’s going to make me better is knowing my buyers day to day so that I can generally empathize with them rather than going through the motions of generalized sales tactics.
[00:19:00] I removed following Chelsea from LinkedIn and started joining security communities, connecting with prospects, reading about companies, security breaches, and competitors in the space. And that’s really when I started to take off around this time last year, it was just fucking really quality meetings and creating genuine relationships with cybersecurity people.
[00:19:21] Chris Corcoran: [00:19:21] So Katie who told you to do that?
[00:19:23] Katie Lowry: [00:19:23] No one, it came in front of me like I knew, I think one time, like I connected with someone on LinkedIn kind of conversation. And then from there I just realized what was going to work and what wasn’t. And it was really just a combination of all different channels that you can do.
[00:19:40] I remember at the beginning, when I was a young Cero by like even would send like personal notes to some of my prospects too. I really tried everything and I found my groove.
[00:19:49] Chris Corcoran: [00:19:49] So no one taps you on the shoulder and told you how to do that? You just had a burning desire to succeed and figured it out.
[00:19:56] Katie Lowry: [00:19:56] Yeah, I am definitely a very independent person going from a family of six and I knew that I wanted to make a name for myself. Definitely very interested in getting hired out.
[00:20:07] I really want to end up. And I mean, I already am owning my own territory, but teaching, working up and then have my own teams. But right now I’m super focused on being an individual contributor and doing the best that I can
[00:20:19] Chris Corcoran: [00:20:19] Before we move on. Winning is just a habit for you, Katie, whether it’s in cross-country or hockey or as an SDR, really winning is kind of like your specialty, even when it comes to the office, fantasy football league. Talk a little bit about that.
[00:20:40] Katie Lowry: [00:20:40] Yeah. I had never done fantasy football leagues, but my reboot is really good at having those culture events. So we had one and I just randomly chose a team. And I got really lucky because I had Christian McCaffrey on my team, but I ended up winning that. I love winning. You’re right. I don’t let anything bring me down. I have a really positive outlook on things. I hate victim playing and all of that.
[00:21:06] Marc Gonyea: [00:21:06] So, Katie, to give an example of some of the things you said you did. I talked to your old manager for a hot minute, Brendan Eyring. And he said that you were phenomenal at building, getting invested in the persona development and having quality conversations with prospects. But he also mentioned to me, this is an example, but I want you to tell the story about how you started listening to Alan Alford’s podcast for CSOs?
[00:21:30] Was it him and I guess David Spark? Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. Because that can be useful for some of the folks who are listening. They don’t really know what some of these things that you’re saying mean. Oh, they can go find out, but let’s just spell it out for them. Give an example of kind of how you took it upon yourself to kind of do this.
[00:21:47] Katie Lowry: [00:21:47] Yeah, that’s a good example. That’s probably one of my first notable wins of a book. So he used the CSO or a really big data company. And he had a podcast that I, if any of my prospects do anything, like that’s a big opening for me to dig in. So I listened to it, made sure that I had a question for him.
[00:22:11] I wasn’t going to pitch him. I took context from his podcast and related it to my company. And I said, I noticed that you said this, I was wondering what your thoughts are about this. Basically relating it back to my company. And he was like, while I’ve never had a sales person reach out to me who actually listened to my podcast and asked me an intriguing question rather than pitching like. “Let’s talk.” that was great. And that’s a very good example of my approach. It’s really about engaging people, not pitching
[00:22:47]Chris Corcoran: [00:22:47] Katie, that’s amazing. That reminds me of a story of one of the, the most impressive AEs that I ever worked with was when we first started this company. What he would do is he would, all day he would sell, right. But he would record CNBC at home, and then go and see who was on CNBC. And they would, these were typical executives at Fortune 500 companies. He’d watch their interviews and then he would determine what they were saying. He would relate it back to his solution and then approach that individual based on what he heard, and whether the solution could provide help. Highly tailored, highly unusual, requires a lot of work, and most people aren’t willing to do it. He was, he still does. And it gives you tremendous success.
