Her parents were Somali refugees who ended up in the U.K. As a child, Misky Sharif learned to be careful around the drugs and crime in her low income neighborhood. She rose above it, while learning as she grew up. How many kids would dodge all of the negative and find something positive in that? Listen as Misky explains how.  Misky overcame obstacles and currently is in FinTech as an Account Executive for Revolut, and if you are in sales and don't have an "accomplishment bank" - take a listen to the full episode  - great action item to start one on your own today! 

Misky Sharif can connect via LinkedIn

Womnen Sales Pros can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and other social posts. 

Now more than ever, we are seeing the importance of how sales fits in pre-sale and after the sale, and how sales needs enablement like the examples Deirdre offers are what helps grow .

Learning, practicing, executing and coaching is the repeatable cadence  

Lori and Deirdre talk about creating "work life harmony" and the value of keeping in touch with those you've enjoyed working with previously. 

We talk about "just in time" coaching and how adults learn. 

Deirdre helps Skillibrium to: 

Assess your team's skills

Remediate with Learning paths

Practice with Stand and Deliver

Implement an Operational Cadence

Execute with Sales Playbooks

Predicably grow revenue

Promote based on objectivity 

and Deliver exceptional experiences.

More is at https://skillibrium.com/ 

Women Sales Pros tracks top podcasts, books and speakers and has a 2x a month newsletter in addition to this award-winning podcast. @womensalespros 

Xactly is a tech platform for assisting companies with compensation and forecasting with the sales team, and has been around since 2005. They started sharing research about men in sales roles versus women in 2014 or so - quite some time ago, and just released their 2024 research results which includes the following:

● Representation disparities: The gender ratio in sales is alarming. Women are underrepresented in sales roles, constituting only 34% of the sales force and only 29% of sales managers. ● Female salespeople earn less: On average, men earn 3.5% more than women as salespeople, and 3.7%* more as sales managers when it comes to fixed pay. Without adjustment of outside factors, men earn 9% more than women as salespeople, and 13% more as sales managers. ● Pay gaps widen over time: At the start of salespeople’s careers, men earn 2.2% more on average than women. After 2 years, this gap widens by 30%. After 5 years, the gap increases even more significantly, with a 77% increase. ● The gaps differ from industry to industry: The pay gap varies significantly across sectors, with female sales professionals in the Life Sciences and Pharma space reporting a 9% gap in pay and Manufacturing space with an 8% gap. It might be more opportune for women in sales to enter the Financial Services industry, where no pay gap was reported. ● State-by-state disparities: The state sales people live in seems to correlate with the pay disparities. Colorado and New Jersey hold the largest pay gap between men and women at 7%, with Georgia and Washington claiming the lowest pay gap at 1%. ● Performance remains unaffected: Despite the overwhelming disparities in representation and pay, female sales professionals consistently outperformed their male counterparts. Female salespeople outperformed men by 1.5%, and female sales managers outperformed by 3%. ● Loyalty is not a factor: Women tend to show greater loyalty to their Sales teams, staying with the same organization on average four months longer than their male counterparts. ● Unfair impact on quota assignments: Many organizations do not seem to recognize women’s higher performance. On average, male salespeople are assigned 3% higher quotas, and male sales managers are assigned 5% higher quotas, suggesting that sales teams assign men to higher potential sales territories or opportunities.

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Gretchen launched Unbound and Unbothered, a career coaching business for women in tech in  2021. She helps high achievers who are stuck, stifled or at a crossroads ditch the stress and overwork to have a life and a job without burning out. 

Since she and I both got into tech in the "early days" (me earlier than her) we had a great conversation - I reference the title because we both worked for at least one company where the bathrooms were both for the guys since we were the first or second female hires.  

Be sure and follow Gretchen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchend/

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Our 2x month newsletter, The News is all about celebrating women in sales with upcoming events, feature articles, and stories about our male allies supporting us. 

Past issues of The News here. 

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"A billion dollar quota is like a 100K quota - you have to be comfortable talking about money with others" - one of the topics guest Marva Bailer and I bond on in our conversation shared today. I'm thrilled that our sponsor, Skillibrium, brings on advisors like Marva so that we can have real discussions around how to be successful. 

Marva was in sales before she learned how to drive - she and I share that young entrepreneurial spirit as well. Marva got into health, wellness and personal development before it was cool - and these are big topics in a successful sales career today. 

Join us for a fun conversation about coaching, personal growth, and professional development as well - share your thoughts, and please share the podcast with one other woman or male ally if you can. 

