Meet Grace Coughlan, District Inside Sales Leader, UK Large Corporate and Corporate Acquisition at Dell Technologies. 

I had the great pleasure to meet Grace during a Women in Tech Event a couple of years ago. I must say I was always truly impressed with her sales career and how she succeeded in her leadership role. 

According to the 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are underrepresented in B2B sales in most industries, and only 12% of that number are female sales leaders. 

Grace will share her journey of becoming a successful Sales Leader and share some career tips for any females looking for advice on enhancing a career in sales.  #InternationalWomenDay2021

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your journey in sales?

Like many young women in their early twenties, I was unsure of my career path. An opportunity arose to pursue an entrepreneurial venture that involved me ‘selling’ my business concept to investors and potential clients. With no previous sales experience and no one else to rely on to get my business off the ground, I quickly learned that sales is essentially the ability to understand your customer, their challenge/need and be able to articulate how your product/service can solve that. To be able to do so with honesty, transparency and ultimately build a trusting relationship with the customer is the essence of a good sales person. I had a natural flair for this, so when my experience as an entrepreneur reached a conclusion after a couple of years, I decided that I should pursue a career in B2B sales. At the time in 2011, technology was and still is the fastest growing industry in the world so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to join Dell Technologies as an Inside Sales Representative. My career has evolved in Dell over the last 10 years from inside sales rep to product specialist to sales coach to my current role now as a District Inside Sales Leader managing a team of incredibly talented sales account managers.

Why do you think there aren’t more women in sales?

I think previously sales was perceived as high stress, aggressive, time-demanding career choice which perhaps led women to fear that they would struggle to balance career and family life however I think there has been a critical shift of this perception in the last few years. I am proud to say in my organization we have an excellent balance of both male and female salespeople and most importantly this equal balance is concurrent in senior sales leadership positions. Dell actually has an excellent mentorship program called Stem Aspire which is a year-long mentoring program for women who are currently at University and who want a career in Technology after graduation. But making the transition from University to that first job in Technology can be so daunting they may never consider it. STEM Aspire sets out to make this transition easier. Many organizations across different industry verticals sponsor similar programs, which is fantastic.

What obstacles have you faced during your career, and how did you overcome them?

My biggest obstacle throughout my career to date has been my own self-doubt. I am aware of speaking with female peers and mentors that this is very common in women no matter what career they are in. It is known as ‘imposter syndrome’. It is an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. Men can experience this also. However, it is widely known to affect women much more. This has led to me procrastinating too much in the past about taking steps forward in my career due to fear of failure or suffering unnecessary anxiety ahead of key presentations or engagements. I have learned to internally check myself on these feelings, and now I simply ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’! 🙂

What would be a piece of advice that you can give to other women who want to develop their career in sales?

Women have a tendency to read a job spec for a promotion or a new role, and if they do not have 100% of the desired skill or experience, they will entertain thoughts that they are not good enough or not ready. My advice would be if you have even 50-60% of what the job spec is looking for, then go for it! By putting yourself out there, often hiring managers will recognise your drive and ambition to make up for the rest by upskilling on the job, which is very attractive to a potential candidate. I was given this advice early in my career by a male mentor, and he was absolutely right.

What do you think are the most important attributes to be successful in sales today? Do you think it has changed in the past years?

The most important attributes are, as mentioned, the ability to be honest, transparent and the ability to build a trusting relationship with your customer. To achieve this, you sometimes need to walk away from a sale if it is ultimately not going to benefit the customer or perhaps your business. This is key because you may not get that sale, but the customer will see you as a ‘trusted advisor’ and will endeavour to do business with you on other projects. I do think this has changed from times past when naively sales people would aggressively try to make the sale no matter what without much thought of the bigger picture or longer-term relationship with the client.

Any tactics that you would share on how you can grow your sales career and sales skills. 