[00:23:32] Katie Lowry: [00:23:32] I think I’m a lot more on the quality versus quantity side of things. And I think it helps you in the long run. And it’s definitely made me be able to ramp up as an AE quicker. I feel like I already have like a very large network of almost friends in security industry, whether they took a meeting or not.
[00:23:53] I just admire my prospects. I’m genuinely curious and their thoughts, which is unexpected from a salesperson. So I’ve built a lot of relationships with security professionals. I just treat them as humans. I’m not really wanting to pull the whole, like “I know I’m just a dumb sales guy.” I truly want them to know that I care about what they do. And I work for a company that’s trying to help them solve challenges.
[00:25:30] Let’s talk about that “I’m just dumb sales guy thing.” That’s another one of my little pet peeves. Well, tell us what that not pointing out, any person in know specifically, but talk about what that means and the definition of that and why that’s not the window.
[00:25:45] Yeah. I mean, I’m a big defender of what works for you, works and it might not work for somebody else. Like I think some people can use it in a way that. It’s self-deprecating enough where you’re just, you’re trying not to say I know everything under the sun, because a lot of people, especially in the security industry are like, “Okay, you’re just a salesperson. Don’t pretend like you know everything”, but I think it can sometimes be a little discrediting because while I don’t know, nearly as much about security as somebody who’s an actual technical person. I care a lot and I read a lot and I want to know more. So I don’t want to out front be like,” I really just carry along this call. I don’t have any actual input for you. My SE will do all that.” Like, I feel like it’s not a good way to show your credibility.
[00:26:38] Marc Gonyea: [00:26:38] Corcoran, what is that like? People who are de-valuing themselves as a sales professional, or what does that come from?
[00:26:43] Chris Corcoran: [00:26:43] Well, yeah, you’re devaluing yourself. I think that the curiosity and the interest is contagious, right? If you’re just going to say, Hey, I’m just here. I’m going to let the subject matter expert do all the talking. It doesn’t seem like you’re interested. It doesn’t seem like you’re professional.
[00:26:57] Not that you need to know all the answers, but you have to have interests and you can tell people, try selling to us all the time. I can tell if the salesperson has an interest or not. And so you want to have that thirst for knowledge and have that curiosity.
[00:27:13] Katie Lowry: [00:27:13] Yeah. Another thing is cyber security sales usually lead to less transactional sales and larger, more complex deal sizes, which might be a negative to some. But it’s definitely something that I see as a positive, because your motivation as a salesforce is to really center around finding solutions to problems. And I found my passion within that relating to ZeroNorth.
[00:27:33] And I think not finding that passion is what hurts a lot of people and it may divert to that “I’m just a salesperson” mentality.
[00:27:42] Chris Corcoran: [00:27:42] So, you’re bringing up an interesting point, Katie. Because in life, I think you see what you’re looking for and I would argue, you would find a way to find anything interesting, like security and you’re just like, yeah, this is interesting. This is fascinating. And then you start reading and then the more you learn, the more interested you become. And I think that’s kind of your outlook on life and I think that’s a real skill. That’s a skill that you have.
[00:28:03] Katie Lowry: [00:28:03] Yeah. I was lucky because I love innovative technology and I learned a lot about coding in school. I was definitely aware of making sure code was secure and the best class I ever took in college was called digital media and society, which talked a lot about surveillance, capitalism and how society offers up their data for free and very sensitive data is collected constantly while hackers are getting smarter. So while that’s a very high level of view why I should care about security, I use that as a baseline for why I’m in security and why I want to help companies solve challenges in the area. Because after all I am a consumer, and even with my knowledge, I know I don’t have the best security practice online.
[00:28:45] We all just trust that the websites we go to handle our data properly. So, if you think of how insurance companies are so successful because they don’t sell insurance, they sell security, peace of mind against unknown attacks. So they see you over the top, but that’s how I’m able to find passion in my work. I’m really in an industry that is making a difference for society in this crazy digital age we live in.