@womensalespros on Insta

@marvabailer on Insta

Ashley Philipps is the author of the new book, The Teacher's Guide to Changing Careers. Being a former teacher myself, I am always up for hearing about others who left the admirable profession of teaching due to the lack of pay, and who got into sales roles. 

Ashley's book showcases other careers, but she did go into B2B sales and we talk about that on this episode. 

You will also hear my tip for those in the job market - what is the best way to approach someone who is well connected, instead of saying, "Hey if you know of anyone hiring...." What do you say instead? 

Ashley's book will certainly help teachers who feel like they are underappreciated, underpaid, and who are interested in continuing to be a teacher as a professional seller. 

The good news about the B2B sales profession is that IT is also an admirable profession - a helping profession. Even with new AI tools, complex sales won't happen without empathetic, communicative, collaborative sellers like many former teachers can be. 

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I have known Michelle Benfer over the years and it was great to catch up with her in her role as SVP Sales, Business Line Owner at BILL. [Bill is (according to their website) the intelligent way to create and pay bills, send invoices, manage expenses, control budgets, and access the credit your business needs to grow—all on one platform.]

Michelle is a sales leader and in our conversation we talked about how things have changed in sales, how there is some "bad behavior" happening more than before due to the tougher economy and some advice for reps about taking control of their destiny and the big job that front line sales managers have. 

Fun fact: Michelle's mom was her sales role model, setting up calls like today's BDRs and SDRs do. When her parents started thinking about college for her and her siblings her mom got a job at Boston College so her kids would get free tuition (perk of working at a university). Mom was smart! 

More about Michelle Benfer, ex Hubspot, Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital - now at Bill.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellehughesbenfer/

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Page on LinkedIn "Women Sales Pros" or connect with Lori Richardson #seeitbeit 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scoremoresales/

https://www.instagram.com/womensalespros/ 

What is it like when two data focused people get together and talk? It does get a bit nerdy, but that's what I like about Sara, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Sara has been doing nearly all roles - from individual contributor - like SDR, BDR, AE and all the way up to VP and CRO. Now she is running two companies, "Break the Box" and "Skills."

Like many of us who came from little money, Sara was amazed when she got her first paycheck in her sales career and said to herself, "I will never have to be hungry again." 

That's why we talk about sales being a game-changer for those new into professional selling. If you are having a tough time at the moment - stick with it because sales can be such an amazing career if you are motivated, good at it, and have support from the company you're at. 

Sara talks about her journey from selling consumer products where half of the sellers were women to being the only woman in the room and how she adjusted - and what many of us learn over time to "fit in" versus being ourselves - it is an interesting point in our conversation. 

Also, Sara gives a great tip on what to say when someone sales something really inappropriate in front of you and others. Check it out. 

Connect with Sara here on LI: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralstorm/

Learn more about Women Sales Pros here - we support all of the women in sales orgs and communities:  https://womensalespros.com/

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We have had sales leader Gabrielle (GB) Blackwell on before (episode 85) and happy to have her back discussing some of her recent posting about toxic boss behavior in the sales workplace. GB and I were talking about more women than usual leaving B2B sales - something I am posting more about now as well. 

GB shares her story about some really unhealthy situations she's found herself in previously - note we did not name names - it's not about that. It is about helping others in the same spot to see the red flags we may have missed or thought they were just part of being there. 

I stand by what I say: "Go where you are celebrated, not tolerated." 

GB talks about how if you are a woman, be sure and get feedback. 

Get feedback not about your personality, but about skills. This is something GB noticed she'd get. 

If you are a manager and simply write off a rep and don't give them any feedback, that's a form of abuse. (note: Manager, it is your JOB to support and develop all of the reps on your team) 

What have we missed? Share in comments on LinkedIn or elsewhere. Keep this conversation going. Let's not lose women because of something that is changable with support of women in sales and our male allies. 

Reach Gabrielle here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleblackwell/

More Conversations with Women in Sales here: https://womensalespros.com/podcast/

How can you be in intergrity and hide part of your story? That was one of the big takeaways from my conversation with Jaime Konzelman, sales leader at tech company Rackspace. 

Jaime wrote a memoir called, "Dealmaker" that chronicles her life from college into exotic dancing and on into a stellar B2B sales career. 

Jaime has done big deals - hundreds of millions of dollars worth, at companies like IBM, Unisys, and Xerox. She leads teams of sellers now. Jaime knows her stuff. 

Let us know how you like the episode - and please give us a rating on iTunes if you will - and a comment - and share with other women to help inspire them. 

More on Jaime: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkonzelman/

More podcast episodes from Women Sales Pros: 

https://womensalespros.com/podcast/

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