In order to grow your sales career and skills, you must constantly be educating yourself. Educating yourself on industry and market trends (both your own and your customers). Educating yourself on macro-economic conditions of your market. Educating yourself on your product/service and how it can address challenges/needs. Educating yourself on sales communication techniques. Every day has to be a school day, as the saying goes. A colleague of mine once used the analogy that sales people educating themselves continuously are like professional athletes who need to constantly train and stay agile in order to win out on the pitch against the competition.

Why should you read it?

Why can broad experience be an advantage? In a world where we all feel the pressure to specialise very early in our career and become “experts” in a narrow field, David Epstein shows the real value of diverse experience and a broad spectrum of interest and their impact on the professional career. This book has been recommended to me by one of the mentors at the Mentoring Club. It has definitely changed my perspective on early specialisation and the value of the broad experience in professional life.  It gives hopes to everyone who struggles to focus on one idea in their career:) 

What is the book about?

The author gives examples of professional athletes, science, and business people to illustrate the difference between deliberate training and more broad experience and explain the latter’s advantages. According to the author and his research, the “tendency to rely on the experience of familiar patterns can backfire horribly”. Experience and interest in different fields give us perspective and develop abstract thinking and problem-solving skills, which are highly required in the current job market. Problem-solving skills are linked to the wicked learning environment where rules are not clear, and you can’t find any familiar patterns. In that unfamiliar environment, narrow experience does not improve outcome or performance but leads to poor choices.  To develop abstract thinking, you have to gain knowledge in different areas. What’s more, broad experience drives innovation and shifts the attitude towards learning. 

The book is a great inspiration and encouragement for anyone to experiment with different things in their career before choosing your speciality early in your life.

A lot of people struggle to craft a resume when they are thinking about a career change.  What details should you include? What is relevant, and what is not?

When you consider how many resumes each recruiter or a single company receive daily, you realise that they don’t spend much time reviewing every single bullet point on it. They scan them very quickly, looking for keywords that grab their attention. If you are thinking about a career change, you will have to revamp your CV and show the skills that apply to the new job. 

Put yourself in the state of mind that the intention is to create a resume that stands out.  Your resume is a “brochure” of what you have achieved and how you can use that for your new employer in the future. Its main purpose is to sell your skills and experience, and the product you are selling is YOU. You have to think about it as your sales pitch. 

If you are going into a new line of work, here are some best practices that you should follow when you start working on your CV. 

1. Craft your resume based on the Job Description.

Read the Job Description and analyze the keywords, key qualities, and competencies required for the role. Look for matching traits. Use the right language in your resume that matches the language of the Job Description. 

2. Write your summary statement to explain what type of position are you looking for.

In a couple of sentences, you have to answer the question of why someone should hire you! It doesn’t have to be long but include a brief description of professional you.

3. Highlight the skills that are directly related to the work objective and position. 

I know that the career can be a rocky road, but focus on skills directly related to the role that you are applying for. Don’t use the same standardised CV that includes all you did so far in your life- you limit your chances to be selected to the next stage of the interview. 

4. Articulate clearly your previous work history. 

It sounds obvious, but it’s a widespread mistake that I still keep seeing. Make sure that your resume includes all company names, length of the service and position titles. If you moved internally in the same company or got promoted, make sure that your CV reflects that too.

5. Quantify your achievements.

Instead of listing your main responsibilities, show your direct impact during the time with the tie company. It’s important to include in your CV your responsibilities, but when you do that, tell the story showing your direct impact on the business within your role and relevant to the role that you’re applying for.

Job interviews can be a stressful experience for anyone who is looking for a new job. There are plenty of different types of interviews, but I’m sure that you’ve heard about behavioural interviews in the past. If you are looking for a job now or preparing for this type of interview, it should be your priority no 1 to understand it. Well build CV can tell the recruiter if the candidate has a skill required for the role. However, an interview is a critical step to evaluate this skill. Don’t panic! We have some practical tips on how you can be more tactical and master your skills here.

What is it a behavioural Interview?

Behavioural interview, known as a competency-based, is an interview where the candidate is asked to give an example from their previous experience to predict their future performance. The best way to answer them is to use STAR methodology to help people structure their answers for behavioural questions in specific and easy to understand compile way.

