Barbara Giamanco

Check Our FeedVisit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On Linkedin
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Women in Sales Podcast
  • Book
  • About Me
    • Press
    • Recognition
  • Contact

Driving Innovation, Growth and Revenue Through your Employee Experience w/Hilda Kwa, VMware

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Your employees are your company “brand ambassadors”, as such they are your organization’s greatest asset. Too often companies forget that employees drive the customer experience – either positively or negatively – and that impacts revenue in the same way.

In this interview, I was joined by Hilda Kwa a Regional Director at VMware. Hilda is responsible for growing the End User Computing business in the Northeast. By focusing on the “end user” she works with companies to optimize employee experiences through intelligent technology solutions.

As Hilda and I talked about how companies attract and retain employees and how that translates to growing revenue, we will also discussed how to adapt to a workforce that is constantly transitioning and transforming.

Topics we covered include:

How the workforce has changed throughout Hilda’s career.

The current expectations of today’s workforce – on the employee and employer side.

The challenges facing organizations to attract and retain talent.

How organizations can address these challenges. Onboarding tips, leadership strategies and more.

Watch this video to see how VMware delivers great employee experiences for customers.

Listen and enjoy the interview with Hilda!

Subscribe on iTunes and never miss a podcast episode! If you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review and a 5-star rating. Also listen on Spotify, Stitcher

Or listen to the interview on the podcast page.

About Hilda– Connect with her on LinkedIn

Hilda Kwa is a Regional Director at VMware. Hilda is responsible for growing the End User Computing business in the Northeast. By focusing on the “end user” she works with companies to optimize employee experiences through intelligent technology solutions. Hilda has been leading teams for over 20 years and has worked at major corporations such as Microsoft, Gartner and Avaya and supported global companies such as GE and Citigroup. She is a wife and mother of three, ages 12 to 21, and resides in Connecticut. 

Feature header blog post photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Filed Under: blog, Previous Posts Tagged With: digital transformation, employee, experience, leadership, sales, talent, VMware

Dig That Well Before You’re Thirsty

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

By now, if you’ve read some of my work, listened to any of my interviews, you know that I believe that learners are earners. People often tell me that they have a desire to keep on top of their own learning but then complain that they just do not have the time.

We all have the same 24-hours in a day.

That is not meant to be flippant or sound like I lack empathy for others who may have more and different obligations than I do. I simply believe that when any of us choose to focus on what we believe to be important; we will make time for it.

Why make learning a priority?

As 21st century humans, we live in a world moving at speeds faster than our predecessors could have imagined. The rapid pace of change is dizzying, and all signs indicate that won’t be stopping any time soon.

To remain relevant as people and business professionals, our learning mindset must always be on. Whether it is through reading (I’m a junkie), podcasts, webinars or watching video clips, or any combination that works for you, there are so many ways to learn on the fly that you have no excuse not to.

Even 10-minutes a day learning something new will translate into 3,650 minutes of learning or 60.83333 hours of new learning each year!

You seriously cannot invest 10-minutes a day?

Harvey McKay wrote a book called Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty and while many books written about networking have been published since Harvey’s, what I liked about Harvey’s book is that he says DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU NEED YOUR NETWORK to build it. Many an employee surprised by the news that their job was eliminated have discovered the hard way how painful it is when they don’t have a network to fall back on.

Networking and learning the 21st century way.

Online networking and relationship building using platforms like LinkedIn has never been easier. Yet, even today, I’m surprised at the number of people who barely keep their profile up to date, much less dig that well before they need it.

Aside from the networking and relationship building, LinkedIn has also become quite a learning resource. You can learn from others through their articles and posts or follow hashtags (#) that feature topics of interest most relevant to you.

The point is that you must keep up.

What you know today is important. What you know about what’s coming or could be coming is how you maintain relevance when others are left behind.

I’ll close this post with another book recommendation.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.

As David says, “Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.”

