This week’s Apprentice of the Week, Rose Quezada, says she wasn’t the typical I knew I was born for sales persona, but through a very natural research process post-Grad, she knew that sales could open the doors she wanted for her career and that she had the potential to be successful doing it.  

At the time of our conversation, she had come off two (solo) qualification conversations with companies she had prospected. Rose shared, “It’s funny when you’re put on the spot how much you can rise to the occasion. I’m at the end of my Apprenticeship and I’m at the point where I’m finally being able to articulate what I’ve been working so hard on, and I’m seeing the fruits of my labor.”  She went on to share how grateful she is to feel so confident with her work today. 

Getting to this point of confidence took time, given she only started pursuing sales opportunities in the last year. “What tipped the scale to start applying for sales roles was knowing that I am comfortable with a little bit of discomfort! The more I learned about sales, the more I thought that selling is such a great life skill.  I knew I’d grow personally in addition to professionally by pursuing this path.”

She knew Galvanize was the right fit because they saw her potential as well, bad hair day and all. “I had been interviewing pretty heavily, and I remember the day I interviewed with Bill and Marianne, I had a bad hair day.” She laughed, “It was actually one of the only interviews where they didn’t drill me about my past sales experiences. I think they are people that invest in your soft skills, and that’s something I personally feel may be overlooked in the job market right now.”

It stood out to her that she had built trust with her future leaders right off the bat. As soon as she heard back, it was a very easy decision. 

Credit where credit’s due, Rose came in knowing she had a lot to learn and took advantage of all the resources her team provided. Every person she worked with at Galvanize contributed to her onboarding and added something different. She would go to Alex for messaging and positioning help and ask “how can I articulate this better”. She’d seek out advice from her Director of Sales Mary Ann for company and product  knowledge. And her final resource? “I’d go to my Vendition coaches for my outstanding questions. It’s very rare to have so many channels to gain insight from and feel so supported.”

Starting out in her Apprenticeship, she gained valuable insight from her Vendition coach in creating dashboards on Salesforce to have a more strategic approach to her sales process.  As she became more confident with her onboarding, she came to her coach to run through scenarios where her approach didn’t work. “I’d learn how to ask the right questions to guide the conversation.  We’d essentially A/B test how my conversations went, in such a judgment free way.”

Rose’s Advice for SDRs starting out:

  1. Ask questions. Sales management at Galvanize reassured Rose that there are no stupid questions. When you’re talking to people who are experts in their own space, you’re the only expert on your own product. You learn to be an expert by asking! 
  2. Give yourself grace — Sales doesn’t have to be daunting. “When it comes down to it, Sales is about people helping other people with your product, metrics, and processes. Remind yourself you want to be there and you have colleagues to support you.”
  3. Lean into your creativity. Rose never considered herself creative, but she found she put her own style into her outreach, process, and embraced her own creativity.