[00:29:08] Chris Corcoran: [00:29:08] Another thing that you talked about when we were preparing for this was just your organization and how you need to stay organized. Share with the listeners a little bit about your philosophy and give them tips on how to stay organized or whatever works for you.
[00:29:20] Katie Lowry: [00:29:20] We talked about this before that I keep a list of all people that haven’t engaged with us in an intro call or anything, but that I’ve spoken to. And so I’m always, I’m not pushing for the meeting immediately. I think a lot of prospects like how I can be hands-off because I’ve been at ZeroNorth for over a year now.
[00:29:41] So I have a pretty long list of people. So if they tell me to reach out in three quarters, I’m not like, “Oh, I won’t be here.” I’m like, “Okay.” And I put them in a separate list and so when the time is right, over time, I’ve gotten people who it’s the right time, they have a budget, add the need because I’ve let them tell me when time is right rather than being like, “Well, let’s just meet now” type of thing, which is what I had to do if they didn’t cause I didn’t have a backlog of anybody. So I even have people who we disqualify them based on their environment, or it just wasn’t a fit, but I’m still keeping them in my network. I frequently just to say hi to people, just because I know that in the future that they might become relevant again, and we might be able to help them with a different company, or if we have any more future updates, things like that.
[00:30:29] Chris Corcoran: [00:30:29] How do you stay organized? Are there some tools you use or you just keep it upstairs in your brain? Like, how do you keep track of all of this stuff?
[00:30:35] Katie Lowry: [00:30:35] Yeah. As much as I think I can keep up in my brain, I have to write everything done that I remember what the conversation was like. I had the big Excel doc of all those people and then I have a daily sales planner, but. It’s my baby. I don’t know what to do without it, constantly embracing in things I want to do in a day. If something pops into my brain to reach out to that person, it’s just some random reminded me. I’ll write that down.
[00:31:02] So I’m constantly giving things to the point where nowadays meetings would just pop up that I didn’t even remember, that was going to happen that day,
[00:31:10] Chris Corcoran: [00:31:10] This, I’m curious about, so, how long have you had a daily planner?
[00:31:14] Katie Lowry: [00:31:14] I just had like my calendar and a whiteboard for like random notes and stuff and I liked seeing when my meetings were going to occur, especially like when I had that strict quota. And then when I came to ZeroNorth, I had a lot of like internal stuff. Marketing’s a new thing. I had never experienced. And so I had to get really organized. So I got a planner and write everything down as much as I love technology. I’m pretty, hands-on when it comes to my daily life.
[00:31:45] Marc Gonyea: [00:31:45] So, Katie, when you’re there at memoryBlue, you’re doing your thing. What a transition, the kind of, looking at, going over ZeroNorth. What else today might be a favorite memory from your memoryBlue days?
[00:31:59] Katie Lowry: [00:31:59] Top’s Trip was incredible. Getting to meet people from the DC office and getting to spend more time with you guys and JD and Christian. And I already knew I was hired out. So that was a really big highlight of my career so far. But other than that, just the banter in the office. When you’re making a hundred cold calls a day, there’s nothing better than sitting with people you can laugh about bad calls and celebrate wins with and watching just so many people grow at the really the foundation of their sales career. I’m really excited to see all the people that I met, what they ended up doing and myself.
[00:32:35] Marc Gonyea: [00:32:35] And if you had to go back to the night before your first day at memoryBlue, what advice would you have for yourself knowing what you know now?
[00:32:41] Katie Lowry: [00:32:41] I think I was like, most, people’s like nervous about what client I was going to get. And it’s like other people would have better ones than me. But I just think that’s the biggest mistake you can make, thinking others have a better campaign than you do. You can’t eat looking over at the fence of your neighbor’s farm.
[00:32:59] And I think once I got there, all of those nerves went away. Like you said, I just, I went right into it. So it just calmed down essentially. And I was pleasantly surprised. So, once I met all the people at ZeroNorth, too, it wasn’t even about the software at that point, I was like, they’re building a whole culture and I love all these people walking the memoryBlue alum. And so I was really excited about that.
