Conversations with Women in Sales

Laura Lakhwara leads GTM teams and customers in transformative strategies that empower businesses to streamline operations and scale efficiently with AI, automation, robotics, and data-driven insights.

She has an incredible background from working at IBM, a first-ever partnership with IBM and Apple, and other companies like UI Path and Softbank Robotics. 

We had a great conversation - her expertise spans market entry strategies, en...

I had a great conversation with co-author of the new book, "The Activator Advantage"'s Karen Freeman. Here is some information about the book from DCM Insights: 

There is a growing problem in the professional services industry that is often acknowledged but rarely discussed openly: clients—even long-standing ones for whom firms have delivered unquestioned value in t...

Tracy Young has been on our radar for some time, having co-founded PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk) and now co-founder of TigerEye - a GTM modern analytics platform. As a successful co-founder, Tracy has a natural sales background combined with her engineer background - a powerful combination. 

On the TigerEye website, the company's core values are: Wholehearted, Humility, Kaizen, Trust, and Simplicity. Tracy discusses how she leads...

Erica has helped build a global team at Workiva where everyone has a "me vs. me" mentality - working to improve ourlseves, not a competitive "me versus you" attitude. How can you get better? How can you deliver the best to your clients and internal consitutents. 

Erica was named "Manager of the Year" and she says it is because of her incredible team. 

We talked about holding people accountable - such an important issue for leaders ...

Amber Hayes is currently Director of Sales at a Toronto company called Voices, which is the #1 marketplace for voice-over. We had a great conversation about how you need to pivot and embrace change within your company so that it doesn't outgrow you. 

She started at Voices as a Project Administrator, and listen to the episode to learn more about her move to sales, and now sales leadership. Amber is in her 11th year at Voices - unusu...

The time has come where we hit 200 episodes and it was a pleasure to have on good friend and "Sales Energizer" Alice Heiman. Alice also hosts a great podcast called Sales Talk for CEOs. 

We need to keep talking about more women in sales and sales leadership since we still have huge opportunities for more women in sales and sales leadership. 

Alice and Lori talk about the last ten years of effort to help create inclusive B2B sales t...

Cynthia Cross was all set for a career in accounting when she went to college. A wise professor suggested she would not like that major and encouraged her to do something else where she could utilize her social skills and outgoing personality more. Upon graduation she moved to Wichita, Kansas and met a sales manager who encouraged her to get into a sales role. 

Cynthia says the throughline in her entire career has been who she know...

Katie McDonald was in sales previously. Now she coaches women in self-care because of so many of us who have gotten burned out or just put ourselves last. Hear some of Katie's suggestions for your crazy busy life. She talks about "ME management" 

It's all about self-care strategies because the fact is most of us are running on fumes and we're borrowing future energy to get through today. Katie wants to disrupt that. Wh...

Sarah Kiley has had a sales caree where she's risen through the ranks.  She's built a reputation for aligning people, processes, and technology to deliver measurable outcomes. Whether it’s launching new products, driving cross-functional collaboration, or spearheading strategic initiatives, she has focused on creating value for customers, partners, and stakeholders alike.

More about Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkiley/

Samantha Craig wanted to be a teacher. She got through school but then had a hard time finding a job. She knew she loved to travel so she wondered if she could travel somewhere and teach. 

Sam ended up teaching for a year in South Korea. 

She came back to her home state of Massachusetts and realized she wanted to teach somewhere else so set off for Washington, DC. 

At some point Sam considered a job "until she got her teaching job"...

Kayla Burke is an Enterprise Sales Specialist at Microsoft and Founder of "The Tech Level" helping others to get a tech sales role. 

When Kayla graduated from college she became a business analyst but found that it didn't bring her much joy in her job. A random person told her about sales hiring going on at IBM and she ended up becoming a Business Development Manager - and has loved technology sales ever since. 

In addition to bein...

I first met Andrea Sittig-Rolf in the early 2000's - we had both recently launched our B2B sales consulting businesses and she was about to get her first of several books published.  Fast forward to now, and she has a 22 year track record of success in helping thousands of sellers and hundreds of companies with the "top of funnel" prospecting part of professional selling. 

More about Andrea: 

2021 - 2024 CRN Woman of the Channel. T...

Our goal at Women Sales Pros is to help support women in existing B2B sales roles to thrive, to get into leadership if they want to, and to recognize the companies and allies doing great things. 

This is a short episode with host Lori Richardson to cheer on 2025 and share resources like these ones: 

Find podcasts, women in sales organizations, and more here at Women Sales Pros - https://womensalespros.com/resources/

Get an e-newsle...

Ayana Gardner was recently named as one of "300 Women Making an Impact in B2B SaaS" so it is great that she kick off our first episode of 2025. Ayana is a ZCX Channel Leader at Zoom. 

We are also starting 2025 with our Q1 sponsor, RapidScale.

Ayana has been in sales for a number of years and loves her current position which involves working with Zoom channel partners - a huge opportunity in B2B sales as so many companies sell throu...

I always laugh about how so many women do wait to be tapped on the shoulder by a leader in the company to move into a different role - this did happen to Tania who began her career in her 20's in marketing. 

Tania now is a successful author, former corporate enterprise seller, and now runs Mindful Quadrant. We had a great conversation covering a lot of ground. 

Tania is working on a new version of her great planner currently sold a...

When Elitsa and I spoke, we had many stories about competent women in sales and leadership roles who wait to get the "tap" on the shoulder to be promoted. Our male counterparts TELL their boss that they expect to be promoted many times and they initiate introductions with some of their C-level leaders, heads of other teams in their company and proudly state their accomplishments. 

Are we too shiy to also do that, or is it in how we...

April Marks leveraged the communication skills she got in college to help her launch into a sales career - first as a BDR, then right into an Enterprise Sales role. She is currently at Pangea. 

My current role enables customers to leverage processes integrating API-based security services and strategically managing enterprise accounts, currently at Pangea. I am driven by the mission to streamline security processes, which resonates...

Kaivona Parker works with companies and individuals to help get more underserved folks into tech sales and support and champion them to success. 

We talked about the notion of people saying to bring your "whole self" to work, but in reality we can't all do that. 

Kaivona wants to help build up those in sales to help them grow and flourish. She trains, coaches, and is an all around sales enablement pro, with career stops at Grainger...

The book Ask Like an Auctioneer has a mission: to help 1 Million women ask for more and get it. 

But it’s not just for women.  It’s for you if you want to:

• Get the raise of your life
• Land that partnership that can change everything
• Expand your influence in your domain
• Secure that whale of a client
• Refuse to lowball yourself