Congratulations to Miles Mallory, Vendition’s Apprentice of the Week! We are proud of your hard work at PagerDuty and can’t wait to watch your sales career take off.
Before Miles was introduced to the Vendition team, he was working in advertising at an agency in the Bay Area, but he knew he wanted to be in the people-facing business. He really wanted to pursue software sales because he sees the industry as very engaging, high energy, rewarding, and a huge market. After he decided that he wanted to transition from advertising to software sales, he approached the job search but still felt lost in how to get into an actual sales role due to the competitive nature of the industry… and then he found Vendition.
Check out the interview with Miles Mallory to learn his story:
“When the Vendition team reached out, they showed me that there are a ton of opportunities in the industry right now, which I didn’t realize because it was so hard trying to find a job on my own and I didn’t know where to start. They asked me a lot of questions to get to know my personality and what I was looking for in my next position, and really customized the process. I learned that the Sales Development Representative position is the foundation of launching a prominent career in the software industry and told the team that my ideal work environment is high energy, very fast moving, and very engaging, with no room for boredom or putting aside your work, always reaching out to people in high volume, learning what works and what doesn’t work. This SDR role made me figure out that I like to be in a pressing, high volume work environment, with consistent energy throughout the day. The team helped me find exactly that.
“The Relationship Manager at Vendition originally set me up with three mid-market companies to interview with that I hadn’t heard of before, so trust needed to go into it, but he did a very good job of making sure that the size and type of companies were personally tailored to my intentions and what worked best for me. When he introduced me to PagerDuty and I went on-site to interview, I immediately knew it was a fit and felt at home right off the bat. I received an offer letter that same week and couldn’t be happier.
“Although I was initially intimidated by the product, he made it clear that the training Vendition offers supplementary to my full-time work would allow me to be very comfortable and ask any specific questions to my assigned mentor throughout the course of the first three months. The training I received from Vendition has been so valuable; working with Ashleigh Early has been extremely useful and helpful. She helped me understand Salesforce as a tool, and helped me get acquainted to the software industry and how companies work together.
“The Vendition team placed me at the perfect company for me. One of the things that I love about PagerDuty is that their leadership is exceptional, and that’s something that really stood out to me. There is incredible comradery and support for people in all different roles. It was such a relief to me that you can approach very high-level people in the company and still feel that you can get your questions answered. I love the product too- it’s a needed product which is nice because customers see it as a necessity rather than a “nice to have.” The product is basically required by a lot of devops culture companies, which make the sales process much more approachable and easy to understand. To sum it up, the leadership is incredible, it’s a growing team and company, so I’m riding this wave of optimism and growth of the industry, and the fact that the product is a necessity makes the sales process approachable and attainable.
“What I love about the Vendition coaching is that it’s very customizable. I told Ashleigh that I wanted to focus on a certain concept, and she made sure that’s what we covered in our coaching sessions. The main thing I learned from the Vendition coaching was how to use and feel comfortable with Salesforce. I had very specific questions regarding tools that I use in my day-to-day for PagerDuty. I wanted to heighten my understanding of the tools that we use internally and learn how to be the most effective with the tools because that’s what I was the most behind on when I started, and Ashleigh was able to provide specific training on that. She also taught me specific strategies to implement including how to be more effective with schedule blocking to block time for when I am outreaching, calling, etc, and she showed me how or why people respond. I also learned from the video trainings more about the broad tech industry, who the key players are, and what to look out for in the future. Learning more about why this software industry is going to continue to grow keeps my optimism about the industry.
“Throughout this entire transition, I’ve validated and realized that moving out here to California, going through trials, and putting in this hard work is well worth it for finding a long term career and foundation in sales.
“I’m so grateful for the Vendition team connecting me with such an incredible opportunity. I want to stress how awesome it is to work with people who are very down to earth, and funny, because it’s an intimidating jump coming from a different industry or coming straight out of college, so finding down to earth people who are willing to put in the work to make sure you are set up with an incredible career and are successful is awesome. Their personalities are just great. The more you can be yourself, the better the Apprenticeship is going to go. You don’t have to cover anything up and they don’t either. Ashleigh gives you direct feedback in order to help you grow and make you better at your job. The more comfortable you are with them, the better the result will be with your fellowship and job placement. The Vendition team, they truly are the homies.
“I was in a very confusing part of my career, and the fact that they really walked me through all of my options and found companies that were a good fit for me personally and what I was looking for is incredible. I will refer anyone to them who is looking to launch their careers in tech sales. It’s a testament to their due diligence and finding you the right company, and I’m thankful everyday I’m at work. I’m so grateful for where I am right now in my life.”
Top tips: “What I did that has proven to be useful and successful was making an excel document listing out my hottest leads of each month. There’s a lot of different ways to create tasks and activities and prioritize them, so in addition to utilizing outreach tools, the excel doc helps me to know who the hottest leads are that I’m able to convert that month on the top of my head. I’d recommend that to any SDR!”
Another piece of advice: “When a prospect blows you off or says some mean comment, just laugh about it because there will be a lot of those. The more times you laugh about bad situations, calls, or emails that don’t go well or about someone who gives you a nasty response, the easier it is. I’ve noticed that the best salespeople just shrug it off, laugh about it, and be optimistic. If you let it get to you, however, you won’t be efficient in your job. At PagerDuty, if someone really says something pretty negative and you just get burned, you get to spin the wheel for a $5 coffee or work from home day or some small reward as a way to look past it and continue moving forward.”
“To all the SDRs out there, you guys are rockstars! Just keep going. The second you walk in the door to your office, slay the dragon.”
Keep up the hard work, Miles, and congratulations on your success!