Celebrating Kantata’s Women in Technology: Marketing and Sales Teams
Each month we are sharing a collection of candid interviews with the women at Kantata from a variety of roles and different teams. Each overview highlights their impressive achievements and unique experiences in the technology industry and will focus on some of the most inspiring and impactful moments from the interviews.
In this post, we’re looking at some of the women on Kantata’s Marketing and Sales teams. Read and watch their answers below to hear their insights on questions relating to their achievements and experiences, or use these links to jump to one person in particular: Carrie Thompson, Enterprise Account Executive; Megan Wilson, Senior Enablement Program Manager; Meg Moulton, Team Lead, Business Development; Nataly Bautista, Customer Advocacy Manager.
Q: Can you share some of the strategies you’ve learned that can help women achieve a more prominent role in their organizations?
Q: What’s a project or initiative you’re currently working on at Kantata that you’re passionate about and why?
A project that I’m currently working on at Kantata that I’m really passionate about is the BDR Certification Program.
So here, at Kantata, when you join as a Business Development Representative, you are instantly put into an onboarding boot camp, which I run, and obviously, you’re onboarded with your manager as well. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you’re not expected to know everything on your very first day, so there’s a ramping period of 3 months. That’s when you’re enrolled in the certification program, and that is all around the BDR methodology: sales training skills you have, objection handling, introductions onto calls, and you’ll go through a role play. And should you pass, which I’m happy to say, we’ve had nearly 70 people going through this certification program, you’ll then be put onto the next part of the certification program, which is around the professional services industry. Through a presentation for, the BDR would go through and present back what they’ve learned so far 6 months into the role. And then we have a 9-month one, which is again, that’s your product certification at 9 months. And then last, but not least, we’ve got the sales certification program.
And that really is where I am focusing on at the moment, that’s really to enable the BDRs to get ready for their next step in their career. More often than not BDRs that join Kantata, they already know that their next step is wanting to be an Account Executive and continue in that sales journey. So here at Kantata, we’ve really strengthened the promotional pathway for BDRs from all different backgrounds. And we’ve also ensured that they’re getting the right support and the right training and the right skill sets in order to move into their next role.
So that’s something that we are really passionate about at the moment because, you know, I obviously want the BDRs to be massively successful, not just within their own role as a BDR, but beyond that. That’s really what gives me my biggest accomplishment is seeing them go from being a top-performing BDR, to then moving into being a top-performing AE or top-performing manager of a team or a top-performing CSM. I want to make sure that the BDRs that join Kantata, you know, they go on and they evolve, and they move into different roles, and they’re super successful.
Q: What challenges have there been for women entering the tech industry?
Q: In your experience, do you feel that you face additional challenges being a woman in your profession that you have had to overcome?
In my experience as a woman in tech and in general in the corporate or business world, I feel that I have had to teach myself to be more bold. I have been lucky enough in the past to have managers that vouch for me—that vouch for a promotion, that vouch for additional pay, but that isn’t always the case. And I strongly believe that a lot of the times, or from my personal experience, I wasn’t necessarily taught to be bold, to not worry about not making mistakes, and so I’ve had to teach myself that, “You know what, it’s okay to trial and error in your position.”
It’s okay to learn from mistakes. Now knowing that, I’ve actually been able to learn from my mistakes and find my voice. I’ve been able to speak to my managers when I disagree with something that they say, or with some of the ideas that they provide, I have been able to actually vouch for myself, ask for a promotion, ask for higher pay. And my recommendation to other young girls entering the working field is to try to find mentors that help with that. But if not, you know, just try to have that in mind. Be bold, and just think, you know, if you don’t watch for yourself, nobody will.
Learn More
The interviews featured above highlight some of the many ways that women at Kantata are driving results both within their organization and within the technology industry. To hear more stories from the women at Kantata, browse the entire series here or check out our most recent post featuring our Advisory Services and Solution Engineering Teams. Keep an eye out for the next installments in the series, as we’ll be featuring a number of interviews with women from a variety of teams at Kantata over the coming months. To learn more about career opportunities at Kantata, visit this page.