This week, we’re highlighting Srinath Ganesh at PropelPLM as Vendition’s Apprentice of the Week. We’ve been in touch with Srinath since he was a senior at UCSB, and it’s great to see him really hitting his stride as an SDR at Propel.
Read more to learn Srinath’s Vendition story:
“I was a senior in undergrad at UCSB, and a Vendition team member was on the career fair alumni board, so that’s how I first got in touch with the company. I was initially planning on starting the apprenticeship in the summer right after graduation, but my plans changed and so I reconnected with Hailey around July or August to start the process. I then started at Propel in September.”
Srinath shares that through trial and error with internships and club participation in college, he figured out sales was the best route for him coming out of school. “My college path was pretty crazy, I originally wanted to be in accounting, and with my internships I kept finding a better fit after each one. After applying to a lot of different jobs and networking events, I realized that I had been doing pretty well in sales-related roles and responsibilities in the clubs I was in. Talking to the Vendition team really helped–they helped me to focus into what a sales development role could really mean, and it felt right.
“There was some basic criteria I was looking for, and being local was something that became important to me after dealing with some family things back home in the Bay Area. Then, second, I was also looking at smaller companies. I had interviewed at bigger ones, too, but I found that interviews at smaller companies went better for me–I typically resonated with the people more there. I had interned at a larger firm, but it didn’t give me as much personal development as I wanted to start out my career. Then, of course, Propel’s product was at the top of my list–it was the most modern solution in the industry and there was a lot of opportunity to grow.”
Srinath shares that starting out was a learning curve, but he was able to grow with the role over the course of his apprenticeship. “It’s been about four months now. At the start, our team was a lot less organized, and we were just starting to build out our team. Ashleigh’s support really helped a lot, it helped me to establish best practices, and I feel like Ashleigh’s support helped not just myself but our entire team. Since then, our new SDR manager has been able to help us identify a more clear cut path.”
In regards to his coaching sessions during the apprenticeship, Srinath recognizes that he wants to know as much as possible from the start, but Ashleigh made him slow down to allow the process to fully run its course. “Ashleigh does a good job of breaking down the process, not only sales development but also just starting a new role. I’m the kind of person who wants to learn everything as soon as possible, and she made it clear that in the first month it’s going to take time. Her psychological approach helped break my need to know everything immediately starting off.
“I used my coaching sessions with Ashleigh to ask a lot of questions in the first month. In the second month, it was all about refining everything. And in the third month, we focused on executing and getting consistent. She offered something unique in our coaching sessions, and the online training was super helpful to start out–it was very detailed but it didn’t take too much of my time coming out of school either, it really just taught me a lot of what the profession looks like.”
Top Tips from Srinath to future SDRs:
“There really is nothing that Ashleigh couldn’t answer. Take it easy and ask a lot of questions.”
“Another big thing: don’t wait for people to tell you what to do. Be proactive, take the initiative and don’t wait for people to call you out for it.”
“My apprenticeship has been cool–I was able to go to cool events like Dreamforce and there have been lots of opportunities that came about just because of time I started. So really, just don’t wait, do things as soon as possible.”
We’re so glad to have met you back at UCSB, Srinath! Keep up the great work, we have no doubt you’ll continue to see success over at PropelPLM.