Perk Career Growth & Development

Tell us about your sales journey thus far.

I joined the mid-market sales team at Perk in fall 2022. Stepping into a new role, company and industry always presents challenges, but I was able to lean on the team and my existing sales skills over the first few months to set myself up for success. I spent a lot of time shadowing other representatives’ calls to learn the platform and industry, focusing on a consistent outbound-to-build pipeline, and relying on my thorough training on selling on pain to guide me.

I’ve had the opportunity to take projects on, including leading multiple sessions across the global sales organization. Many sales organizations prioritize learnings coming from the leadership level, but Perk leans directly on high-performing reps to guide the sales motion of the company. This gave me a lot of visibility across the global organization, which made conversations about career growth that much easier.

Now, in summer 2024, I have stepped into a player-coach position, through which I hold my own quota and directly manage four account executives. The U.S. leadership team has been instrumental in supporting me through this transition, and was supportive from day one when I shared my aspirations around being a manager.
 

What is the sales culture like at Perk?

Perk’s mission is to provide a platform that supports companies and employees connecting in real life. Perk’s leadership team makes sure we practice what we preach by getting our U.S. or global teams together at least a few times a year. So far this year, the entire U.S. team gathered at our Miami office for our company kickoff, and our full global sales team met in Barcelona for our revenue kickoff. It sounds cliché, but I am truly forming bonds and making memories that will last a lifetime with the team and getting that in-person time really helps with that. 

Outside of seeing the global team in person, Perk’s culture stands out from other organizations I have been at due to the openness of Perk’s leadership team and the willingness of every team member to focus on what matters most. With every big funding announcement, acquisition, strategy maneuver and virtually every other important decision that is made, Perk employees hear directly from leadership as to why these decisions are being made and the potential impact they will have. That is truly refreshing.

What advice do you have for sales professionals who want to join your team?

You have to be scrappy. When a company is growing as quickly as Perk is, the reps that expect deals, information and success to come to them will never succeed. Rather, the reps that join a fast-paced environment that are willing to get into the trenches, figure out what they need to do to succeed, expose themselves to other parts of the business and truly learn the ins and outs of the company, platform and clients’ challenges are the ones that shine.

Lastly, the amount of growth that is available at Perk right now is truly unprecedented — including our new acquisition of AmTrav. Quarter over quarter, we are seeing individuals progress, opening up opportunities for career growth and exposure to new experiences that you likely wouldn’t get from other sales orgs.

What new skill or role did you want to learn? Why was this important to you?

In my role as an account manager, I help clients optimize their travel strategies by recommending solutions that save time, money and boost efficiency. I always support these recommendations with data. While I joined Perk with a strong foundational understanding of data, I had limited experience with business intelligence visualization tools like Looker. I was eager to develop my skills in this area and really take my knowledge to the next level so I could better serve my clients.

How did your employer help support this time of learning and professional development?
Perk supported my education in many ways. The internal data team offered optional training sessions from beginner to expert levels, which I found incredibly valuable. I also leveraged Perk’s Udemy access to take online courses including those focused on business intelligence. Cross-departmental collaboration is welcomed which made it easy to connect with data team members who were always generous with their time and knowledge. This supportive environment, combined with my manager’s help in balancing my workload, allowed me to start building my own dashboards within weeks.

What was the outcome of this experience? How did it impact your future growth in your profession?
My new data skills have led me to build countless complex reports and dashboards that have been critical to my own role and have been widely used by my team. Now, I can rapidly create extremely specific data visualizations for any client request or question, noticeably increasing my credibility. This valuable, specialized skill has directly contributed to my advancement at Perk from mid-market account manager to senior account manager and, ultimately, to enterprise account manager. This expertise has already proven vital in my current role, and I know it will serve me well throughout my career.