It takes a village
I got the biggest promotion of my life last year when I became a dad for the first time. It is both the most rewarding and hardest job I’ve ever had. Raising a family comes with known stressors, and unknown joys. Those joys make the stressors worth it 100X, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
If there is one thing I’ve learned through building a career in GTM pre-sales, it’s that it takes a village to be successful. Ask any sales professional and they’ll tell you that not a single deal is won by the individual effort of one person. This is especially true as you move upmarket and close larger deals. Selling impactful deals takes a team. It takes a village.
In B2B sales, that village looks something like this:
- Sales Development Rep (SDR) — deal hunter
- Account Executive (AE) — deal owner
- Solutions Engineer (SE) — builds technical credibility
- DealOps — ensures your deal is good for the business
- Legal — ensures your deal protects the business
- Leadership — various leaders from sales, supporting functions, and executives to provide additional credibility, alignment, and sponsorship
This is your professional village. As an AE your job is to not only execute on your own skills, but also position and quarterback your team throughout the cycle. Knowing who to pull in and when will make or break your deal.
There is another village on the buyer’s side that I’ll dive deeper into in another post.
For parents, that village can look like:
- Spouse/Partner — kid owners
- Family — grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. Most of these people helped raise you without you knowing it at the time
- Friends — old college ones, new friends you meet from daycare, school, and sports
- Neighbors — the people you trust and who live in your literal village (neighborhood)
- Familiar strangers — your favorite barista, your barber, or anyone else that can make your day a little better without knowing as much about you as everyone else
The main takeaway: build and leverage your village.
Whether you’re selling large deals in the enterprise, parenting little ones, or hunting for your dream job - always remember that it takes a village to truly win. And winning is always better when you share it with the people that helped you get there.