Her Story
About Allison
My path to sales wasn't traditional - I actually started in the culinary world. After getting my associate's degree, I went to culinary school and worked in that field for a few years. I loved it, but when COVID hit, things became chaotic and I decided to slow down and find something more stable while exploring other career paths. A really good friend I met when I was a teenager working as a hostess reached out to me about a role at WinMagic where they were building out their sales team. He thought I'd be a great fit, and that introduction to being a BDR changed everything for me. Before sales, I worked extensively in the service industry - waitressing, bartending, and then moving to back of house work. Meeting and connecting with people from all walks of life and being in customer service really helped shape who I am as a professional. It taught me how to interact with all sorts of people, so when I got to sales, there was less shock value when people weren't as polite or friendly as you'd hope. Now I've been working as a BDR for a little over 4 years, with the last 2+ years at Intuit as a business development representative. My role focuses on connecting with different sized businesses to understand their day-to-day challenges and what they're looking for in a financial management platform, then getting them connected with our account executive team to find the right solution. I'm really known for my relationship-building skills and have a great reputation for being genuine and actually putting in the effort to get to know people and what they value. I still pursue my culinary passion through a small business where I bake and sell gourmet stuffed cookies inspired by desserts I loved as a kid or that inspire me today.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Allison
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say one of the most important things is to develop a thick skin and just a deeper understanding of people. If you have even a small psychology background, I think that really helps. In sales, you never know what you're gonna get. There's a lot of ups and downs, so just having a positive attitude and making sure not to let the downs get you down or keep you down is really important. Look at every day as a new opportunity. There's always gonna be months where you feel like you could have done better, but at the end of the day, as long as you're getting 1% better and working to improve yourself and competing with who you were last week, and not other people in your field, I think that's really the easiest path to success. Success is gonna look different for every single person. As long as you're able to smile at the end of the day and say that you put your best foot forward and you're proud of what you do, that's success to me. It takes the pressure off of sales, which is a high-pressure enough role as it is. Working as one team and remembering to just be better than you were the week before is really the best way to go about it and keep your head on straight.
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