He makes the strong case that range of knowledge and skill is of high value. Being educated in many different areas I have found to be of great importance as a sales professional. The more diverse our education and skills, the easier it is to connect with people on so many different and diverse levels.

I’ll continue to promote my belief that learners are earners. A few times each month, watch for posts that promote books, podcasts, articles or videos I recommend.

AND… please share YOUR favorites with me and my readers in the blog comments.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: b2b, commission, digital transformation, earning, education, learning, productivity, revenue, salary, sales

Digital Transformation of Sales – Where Culture Meets Technology with Debbie Dunnam, Microsoft

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

This was a really exciting conversation for a lot of reasons. Perhaps the biggest reason is that my guest, Debbie Dunnam, Corporate Vice President of Inside Sales at Microsoft, walks her talk. Her passion, enthusiasm, leadership, and authenticity shines through. In this post, I’ve summarized key highlights from my conversation with Debbie. Tune in to hear the entire interview!

How did you get started in sales, Debbie?

I always find it fascinating to learn how my guests end up in a career in sales. In Debbie’s case, she started in sales at General Motors selling auto parts to pay her way through college. Debbie then transitioned into technology sales with the help of a friend in the early days of the technology revolution. I can relate to Debbie’s story because I had started in an Inside Sales role in tech in the early 80’s too, and I never looked back.

Digital sales transformation requires a shift in mindset.

From Debbie’s point of view what customers want is an experience that is channel agnostic, extremely consistent and relevant – relevant to them. And, they want the experience to be on their terms, which means simplification, customization, available anytime. Buyers want a trusted partner that can guide them through a process, which means sellers and their managers have to shift from thinking about selling something to thinking about how to build relationships that lead to doing business together.

How do you go about making that mindset a reality in your own organization?

To make this a reality, Debbie said that it is important for sales organizations to do business with this new mindset at the forefront, but it is also important to transform management practices, policies, structure, end-to-end processes and think deeply about how to drive customer engagement that delivers the right kinds of results.

Debbie was quick to point out that the sales transformation also includes other departments like legal, finance, operations or HR, which means that everyone involved must commit to that mindset shift along the journey. Never forgetting that the most crucial part of the shift is your culture.

How should we be thinking about the role that culture plays in this 4th industrial revolution? 

In this era of the 4th industrial revolution, it is a time of global economic and technology uncertainty that requires leaders to think much differently. It certainly is not about simply being tech savvy. In order to thrive in this new era, it means bringing everything – people and technology – together.

Debbie cited a Duke School of business study that said, 92% of CEO’s and CFO’s said improving company cultures would increase organizational value. Debbie noted that it was surprising in that this belief wasn’t coming from HR but from CEO’s and CFO’s, clearly demonstrating how important culture is to the business bottom line. Forbes also suggested that culture should be part of every company 2018 budget. Investing in culture must be a key priority for every business.

How do you build a culture of collaboration and trust with a workforce that is geographically dispersed?

Creating a culture of trust is what leads to building a foundation for innovation. That foundation is what leads to the digital sales transformation you seek. It requires real authenticity that leaders need to bring to the table. People in the organization must feel safe in bringing forth their ideas about how to innovate or do things differently. Without trust, your organization will not be able to innovate quickly enough to remain competitive. Debbie strongly believes that leadership is about creating a culture of autonomy, respect, encouragement, and appreciation that are the foundational values of the culture. Every employee should be able to see those values modeled consistently by all leaders they interact with every day.

What about geography?

With 8 sales centers, 22 languages supporting multiple time zones around the world, the team knew they needed to find a way to be sure that everyone in the inside sales organization felt connected and shared a strong sense of purpose. The approach they took was treating everyone like family. This connection and shared sense of purpose are reinforced in every way possible – email, town hall meetings, and Debbie believes in this philosophy so much that when new employees come on board she writes a handwritten note welcoming them to the team.

Through instant messaging, email, Yammer, employees can share good news and congratulate each other. Then in a beautiful accident, a member of the team ended a congratulatory communication with the hashtag #LoveThisTeam. It went viral inside the organization and has become a mantra for the team.

