Tom Melbourne, VP of Sales for Chartio, a cloud-based analytics solution built for everyone in an organization, has a long history of building sales teams. From his time at Citrix to becoming a managing director at Mixpanel, finding the best talent wasn’t always easy. Then, he got a cold call from a student at AlwaysHired.
What stood out about that call?
That student’s call, tactics and poise was so polished, it stuck out to Tom. Enough so that when it came time to build his sales team at Chartio, he knew AlwaysHired was the place to start his search. Unfortunately, that cold caller already had a job. Fortunately, there was a whole group of students about to graduate who were eager for the opportunity.
And did you look at other programs, in addition to the AlwaysHired sales bootcamp?
I did - but they were mostly training programs for your existing sales team. It wasn’t what I was looking for. Instead, I met with Gabe and he set me up to chat with students about to graduate. That’s when I met Sunny Patel. His drive, initiative and passion was unlike non-AlwaysHired graduates.
Tell me about SDRs and the people who are applying to these positions.
The SDR position has become the entry level into sales, and a lot of SaaS-type companies. A lot of people who apply have never worked before, and know nothing about what an SDR does—they’ve heard about it from friends and that they can make a lot of money. Since they’re so fresh, they require a lot of training.
At a large company, sales training programs are in place before releasing SDRs into the wild. They learn objection handling, SFDC basics, you get the picture. At a small company like Chartio, you’re given a laptop and phone fresh in the box that you need to set up yourself. Large scale training programs don’t exist. Taking someone who is so green (to the workforce, technology, sales, marketing) - was going to be a really big challenge.
And how does AlwaysHired fit into this?
What was worth it to me, was that those intro level questions had been answered. AlwaysHired teaches those entry level skills, what it means to be an SDR. It significantly reduces the onboarding time.
Additionally, I could get to know a little about the person before I brought them on board. Are these people going to make it in the business? How are they performing, what are their strengths and weaknesses? The team at AlwaysHired could provide more insight into their grads.
What was different about the grads?
There are some things in sales that I can’t teach. Coachability is one. Another is having self-management to take the initiative to better yourself and become an asset to the company. These graduates have initiative to do what they’re doing. AlwaysHired students are serious - they’re following through with a commitment and putting their money where their mouth is. They are paying for this themselves. They’re ready to get out there and prove something. They’re willing to do what they have to do to give themselves an edge over the other person. They stand out and add value to themselves to add value to the company.
Basically, AlwaysHired teaches all the stuff that I don’t have the time to do.
And what about Sunny? Can you tell me more about him?
Sunny is awesome. He has been at or above quota every quarter. He goes to AlwaysHired alumni events all the time, where they all compare notes and strategy. Every month he comes in with something new he’s working on, that he learned from the team. It adds value to him and by proxy adds value to us as a company.
As we continue to grow and hire, we will definitely go back to AlwaysHired - and I’m sure Sunny will spearhead that effort.
To learn more about what Chartio is about, visit the Chartio blog on modern business intelligence.