[00:33:23] Marc Gonyea: [00:33:23] Let’s talk about that. So ZeroNorth loves you so much. They said “Hey, memoryBlue. We like Katie so much. Hopefully, she’ll come work for us.” We’re going to talk to her about it and you then go to work there. Tell us a little bit about what she did at first, when you were working with, you mentioned some of those alums, and then I know you set your vision to a new role already. Let’s talk about what you’re doing in the new role.
[00:33:41] Katie Lowry: [00:33:41] Yeah. When I first came on, I had already knew what I was doing, but then it was just learning all the technologies that they use. So I was booking meetings just for the East Coast. I had two reps I had to book meetings for. And at that point I was like, I really understood ZeroNorth. And I was looking at a ton of meetings and even I would take intro calls. If my rep was busy, I would help them. It’s like somebody went dark after an intro call. I was really good at getting them back, by like sending a video or being creative in a way. And so once they saw that I was ready to be an AE, but I was still there. I was still working for like six months as an SDR.
[00:34:25] I was really. It was just me. So it’s helping building out the teams with Brandon, trying to figure out what processes work, but I changed so much my approach. I’m just not, it’s not like, Oh yeah, this is what I do and teach others. It was really hard to pinpoint that is, I’m just, I have such a unique approach and it’s constantly evolving, but yeah.
[00:34:46] So once they realized that I was kind of ready to be an AE, they let me takeover a lot of calls or if somebody wasn’t high enough, maybe I can just take the intro call, see if there’s actually value here.
[00:35:00] Marc Gonyea: [00:35:00] Let me jump in real quick, because this is like the number one question SDRs ask. They asked, how do I get from the SDR role into the closing role? And when did you start to talk about that was ZeroNorth. And how did you kind of make that come to fruition because it’s happened and everybody wants to do it? Like was that one-on-ones you had with Taylor? Was it understanding? It was to say I’m just doing a great job and gradually assert his responsibilities. Tell us a little bit about that.
[00:35:24] Katie Lowry: [00:35:24] Yeah. I mean, I think it started with the leadwrite up. I think a couple of them really stood out. Really lengthy conversations with a lot of technical back and forth. And I think that is like corresponded to the lead variables. Like this is just awesome. Like there, you’re going to be an AE in no time and you can talk like this. And then I took like, Oh yeah, I checked, there was a call.
[00:35:45] Chris Corcoran: [00:35:45] Hey, Katie. There’s a real fancy word for that. It’s called qualified. That’s the essence of great sales is being able to qualify opportunities and you were doing that, and then you were showcasing that in your lead write-ups
[00:36:01] Katie Lowry: [00:36:01] Yep. I had way too much of an ego to give any of my reps and meeting that I wouldn’t work so that’s a really needed to make sure that my meetings were qualified. And it had been, so this is like, I think a turning point too. There was a consultant who I was talking with and I was like, all right, I’ll just get on the call. There might be some clients that would be useful to ZeroNorth. And Brandon was like, I’ll just get on with you just to have someone there and turns out he had a consultant. It was just like a small consultant that he did on the side for like mom and pop shops. It wasn’t. He was actually a director of cyber security at a big company.
[00:36:34] And so I ended up running a call with him and got next steps and that’s never like, okay. So she actually just had a real call and got next steps. And I went into it completely blind thinking. I was just going to have a casual conversation with the consultant.
[00:36:49] Chris Corcoran: [00:36:49] The meter is always running and you never know. You never know what the opportunity is going to be or when the opportunities gonna present itself?
[00:36:55] Katie Lowry: [00:36:55] Taking initiative because nobody told me that I had to get on a call or take one beat, but I knew that no one was going to see that I was ready until I showed them.
[00:37:05] Chris Corcoran: [00:37:05] So I just Googled, Take Charge March and your picture came back, Katie. So tell us, let’s talk about some of the innovative ways that you, go about your selling. You were talking about how you’ve incorporated email into your prospecting. Can you talk to the listeners a little bit about what you do, how you do it and the success you’ve seen?
