Conversations with Women in Sales

If you have ever wanted bigger deals to build or to work on, you need to know our guest this episode, Dr. Barbara Weaver Smith. Having known Barbara for the last 10 or so years, I don't know why she hasn't been on the show sooner - and today she is talking about a new service she's launched utilizing generative AI, "Barbara AI" and the launch of her online Whale Hunters Institute. 

Barbara runs The Whale Hunters and is entirely foc...

It started for both Cherilynn and me by selling Girl Scout cookies. Like me, she LOVED selling cookies, and it seems to be one of the commonalities in our sales careers. 

Cherilynn Castleman wants to empower 1 million women for C-suite success by 2030!

She is a force to be reckoned with - listen to our conversation and how we both want everyone to know how selling is really helping others. 

Learn sales skills and become "too good t...

Hannah and I had a rousing conversation about all things sales. Hannah is founder of Revenue Funnel and is based in London. She and I talked about many topics - including: 

A Conversation with Hannah Ajikawo - Journey from Sales to CEO and Founder of Revenue Funnel

In this episode, Hannah Ajikawo, CEO and Founder of Revenue Funnel, discusses her journey through experiences in Sales to forming her company. Raised in inner-city area...

In a candid conversation, communication expert and sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners, Jen Mueller shares her perspective on maintaining focus and supportive beliefs amidst challenging times, such as a difficult economic climate or personal setbacks. She discusses the significance of honesty in assessing failures and emphasizes the importance of competing against oneself to improve. Jen also highlig...

Carole Mahoney has written an excellent book for sales professionals and entrepreneurs on collaborative selling and in changing the sales industry. She mixes in stories, anecdotes and statistics to help one learn and improve around critical sales skills and mindset for success. 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background

00:59 Carol's Journey and Book Contribution

02:48 The Impact of 'Buyer First' on Salespeople

04:57 The Concept of C...

I hadn't planned an episode about "She Sells" but jumped at the chance when a wonderful interviewer, Caroline Jones, offered to ask me about it. This session is dedicated to those who helped me with their stories and stats which are included in the book. It is exciting, too, that it just won "FIRST PLACE" in Top Sales Magazine's Sales Book of the Year. Wow. 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:26 Discussing the Impact of 'She S...

Kristie's parents were both in real estate sales and Kristie grew up hearing her parents  talk at the dinner table about commissions, sales, and more. After getting a degree in Journalism from University of Kansas, she ended up as a waitress and then worked for the legendary Kansas City department store called The Jones Co (later became Macy's) 

Kristie worked as a sales leader for companies like Network Solutions, Gainsight, and N...

We had a big year at Women Sales Pros and now are going through the review of all of our wonderful podcast guests in 2023. I would like to thank all of our guests for their focus and contribution to topics we discussed such as:

Getting into sales in the first place as a woman or another "only" 

Growing in your sales career

Becoming a sales leader - what is required? 

Dealing with a "male majority" environment and if you are a leade...

Riley Blaisdell is currently a Major Market Account Executive at Paycor. In his AE role, I'd say Riley has done more for helping shine a light on women in sales than many senior leaders I know. He has done this through his growing visibility on LinkedIn. Right now during "Women in Sales" month, he's talking up different women in sales each day. 

I noticed that Riley has this list of women he gladly shares anytime one of the "bro's"...

Rana Salman, MBA PhD, is the author of the new book, Sales Essentials: The Tools You need at Every Stage to Close More Deals and Crush your Quota. She is CEO of Salman Consulting, started in research, and stumbled (as she says) into sales and consulting.  Rana is also co-founder of WISE (Women in Sales Enablement) We had a great conversation about her childhood and how her dad's sales role made a huge impact on her. 

For more info:...

Miram (Mimi) Ebrahim is Brand Sales Leader for the GTM Team at Yelp. She has been in sales and sales leadership for more than eight years and has a background in television production and has an MBA. We talked about how she got into sales in the first place, what she loves about sales, and has tips for reaching prospects in addition to lots of other great advice. "When I think of No, I think of KNOW" and she tells her reps, "Your g...

After hearing Rhasheeda Hughes on a panel webinar, I had to invite her to join our podcast so that others could learn about her journey and her strategies for being a successful woman in sales leadership. 

Rhasheeda has a proven record as a sales expert, trainer, and team leader with a reputation for enhancing organizational capabilities. She led a national team of 10 Account Managers with full responsibility for team hiring, devel...

It was a LinkedIn post that got my attention.  Sales managers are acting poorly, according to Tara Ryan's coachees. As an Executive and Leadership Coach, she's heard more complaints from women in sales roles about managers with lack of empathy, perhaps fear-motivated. 

I couldn't let the conversation go - so we recorded. 

What is important to you in a sales manager? 

I wrote about making reps more coachable, with some very interest...

When you think about careers for women in sales, we typically talk about revenue responsibility roles plus sales leadership. In the past 5-7 years we started to see sales enablement roles as well as RevOps. .Personally I get a little confused between enablement and ops, so I brought on a team of RevOps leaders at Xactly to help us understand what their roles are and how they both got into them. Meet Bayley Fesler, Director, Revenue...

Jaquelin Jenkins is Executive Director of Client Services at Tangible Security, having worked previously at Citrix and other orgs. She graduated from University of Alabama with degrees in Political Science and Communications - so how'd she end up in sales roles? Listen to this episode and learn how she pivoted once she realized how much she loved working with people and the idea of sales in her head for some reason. 

As a 5th gener...

Radhika Shukla is a long time sales leader in the tech sales space, working for big brands like Microsoft and IBM.

We have a wonderful conversation about all of the skills and traits that women bring to the table when we are able to be our authentic selves. 

Join us to learn...

This is an important episode for anyone who has ever been paid less than their peers doing the same role, or who was fired while pregnant (yep, it still happens in 2023) or who got downsized and didn't negotiate severance - my guest, Dan Goodman will cover it all. 

Dan is Founder and CEO of TruCommish, an app that helps verify true commission - and Dan also has been shining a light on horrible compensation situations that companies...

Katherine Andruha has been leading sales teams for 14 years at brands like Aruba Networks, Anaplan, Sugar CRM, Cloudflare, and now at Simpplr. Katherine's advice, "Focus on your job, and hit your numbers - you'll be OK" - 

She also advises to speak up about your career goals and be intentional. 

Katherine is now focused on strategy in her leadership roles. She encourages women to not just settle for a position - "life is too short ...