Let’s break down the STAR framework.

STAR stands for:

STAR Framework is invisible but gives you structure and strategy to come up with the impressive answers. It’s practical in application, helping to articulate your experience and tell the meaningful story. It’s challenging to know what type of questions exactly the interviewer will ask you. Questions are designed based on the competencies that are required for the role and usually  start with:

“Can you tell me about the time, when…?”

“Describe the situation when …”

Based on the Job Description, you can predict some of them. Having that in mind, it’s important to have a few examples, you can adapt to a different situation. Mastering how to use the technique will help you organize your thoughts and ideas and build your confidence during the interview.

Nail the STAR framework

1. Be tactical! Learn how to read the job description and aim to find the required competencies for the role. Look for the keywords that will lead you to those competencies.
2. Think about the examples of your success and practice telling the story using the methodology. Great to have a few examples you can adapt to a different situation.
3. Have a mature reflection on your failures. How would you speak about them using the STAR framework?
4. Quantify your success, use numbers and data to show your direct impact on the result.
5. Be specific and concise- 1-2 sentences to each part is enough!
6. Do not memorise the answers; learn how to answer questions using the technique!
7. Practice, practice, practice!

Moving to a new country is a big step in everyone’s life and a memorable experience and golden opportunity to discover yourself and expand your horizon. Getting adjusted to the new norm and country routine can be exciting but intimidating at the same time. It’s important to understand people you come to and break into the local community. You might face countless barriers, but mixing outside with the local society, it’s a crucial part in adjusting to a new environment.  A good start point is to examine the history of the country and their impact on the nation.

I’ve been living in Ireland for the last 15 years. Still, I constantly learn something new about the country surviving Viking Invasion, the Great Famine, Easter Rising and War of Independence.

The Story of Ireland Documentary explains Ireland’s history and its cultural, social and economic evolution.

Inspiring reflection on the history of Celtic Tiger.

Why should you read it?

We all face problems, either in our professional or personal life.  When problems come, we tend to overthink and fear them. Fear blocks us to take essential actions to overcome and solve them.  But what if we change problems into challenges and shift our negative mindset into motivation, and create a plan with the actions and desire to improve ourselves and our life?

What is the book about?

I’ve always been a big fan of Wladimir Klitschko. A couple of years ago I was able to attend his speech during a Web Summit in Lisbon where he spoke about his personal philosophy and the preparation to take the next step in his career, after being active sportsman (but I will write a separate article about it).

Challenge Management shows the way how to overcome the challenges (that’s how Klitschko calls problems in his book) in a constantly changing world. Using his own experience as a professional athlete, Klitschko provides a framework which lets you build a successful action plan to overcome those challenges. The framework is easily transferable into business or personal life.

During his journey as an athlete, he developed the philosophy himself, showing 5 steps of success:

1. State your goal clearly.
2. Be aware of the consequences.
3. See yourself at the goal.
4. Find companions.
5. Become obsessed with your goal.

This book is an inspirational guide how to change problems into challenges, with a list of the recommendations of action plan to build your positive attitude and motivation to overcome them, by recognising opportunities where others see problems.

Have you applied for a sales role and the recruiter has reached out to you inviting you for the first stage interview? You haven’t been interviewing for a while, and you don’t know what type of questions you can expect? Feeling nervous? Of course, more you prepare- less nervous you will feel on that day. I’ve been interviewing for sales roles for almost 2 years, and here come 5 tips that can help you prepare for the first round of the interview process:

1. Read about the company.

Always come prepared to the interview, do research about the company and have a good understanding of the company’s culture and mission. A quick look over the company website isn’t enough. Know the product and service that they offer- you don’t have to be an expert but be capable of having a good discussion around it.

2. Understand the role.

Remember to read the job description carefully and be able to discuss it. If you are interested in more than one role- that’s perfectly fine! But be familiar with both of them! Map your skills against each of the job descriptions. Think about why you want this role, and why you think you are a good fit.