[00:37:26] Katie Lowry: [00:37:26] Yeah. So I try all angles. I think I really like LinkedIn because I like being able to see some context up front about what they’ve done and I need some sort of loophole. Like, I really don’t like just knowing someone’s title and trying to get them interested. I really want to know about what they do in a day to see if I can actually help them.
[00:37:46] And if I see a good profile, I try all angles. I call email and then I’ve been sending videos to people. Especially if they don’t or if they respond to me and then it goes nowhere. I just send a video and say, like, I know I sent you a lot of words. Just wanted to put a face to his name. I’m a real person and like you said this, and I give a little blurb about your norms related to what they said. And just like, I’m really just looking to have a conversation here. And the win rate is really high with those. I think if you just go out of your way. I just don’t do any mass emails like, just like, Hey, write down a list. I have a really personalized approach and like, ranking of how much effort I’m going to put in for someone.
[00:38:34] Chris Corcoran: [00:38:34] Masses is for asses.
[00:38:36] Katie Lowry: [00:38:36] And I don’t want to be the person that makes a mistake.
[00:38:39]Marc Gonyea: [00:38:39] I think it’s a testament to all this work you’ve been putting into learning the technology and the space and the personas. And now you’re able to be that much more effective because you put all the time in, right? You have to kind of spend, you have to spin the wheels a little when you don’t know the persona as well.
[00:38:54] You don’t have the space as well. And you’re kind of hoping you get a little bit fortunate with somebody on the phone yet to go the mass approach. But now you’ve put all the hard work in and that’s where some people get thrown off the path. Right? You’ve worked at memoryBlue, or you’ve been in sales long enough to know that if people were to give the energy and effort into the space and the personas and kind of figure out how to handle the objection.
[00:39:14] You can become more effective as you go, because you know more about things and you can be more relevant and you know how to pick the shot now.
[00:39:22] And you know that’s a skill combined with all these other things. When you get on the phone with this consultant, who’s going to kind of that call’s going to help that need to showcase for, “Hey, put me into a closing role.” You were expecting that call, but you know, the fruition of all the stuff you’ve been doing is paid off on that call, which is great.
[00:39:40] So now, once you get molded into the Account Executive role and tell us about what you’re doing now and kind of what the mission objectives of that.
[00:39:47] Katie Lowry: [00:39:47] Yeah. So, in August they were okay, well, you’re clearly be an AE, but they weren’t sure about giving you like an entire new comp plan, but there’s no one in the Midwest territory.
[00:39:58] So they figured, I can start running my own business in the Midwest, booking meetings for myself, but I’m still getting compensated on booking meetings for, any other reps because they don’t want me to be, I’m not compensated in that because I obviously, I want to have a lucrative career and I make money off each of those.
[00:40:19] So they let me continue doing that. But then as I started, It was a lot of fun to book meetings for myself. I hadn’t done before. And it was really easy to was my first line approach to be like, I’m going to be getting on the phone with you. I’m not going to just hand it over the second year on the call.
[00:40:35] And so. I started booking a lot of meetings for myself and I’ve had a lot of pipeline. I have about like 13 deals that I’m working. And after that a couple of weeks ago, my VP of sales was like, “I think it’s time that you just focus only on yourself. I want you to be totally immersed with it. I don’t want you feeling bad that you’re not booking meetings for the other reps or anything like that.”
[00:41:00] They’re building out. completely new SDR team and they just want me to on my own territory and my business. So now what I’m doing is completely the work of like a regional sales manager from start to closing.
[00:41:12]Marc Gonyea: [00:41:12] And what muscles did you develop now or in the end?