Diversity and inclusion is an increasingly important part of corporate culture today. How does this make a difference in your organization?

Debbie and her leaders have strived to create an environment where all employees feel accountable for constant improvement and empowered to make it happen. They value the business success and innovation that comes from embracing the diversity of thought, talent, and culture.

Inside Debbie’s organization, the team members are not checking the “diversity box”, they are actually embracing diversity each day. Teams from different parts of the world get together regularly to get to know each other personally. The value that comes from better understanding each of their teammates has led to greater success on the job. That value, of course, also translates into financial value for the business, as well as delivers a stronger customer experience because team members are able to better relate to the various customers they serve.

We know that Millennials are now the largest generational employee group and they bring unique perspectives to business. How do you go about inspiring and retaining this very different workforce?

Millennials participate in “reverse mentoring” programs so that everyone can learn from each other. This certainly requires putting biases aside about the different generations. Leveraging the diversity of thinking, ideas, and points of view lead to a more open culture of collaboration and trust. It also leads to a culture that fosters loyalty among team members.

You inspire and retain by appreciating the fact that what millennials want is to feel that they are making a difference, says Debbie. They want to be in meaning and impactful roles. They want to feel that the company is investing in helping them build their skills and career, and Debbie talked about an onboarding program they’ve created to demonstrate from the onset that Microsoft is vested in their success.

It is so important for leaders to be authentic and accountable. The Millennial generation, perhaps more than others, don’t tolerate a lack of integrity in leaders. Debbie says that it is important for leaders to remember that you won’t have all the answers, and don’t assume that younger workers can’t help you.

It was quite motivational and inspiring hearing from Debbie about how she and her team have worked together to build a wildly successful inside sales organization in the span of two short years!!

Listen to the interview HERE.

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify

Stitcher

Google Play

About Debbie Dunnam

Debbie Dunnam, Corporate Vice President of Inside Sales at Microsoft. Debbie is a proven technology industry leader with a track record of driving innovation, delivering revenue, and building strong, collaborative leadership teams. As an experienced sales, marketing, and operations strategist in some of the world’s foremost technology companies, Dunnam delivers deep insights into how to succeed in fast-paced, global, customer-driven businesses. Dunnam joined Microsoft in 2016 to drive the creation and acceleration of digital sales, enhancing and leveraging rich analytics and data through rapidly evolving omni-channel engagement platforms and models. Her approach to leadership encompasses three key principles of authenticity, diversity and accountability to deliver clarity, generate energy and enable success.

Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.

We’d like to thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. In particular, we thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Visit the Microsoft Partner Network.

 

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Filed Under: blog, Women In Sales Tagged With: culture, debbie dunnam, digital transformation, inside sales, microsoft, millennials, sales, sales leadership

Top Sales Awards 2019

Top 50 Keynote Speakers 2019

Top 50 Sales & Marketing Books 2019Top 50 Sales & Marketing Blog 2019

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Conversations with Women in Sales is a podcast dedicated to becoming the best resource in the world for female sales professionals. And, it just happens to be the ONLY podcast dedicated to women in sales! Listen on … Listen & Learn!

Barb is interviewed by Jonathan Farrington about Women in Sales

Affiliations

 

 

 

 

Tags

attitude b2b BDR Business coaching cold calling communication customer experience customer service email Entrepreneur inside sales leadership lead generation life linkedin management marketing Networking personal brand productivity Prospecting relationships revenue sales sales enablement sales leadership sales management sales process sales training SDR selling service Small Business social media Social Networking social sales social selling success Technology Time Management training twitter video women

Best Sales Blogger

Top Podcast

best sales podcasts badge

Innovation

Top 100 most innovative sales bloggers

Sales Efficiency

”top-sales-efficiency-blog”

Copyright © 2014 · barbaragiamanco.com · All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2008-2020 barbaragiamanco.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this site can be copied without permission.