Gabrielle Blackwell is a self-proclaimed modern, hippie witch who just so happened to stumble into sales.
Since beginning her career in the sales profession, she has asserted herself as not only as a top-performing rep, but also, an effective and inspiring Sales Development Leader.
She currently holds the position of Sales Development Manager at Gong and when not busy at work, can be found tending to her 60+ indoor plant babies or reading tarot cards for people in her LinkedIn network.
If you need to interview yourself, what 3 questions you would make A: What’s your superpower? Who has been your biggest role model? Who has been your best boss and why? What did you want to be when you grow up?
A: I imagined myself growing up to be a dancer.
How you ended up on sales and why?
A: Sales was a last resort for me. I had struck out on the opportunities I thought I wanted to pursue, which was in HR and People Operations.
Once I accepted that that wasn’t an available option for me, I took a step back and reflected on what I was really working towards. In reflecting, I envisioned being the CEO of a company.
Upon researching where CEOs typically start their careers, I saw that sales and finance were the two top represented backgrounds. One thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to do finance, so sales surfaced as the path to follow. The rest is history.
You do coaching and teaching on sales. What aspect of selling you teach and coach?
A: In managing a team of Sales Development Representatives, I’m responsible for teaching and coaching on the full spectrum of Sales Development; that means everything from research, copywriting, cold calling, cold emailing, leveraging social, prospecting, qualifying, etc.
Who were your mentors?
A: My grandfather, Bob Blackwell, and my former boss, Dan Bahr. How to move brick and mortar to online on sales? Not sure. I haven’t worked at an organization that has had to do this.
What market are women “killing” in sales and why?
A: All of them, and here’s why; being a member of an underrepresented group can either turn someone into a victim or drive them to be the best. I believe that more women in sales are choosing to be better and are committing themselves to doing the work required to be better.
What segments women are not getting and why?
A: Not sure if there are specific segments where women are inherently worse at, but I do feel comfortable sharing that more often than not, when people aren’t succeeding, it’s because they’re missing alignment in their role, at their company or with the person they’re reporting to.
Tell me one secret of your sales career you never told anyone [ funny story. mess sales, etc?
A: Real talk, I misspelled the name of the company I was interviewing at for a Sales Development position in my cover letter and on my resume.
I didn’t realize that I did that until 3 months into working at that company when my boss casually brought it up. I was mortified, and also, so grateful to my boss for still having given me a shot.
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