[00:41:16] Katie Lowry: [00:41:16] So I clearly have heard a million intro calls. I’ve endured all that path. And now it’s basically just as I move the needle, learning how that works, because I’ve never seen it before. So it was just like every subsequent call I have to ask questions. I, everybody in here is just so nice and very helpful and more want to see me succeed. So everybody’s at my beckon call and Taylor’s amazing. He gets on my calls too, so that he can coach me on the next one. And yeah, right now it’s just a constant keep pushing things forward every week. I make sure that I know that the most recent update on all of my deals, I hate. When, people like when you, cause when I even set up an Intro Call as an STR, I’d always be so concerned about where it went.
[00:42:07] I’m like, wait, why what’s the update on that? But I just want to make sure that every week I had an update, because I think a lot of deals fall through the cracks from RSM, just focusing on like what is happening in the present rather than making sure that everybody is a lot of worth.
[00:42:23] Chris Corcoran: [00:42:23] Hey Katie. So one thing that I know our listeners will want to hear, and I’m curious to get your take on is the balance between doing the homework, the pre-call research, understanding everything you can about who you want to call. And then actually just picking up the phone or sending out an email or dropping them a video.
[00:42:42] Because some people, all they’ll do is research and they won’t ever do any prospecting versus there’s other people who just, they don’t do any research. They just get on the phone or they send out emails. So you seem to have mastered, I want to do the right amount of research, amount of prep work and research, but not too much. So talk to me a little bit about how you found that Goldilocks amount of research and preparation.
[00:43:09] Katie Lowry: [00:43:09] Yeah, now that I have a pretty good process for prospecting, I definitely feel like because I would still get on every single, when I booked a meeting as an SDR, I was still on those intro calls and I would ask to be even on like the second call so I could start to learn how that works.
[00:43:26] And so, no, I mean, I’m just looking at my own meetings. So when I booked myself from things. It’s not like my time has been crunched because I’m getting on intro calls that I book anyways. so yeah, people I think are like, Oh my God, are you so time to straighten out the like two roles, but I think I’ve always wanted to be an AE and I’ve always wanted to be a part of the process.
[00:43:50] Anyways, I would always keep tabs with any meeting that I booked. So now that it’s owned entirely by me, it’s very fun. And like, I really enjoy being an AE, but I still loved my job as and SDR. Now I’m continuing to do that. And like you said, I think a lot of people don’t do prospecting or say they do, but don’t, but it’s something that I know I can do and proven to do.
[00:44:13] So I’ve booked a ton of beings for myself.
[00:44:16] Chris Corcoran: [00:44:16] Okay. So let’s just say, there’s an SDR who starts in these to support you and that individual’s going to start tomorrow. And you’re giving that individual advice. And you’re going to say, listen, you got to do some research, but you also got to do some prospecting. Set the guard rails in terms of, “Hey, this is how much research you should do.
[00:44:32] And this is how much, how many calls or how many emails you should do.” Just, can you set some, what sort of framework would you say? Because you don’t want that person just doing all research and no prospecting, and you also don’t want that person to be doing all prospecting and no research. Like how would you advise that individual?
[00:44:46] Katie Lowry: [00:44:46] Yeah, well, first of all, I’m never going to be putting pressure on SDR because I think they’re a nice to have, but I think as they, you should always make sure that you have enough for yourself. And then cherry on top, when an SDR books, you have a meeting. I think good advice is just at the beginning, it’s on a cyber clients or just that cyber company.
[00:45:05] It’s going to be really hard. It was for me, but it’s losing weight. Once you can get the results, you get better. And then it becomes a lifestyle. I think with a really highly technical product, the learning curve is just super flattered beginning, but then once it clicks, you’ll be able to talk about things that your company does, that nobody else in your life understands.
[00:45:23] And that feels really good. Do you have to just spend that time at the beginning, reading about your company as if it’s a college career, like course knowing the terms, listen intently on your demos and write things down, and then you can start shifting and carving out your craft and who you are as a salesperson.
[00:45:39] But I think at the beginning, when, if you combined that learning about the industry and then just doing classic sales activities, like pairing the phones, sending out emails, when you can basically, how any SDR has trained at any company. Once you do that, then I feel like everybody should be able to start figuring out what makes them and not be micromanaged because I think everybody can Excel in different areas.