3. Be able to sell your previous experience.

Usually, you have only 30 minutes to make your first impression and make sure that you sell yourself as a solid candidate for the role.  You need to have a story to tell about yourself. We want to know what was your sales cycle in the past. Have you been in a farmer or hunter role? Did you focus on net new business or existing accounts? How big were your customers?

4. Speak about your targets and previous deals.

The best way to show your success in sales is your previous metrics. Be ready to walk the recruiter through your previous KPIs and most successful deals that you’ve closed. Any deals that you are proud of?

5. Ask questions.

I love questions, and I ALWAYS leave some time in the end for a candidate to ask them! Have a good set of them ready.

If you haven’t been interviewing for a long time, remember, practice makes perfect! Here comes a list of most common sales job interview questions and how to answer them.  You can ask someone to help you practice answering them!

Last week we were celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week. Not that many of us know that from Friday 9^th of October to Thursday, October 15^th runs Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK to show support, raise awareness and recognize on such an important subject that many people have no idea how to act with when they hear about it. Each day focuses on a different topic and on Monday 12th there was an emphasis on bereavement in the workplace after a baby loss.

Did you know that baby or pregnancy loss is NOT a rare experience?

Baby loss affects 1 in 4 women in the UK through the miscarriage, stillbirth, or very early death of a newborn. Miscarriage occurs in around 25 % of the pregnancies, where 1% of women experience recurrent miscarriages. When you look at the number, you can see how common that is, and yet still feels like a taboo topic in general. Losing a baby is associated with the women’s physical pain, where depending on the medical procedure might last up to a couple of weeks.  But according to the research, pregnancy loss is also linked to post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and sleeping disorders, an extended state called “complicated grief”, affecting both mother and father. It is important to note that return to work following the loss of the child or pregnancy is extremely difficult and heavy for parents, especially if it is poorly managed.

The impact of pregnancy loss and returning to work. 

Grief is often associated with crying in the corner, but we have to be aware that, in reality, it is a very individual thing about how grief is expressed. Energy and effort to engage at work during the grieving process is difficult. People who come back to work after such an experience might be different, and their perspective on life may have changed too. Returning to work is extremely difficult for grieving parents, as they have to not only cope with their own feelings but also with other people feeling awkward with them. Support from others is one of the crucial things in this process, and it impacts their experience directly. We don’t talk enough about pregnancy loss in society, and we don’t know what to say or how to react to it.  As a result, bereaving parents may feel isolated and alone.

There is a huge misconception that people should manage bereavement themselves.  No reaction is the worst thing that can happen, so is the lack of acknowledgment. Be mindful. Think about the language on how to handle the conversation as words in the conversation are most important. Silence doesn’t really help. Never assume that they are fine, and they move on. There is no getting over; people who lost the baby will always feel that emotion. Simple kindness can do a lot, and reassurance that they are not alone can make a big difference.

Break the silence- raise awareness!

There are plenty of organizations (list below) helping raise awareness and break the silence around pregnancy and baby loss, providing help for parents but also offering training for employees and managers to understand the journey of bereaving colleagues. Building knowledge can help you to get the confidence to best support your colleagues at work, going through such a difficult experience.

sands.org.uk

heldinourhearts.org.uk

babyloss-awerness.org

Irish Miscarriage Association 

Why should you read it?

If you are worried about too many things in your life, this is definitely a book for you.

I came across Mark Mansons’s blog almost 2 years ago, and I must admit- it helped me a lot to change my approach to how I live my life. Why? It was a wake-up call to realise that I  worry about too many things in my life. There is a certain level of energy each of us has. Make sure that you utilise it wisely and spend on things that are important in your life so you can live an enjoyable and meaningful life.

What is the book about?

It’s a self-help guide based on both academic research and authors personal experience, showing his shadows and struggles with finding happiness, mixed with joyful stories and silly jokes. It gives advice which aims to help you to focus on the most important aspects of your life. Mark Manson, the author and well-known blogger, argues that in reality, it isn’t really practical or helpful to be “always positive”. Most of us struggle in our daily lives by carrying for too many things where care don’t deserve to be given. The author recommends that you have to figure out what really matters in your life and develop the ability to control and manage it while accepting your own limitations. Sounds easy, but in reality, it’s not!

