There is no shortage of opportunities for those in Austin who want to start or grow their sales career. That’s not just a generalization, either: There are currently 540 open sales roles on Built In Austin right now.
The fact that seemingly every company in the city is growing its sales team is certainly not a bad thing. However, it does create challenges for discerning sales talent who look beyond perks and pay and think critically about a company’s culture, growth opportunities and technology before making their next career move.
For these types of people, having more than 500 roles to choose from means doing an exhaustive amount of research; or at least it did before we decided to do the work instead. We got in touch with eight Austin-based sales professionals — whose teams are all growing — to ask what makes their organization unique, the sales lessons they’ve learned in their roles and the newest tech their teams use.
Realtor.com is in the business of helping people buy, sell and find homes for rent. In addition, the company connects buyers with agents and mortgage brokers and has developed technology that enables homeowners to track the value of their property over time.
One team, one dream: “Every team member is rooting for you to make the most of your time with prospects, whether it’s your peers cheering you on to close the next big deal, managers coaching you every step of the way or training teams offering continuing education on techniques and tools,” Larkin said. “Everyone is ‘on call’ and ready to help you close the deal.”
“‘People are our foundation’ is one of our core values, and we take that to heart. We continuously strive to make employees feel appreciated, valued and worth the time and investment. We make it a priority to set reps up for success through training, development and career advancement opportunities. We also believe in a flexible working environment to allow employees to perform at their best and maintain a healthy work-life balance.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Realtor.com: “If you want something and have drive and passion, there’s an entire team dedicated to your success here. If you have an infectious drive, the grit to succeed and the ability to share your learnings, you will be destined for good things.”
“When I joined this team, I had little real estate knowledge because I came from the travel and hospitality industry. I jumped in feet first to gain as much insight as I could and was comfortable enough to talk to my peers because everyone was willing to impart their knowledge to help build me up.”
Realtor.com’s Newest Sales Tech: “We have recently rolled out a revenue intelligence platform that is helping our reps better understand the direction they need to go to win sales. Tools like this help enable us to drive more sales through best practices, understand consumer buying behaviors and determine what underpins our customers’ decision-making processes.”
“Collaborative tools like Zoom make it possible to work together effortlessly and effectively while we’ve been remote and enable us to provide our employees the choice to work remotely going forward.”
Miro is bringing whiteboarding sessions into the age of video meetings with its online whiteboard platform designed to enable teams to collaborate as if they were all in the same room.
Product-led Growth: “What we’re building here at Miro is quite unique in regard to our go-to-market motion, Carr said. “We’ve grown our user base from 3.7 million to over 20 million in the last 15 months because we’re building a product that users and customers of all types and sizes love. The other piece of the puzzle is our culture of doing business in a way that genuinely aligns with our core values.”
“Our core value ‘play as a team to win the world’ has always resonated with me. As a global company, we have a lot of different perspectives, and I love that our teammates uses their unique perspectives to learn, understand and better support our customers. Miro currently has more than 100,000 client organizations, including 95 percent of the Fortune 100. And if you look at our deal rooms, we may have as many as 50 active “Mironeers” engaged in problem-solving for any customer at one time. We are committed to supporting our customers and one another in order to get that deal over the finish line.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Miro: “The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is the importance of hiring the right people. When you hire truly great talent, everything else will come together. At Miro, we encourage active participation in the hiring process at all stages, which helps us ensure that we are bringing on new people who have the same positive attitude and set of values as the rest of our team.”
“I’ve also learned the importance of investing in the development of the team, which is why we incorporated a sales methodology called Force Management, which is fully customized to ensure it resonates with customers and our team. It’s important to have a common language to communicate our value to our customers. We want people to come to Miro to build their careers and stay with us for many years. We know that while they’re here, they’ll learn sales development skills that will help them excel in any scenario.”
Atmosphere is an audio-optional streaming television service for businesses. Atmosphere content can be found on TVs in bars, restaurants and gyms, including Taco Bell, Planet Fitness and Buffalo Wild Wings.
People, Culture, Product: “It’s really tough to find a company where everything aligns just right: the people are intelligent, the culture is amazing and the product is phenomenal,” Terre said. “Atmosphere absolutely checks all three of these boxes. As a rapidly growing sales organization, it’s important that we have something our employees can get behind and sell. To see our customers endorse it in such a big way just makes our teams’ job that much easier.”