[00:46:04] Chris Corcoran: [00:46:04] The fascinating thing that I’ve found is that the AEs who appreciate the SDRs need us the least, that guy who I talked to, who would record CNBC by day or by day and view it by night? He was the only rep that we wouldn’t support directly. Because he didn’t need it. He had so many opportunities in his pipeline what he said, “You know what? Just let the other reps have the leads from the SDRs.”
And it sounds like you’d come from that same school of thought that it’s really the, not even the icing on the cake, but really the sprinkles on the icing.
[00:46:36] Katie Lowry: [00:46:36] Yeah, I hope I don’t lose that too, because I don’t know if I’m just so close to being an SDR that I feel that pain, but yeah, it’s definitely my mindset.
[00:46:44] I hate when I hear SDRs, but because obviously I know a bunch of SDRs getting like the hammers from AEs. It’s like you have all the power to book your own meetings too. And if you thought it was that easy, you would do it. So I have, there’s no need for me ever to require any sort of, effort from an SDR I’d be happy with.
[00:47:06] If they give me something that’s incredible. I think we’re actually going to be, we’re interviewing a lot of SDRs right now. So I look forward to seeing how that relationship pans out being on the other side,
[00:47:16] Marc Gonyea: [00:47:16] They’re going to be fortunate they’ll get to work with you, whoever that ends up being. Katie, tell us where do you go from here? What are you focused on moving forward for you? So, you’ve gotten out of school, got into memoryBlue, the great learn the game and improved on the game from an SDR sales development standpoint, got converted by your client, and you’re in a great industry, and you’ve been able to catapult yourself into an account executive role. So what are you focused on now? Let’s say the next 12 months.
[00:47:41] Katie Lowry: [00:47:41] Yeah. On folks closing deals for the business. I’m so happy that I was promoted, but I need to prove that they were right. That I was ready. I just really wanted to get some numbers on the board and ride because we are a startup and we just keep hiring more and more people making the product better and we just keep building out. And so I really want to stay here, as long as that makes sense. And I love the people here. And then from there yet we either get acquired or I’m here, but if not, like I said, I keep tabs on the industry and I’m always looking at what companies are on that incline because now that I know what I want. Definitely in the security industry forever, but I’m trying to figure out what really interests me in the future. So I can find like that company that is perfect for me, but right now I’m here for as long as I can think out.
[00:48:40] Marc Gonyea: [00:48:40] That’s great. As you’re focusing on obvious things, I think you’ve told this, but what specifically are you doing to kind of keep the saw really sharp? Some podcasts? Is there anything else you haven’t mentioned because if I’m losing this podcast, I wanna know every little thing.
[00:48:54] Katie Lowry: [00:48:54] Yeah. I mostly just read on things that come out. Our company is really good about, like, we have a Slack channel where people put in industry news articles, they read that’s pretty much what I do.
[00:49:05] And every morning just looking at companies that just got a new round of funding. Not only security companies, because that’s interesting to see potential competitors, but funding for companies, because we’re in a good area for companies that are growing a ton because we implement security really quickly for companies that are building a ton of software.
[00:49:27] So. Yeah, it’s all about reading about the now. I think I’ve done in the past. I’ve learned all about sales and I know what words should be, but if something, if I feel like I’m hitting a dead end, then I’ll get right back into it. But right now I feel good.
[00:49:44] Marc Gonyea: [00:49:44] And what have you noticed. In your time, both at memoryBlue and at ZeroNorth, what are some mistakes you think people are making, or some obstacles are not successful in overcoming as you’ve kind of Europe?
[00:49:58] Katie Lowry: [00:49:58] Yeah, I think, people are afraid of cyber clients, but you guys have said, I think it’s a natural human instinct to fear the unknown. And I believe that’s, what’s caused that stigma around cybersecurity. I think people. Are afraid to sell something that they can’t immediately understand, but, understand is your prospects who will lose their job if they suffer a breach in security is only becoming more and more of a necessity as companies go digital.