As a society, we are all aware of our differences. Yet there is considerable evidence that unconscious bias affects many of our daily decisions. We tend to think that unconscious bias exists only in relation to issues such as race, sexuality or disability but in fact it impacts recruitment, access to healthcare and education.

Over the summer I watched a TED video of Safat Saleem. He spoke about the fact that he was often mocked for his accent. Intrigued, I searched online for similar stories. In recent years I too have experienced discrimination about my accent and where I come from. Have you ever heard of linguicism – discrimination based on a person’s language or dialect? How common is it to judge people for the way they sound?

What is linguicism?
Linguicism, also known as linguistic discrimination, is the unfair treatment of a person due to their language, accent, vocabulary, tone, rhythm or phrase structure. Linguicism is not new and unfortunately, it is quite common. The term was introduced by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas over 30 years ago. There is a field of study called sociolinguistics that examines the sociological aspect of language.

The accent is often seen as one of the main characteristics when identifying someone as a being foreign. However, bias against a foreign accent is not formally recognized as a form of discrimination. An accent may influence one’s opinion about someone else. Research shows that “it takes us less than 30 seconds to linguistically profile a speaker and make quick decisions on their ethnic origin, socioeconomic class, and their backgrounds.”

The way we speak is a part of our identity. It gives the listener some indication as to where we were born or grew up. This means that in less than a minute we may assume someone’s origins background, and draw upon stereotypes and often make negative assumptions.

How your brain processes accent?
Scientists have been studying this area to try to understand it more. If you are not used to hearing foreign accents it is more challenging to understand them. Each language has its own melody, phonetics, rhythm, the structure of sentences, stress and intonation. Each language uses the organs of articulations differently, so that phonetic sounds in every language are different. Jurgen Habermas explains in his Theory of Communicating Action that in a perfect world to understand each other correctly, we would have to speak the same language. When we are born, we are capable of pronouncing every single sound of the human language. As we grow, we learn the sounds that are specific to our language. As a result, the older we get the more challenging it becomes to learn new sounds as a part of another language. Shiri Lev-Ari, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, put forward the idea of linguistic discrimination in an experiment and asked both native and nonnative English speakers to record the sentence “Ants don’t sleep”. Later, the recordings were rated for their accuracy. Interestingly, the voice with the heaviest accent was rated as being the least accurate. The recording by a native English speaker was ranked as the most accurate. LevAri explains that when listening, our brains parse information and understanding a foreign accent requires extra effort. As a result, we often question the accuracy of non-native speakers.

The linguist Vivian Cook showed in her 2016 study that foreign-language speakers are often not evaluated on skills and achievements but on their linguistic distance from an “ideal” native accent. It is often assumed that non-native speakers are less knowledgeable and capable in their work. We all have been in a situation when we struggle to understand someone’s idea. However, when it happens with a non-native speaker, the assumption is that they don’t understand the language.

We are all biased!
During HubTalk this year, Khalil Smith from Neuroleadership Institute explained that everyone who has a brain has a bias. It stems from an evolutionary standpoint. The first step to tackle bias is to accept it! Once this is done, we must label them in order to reduce them. Smith identifies five seeds of bias: Bias for similarity, where we tend to think that people like us are better than those different from us; Bias for Expediency: fast is the best and slow is bad; Bias for my personal experience: out self-perception and perception of the world are accurate; Bias for distance: closer is better than distant; and Bias for safety: The bad around us is stronger than the good around us. We have to reflect where we see bias showing up within ourselves.

Embrace where you come from!
In 2013, 232 mln people lived outside the country that they come from and used their non-native language daily. We are more than ever exposed to different languages and accents. We should never be ashamed of our roots and accent but rather embrace where we come from.
We are all different and we all sound different. Let us not forget how much effort people put into communicating clearly in a second language (here comes a couple of examples of how positive impact it has on your brain as well).