“I also really appreciate our ability to work with and learn from other departments. Everyone is focused on creating a unique streaming service and getting it set up inside as many businesses as possible. Sometimes when you’re a part of a rapidly growing company, it can feel like departments are working in silos or teams are disconnected, especially in sales. At Atmosphere, there is transparency between all of our teams. We’re all working together to provide the best solution for our customers.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Atmosphere: “The most valuable sales lesson I’ve learned is don’t be afraid to try new approaches to accelerate performance. ‘Get big, fast’ has been our mantra in 2021 and we are definitely living up to it. Our sales team and organization as a whole is always open to new ideas and isn’t afraid to take risks to help us sell more. Whether it’s investing in new tools, sales resources or product features, we aren’t afraid to try it. As the leader of our training and development department, this helps us create a stronger onboarding program and gives new hires better tools to succeed early in their ramp.”
Cloudflare’s global network of servers is used by more than 25 million websites to get as “close” to users as possible and deliver a faster and more seamless experience. The company also offers cybersecurity services that aims to protect users from DDoS and bot attacks.
Global Company, Local Culture: “The Austin go-to-market teams are smart, kind, curious and driven,” Shaw and Somaney said. “As one of Cloudflare’s rapidly growing teams, we have worked hard to create a culture that is uniquely Austin. We operate as a cohesive unit, are quick to help each other and, most importantly, celebrate everyone’s successes.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Cloudflare: “Customer focus and curiosity about our prospects and customers are the most important skills we have. To do well in the technology industry and at Cloudflare, specifically, you have to care about your customers and what is important in their businesses. You must have genuine curiosity around how you can help them do what they do but better and more securely. That sort of authentic interest resonates with our customers and engenders a trustful, consultative relationship that allows us to collaboratively problem-solve together.”
Cloudflare’s Newest Sales Tech: “While trying out new technologies is always interesting and can be fun, we put the most focus and trust in our processes and turn to other tools that complement them. Cloudflare is an engineering-led company. We embrace that across our sales teams, leaning heavily into our technologies and products to help customers.”
Hyliion is working to electrify the trucking industry. The company develops electric powertrains that can either turn a diesel or natural gas tractor trailer into a hybrid or a full electric vehicle.
Selling the Future of Transportation: “Every day at Hyliion is different, and not knowing what everyone is going to be buzzing about at the end of the day always keeps me on my toes,” Campanella said. “Working with next-generation transportation technology is so exciting. Hyliion has given me the opportunity to uphold the business’s core values and, in return, we get to help our customers achieve their path to zero emissions. Hyliion is a great place to work, especially when you have an awesome team pushing you to do your best.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Hyliion: “Do what you say you are going to do. When we establish our goals for the year, it’s crucial that all of us follow through in completing these goals so that the business is successful. Every day I come to work, I make a to-do list that flows back into my overarching quarterly or yearly goals, which link back to our company-wide goals.”
ESO is a healthtech company that develops software emergency medical services agencies, fire departments and hospitals use. Its offerings include electronic health records, scheduling software and a record management system.
No Robots Allowed: “First, we’re mission-focused. Everyone here truly believes in our mission to improve community health and safety through the power of data. Our solutions really have the ability to save lives,” Eastwood said. “Next, there’s the autonomy. I feel like I am in control of my work and not the other way around. We also have a great culture of treating people like humans and not robots. For example, I like having the ability to be able to set my daily tasks in the order of my choosing so that I can plan out my days how I want.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at ESO: “The most valuable sales lesson I have learned is the ‘today not tomorrow’ mentality. I have seen great value in quick, timely responses to not only my customers but also in the way I navigate my book of business.”
ESO’s Newest Sales Tech: “Our team is being introduced to SalesLoft. I can see huge value in how it will keep us all organized. It’s almost like having my own assistant!”
Rev.com provides audio transcriptions, subtitling services and video captions using a mixture of freelance transcriptionists and technology powered by AI and machine learning.
Appreciation Is the Goal: “We optimize for appreciation: When something appreciates, it increases in value,” Burgess said. “At Rev, we aspire to add value to — appreciate — our customers, vendors, partners and each other.”
(Sales) Lessons Learned at Rev.com: “Competence must precede confidence in a healthy sales relationship. If confidence comes without competence, it will become evident that there is a lot of sizzle and no steak. Trust is built over time and can be eroded in one sentence.”
Rev.com’s Newest Sales Tech: “We aspire to leverage data, insights and automation in every possible step of the customer lifecycle. The order of tool and process selection: eliminate anything non-vital, automate anything rote, routine or mundane; and double down on skills and interactions that are best articulated via human interaction.”
