This week, for the first time ever Vendition is celebrating a dual nomination for Apprentices of the Week!  Since May of 2019, Joey Dessinger and Sean McElroy have been plugging away at Trovata to not only grow themselves as sales professionals but also help move the needle with contributing to their company.  We first got to know them as graduating seniors at the University of San Diego, and it’s great to see their success today. 

Read the rest to learn their Vendition stories:

According to Joey, one reason he knew sales was the path for him was due to the fact that he grew up in the Bay Area and always knew about tech sales. “[My thought process] was basically that I grew up in the Bay Area and being surrounded by technology, you know, I had family members who are in tech sales, and it was just always there. I figured once I graduated too, that it was something I just wanted to go after.”

For Sean, it was a different story: “I initially thought well, actually I come from a medical family. My dad’s a dentist. And I always thought I wanted to become a dentist when I went to college. I actually failed out of organic chemistry and I figured out I really don’t want to do this anymore. And then I changed my major and at that time, I got a job at Nordstrom doing sales. That’s what really kicked it off. And then I think just another part of that is that my older brother, he’s in sales, and he told me, ‘you know, the last person to get fired at a company is going to be in the sales department.’ So I knew it’s always good to be in sales and maybe you could make a lot of money.”

In regards to why they both felt a connection with Trovata, Sean says, “Starting out at a company where I’m coming in from the ground, being able to make an impact, that was definitely something that was very attractive about Trovata.”

Joey seconds that notion. “Along similar lines, and just basically being at a stage of the company where we’re the first two BDRs and having the opportunity to be a trailblazer was incredible. Obviously I’d say Sam was a major part of our success.  But for the most part, it’s been a little bit like, ‘do your own thing and we’ll figure out what’s working and what’s not working.’ And I’ve just found that it’s definitely been a fun process.”

Day one to now, Sean says they haven’t stopped learning. “So we’re still in contact with Sam, and we still have access to the [sales development] slack channel. So it’s not as though we’ve stopped training or anything. It’s good to know it’s all still there, our network, if we need help we can always reach out to Sam, who is always there for us. So, with that said… I love the whole process. I didn’t think it was going to be this… this good. Without it, I don’t think I would’ve ever found this job.”

Joey shares, “Yeah to go off that, in terms of everything sales, it was all new to us. But I think Sam gave us a plethora of tools to start off really quickly. And I mean, I feel like, after three months, I felt pretty confident that we were doing everything correctly, but definitely it was a lot in the beginning and we managed well. After the three months, I felt pretty confident.”

Lastly, Sean credits the apprenticeship model by getting them fully ramped. “Yeah, I mean, I think that for anything that’s new, it’s going to be hard at first.  Looking back at those three months now, I’d say that especially going through an apprenticeship helped us get where we are now–we’re killing it.”

So what tools in their training with Sam helped? Sean credits role-plays and Joey says objection handling. 

“I still go to Sam to this day for objection handling,” Joey says. “He just makes you see things you’re missing. When we first started out, I found myself being super embarrassed with not knowing how to handle certain calls or objections and then I would just call him, he’d get me out of my head, and it was just nice to have that.”

Sean shares, “I don’t know, Sam is just that individual who has a different way of approaching anything you ask him.”

Top Tips from these two for BDRs starting out:

Sean says, “Don’t overthink it and just get on the phone. Honestly. You can overthink it all you want. You can create perfect, well, you can come up with every thinkable way of overcoming the objection but until you get on the phone and dial, you won’t learn.”

Joey advises, “Be intuitive every day in order to try to do something new to get a meeting. I am just taking every day as a new day and not letting the day before holding me back.”  

Sean seconds this notion by suggesting AB testing. “If you don’t test different things, it might work for a little bit and then stop. If you just rely on one method to get the job done, it might work for a little bit but it’s not going to work forever.”

Their just-do-it approaches and always-learning mentalities are paying off.  For the third quarter, Sean was the best salesperson for the quarter by booking the most meetings.  To go even further, he broke his personal record by setting four meetings in a day, which led to the overall company breaking the record for the day as well. 

For Joey, it’s consistency.  As of the time of the interview, he had surpassed his monthly quota before the end of the month and in the previous month, he created his most deals ever. “It’s nothing too crazy, but I had my most ever deals created last month. While that doesn’t really mean that much since it’s just opening up an opportunity, the wins small or big are felt throughout the company.”

And on one final note, Joey shared, “More on the line along the lines of Sam, I just want to shed light on how, yeah, he’s our sales coach and it was great that he’s just super knowledgeable about sales. But after the three months, it felt like we got a friend. So, while it was positive for not only our work [being mentored by Sam] it also was positive for our wellbeing.”

Sean laughed, “Yeah, no, I completely see myself having my kids meet this guy one day.”

Keep up the great work and positivity, Joey and Sean!  We couldn’t be happier you’ve found your home and your successes at Trovata, and we’re certain you’ll continue to grow in this role.  

Sean Joey Christmas Card 1