[00:50:24] So I think good advice or SDR that are upset that they got put on a cyber client or they’re stressed out at the beginning. I just think like, just calm down if you’re a good salesperson or are aspiring to be, you want to be able to sell anything. So at the beginning, it’s really hard.
[00:50:40] But like I said before, that learning curve is just at the beginning. You feel like you’re never going to learn it. And then you hit a point and it’s just upwards
[00:50:47] Chris Corcoran: [00:50:47] Katie. A breath of fresh air is just a disservice. You’re more like a gale force wind of fresh air. How do we find more of you and more specifically, how do we get more women to follow in your footsteps and say, you know what, I want to do sales and I want to do high tech and I want to do cybersecurity. How do we get more people like you to enter the profession?
[00:51:10] Katie Lowry: [00:51:10] Yeah. So women sales, I honestly, I don’t know if I have the right thoughts and stopping me that the lack of woman has anything to do with the lack of opportunity for them to get a job in sales. And to me, being a woman has helped me soar. So what it comes down to is the lack of women interested in sales and it’s the same reason why there aren’t too many male nurses or male teachers, which is out of anyone’s control.
[00:51:36] I think it stems from two reasons. So one is because they typically choose a major that doesn’t talk about sales being a possible career choice. And I think the problem is stemming from the business school within colleges being male dominated. And that’s where you hear about a career in sales, whereas women who may major in communications, which is crucial to sales or even writing, no professor is talking about that as a potential for them to go into sales.
[00:52:04] And then the second thing. I don’t really know how else to describe this, but like the Wolf of Wall Street effect, I’m sure you can surmise what I mean by that. But sales has and will for a long time be viewed by just some people as sleazy selling me this pen, how long he’s on the job. And that’s just not attractive to a lot of women, but the reality is it’s not like that.
[00:52:25] And women are actually really good by nature at modern sales. There’s actually a lot of research done. I think I heard this from psychologist, Jordan Peterson, that really stuck with me is that men are generally more interested in things. And women are generally more interested in people. And what do you do all day long sales work with people and not to mention, of course they’re playing men do this to everyone.
[00:52:49] I worked with his, but we’re extremely empathetic and good listeners translates very well into the basics of a good seller. And I think people forget how the questions you ask are just as, if not more important, then the answers that you provide. And so, yeah, I think it really comes down to, we need to get colleges to promote sales in any major, because it’s not about business or what you majored in. It’s about a human to human connection.
[00:53:19] Marc Gonyea: [00:53:19] Well said, Katie, I mean, well, you probably ended on that note.
[00:53:30] Chris Corcoran: [00:53:30] That was a walk-off home run.
[00:53:33] Katie Lowry: [00:53:33] Yeah, I don’t think I feel bad that people think that the industry is pushing women out, but that is not the case at all. People, like, I feel more opportunity than anyone in the country.
[00:53:43] Marc Gonyea: [00:53:43] Well, listen, as you can see, obviously, Dell, Corcoran and I are big fans of you and your game. So, thank you for joining us today. You gotta deal with some competition than every good phenom, but, if you don’t win that, my guess is a woman of the year, somewhere, in your calling, as we progress down the career path of yours. Thank you for joining us.
[00:54:05] Katie Lowry: [00:54:05] Thank -you.
[00:54:06]Chris Corcoran: [00:54:06] Katie. I mean, if you ever want to hear someone who’s not looking back. Listen to this, and that was amazing. You are going after it. And I love listening to it. It’s going to, it’s going to be a privilege to have a ringside seat to watch you do your work. So thanks for joining us.
[00:54:22] Katie Lowry: [00:54:22] I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on.
[00:54:24] Marc Gonyea: [00:54:24] Okay. Take care. We’ll talk to you soon.
[00:54:26] Chris Corcoran: [00:54:26] Thanks Katie.
[00:54:27] Katie Lowry: [00:54:27] Bye