Her Story
About Laura
Laura Dean serves as Account Manager for Strategic Business Customers in the telecommunications field. With 23 years of experience in telecommunications and IT for commercial, enterprise, and government clients, she began her career in sales handling small business phone, internet, and cable services before transitioning to cellular sales for business customers and eventually into her current account management role since 2018. She earned a bachelor's degree in business management with entrepreneurship from the University of North Alabama and graduated with honors. Dean attributes her success to her drive, motivation, family support, and competitive nature, which has led to receiving the President's Club Award six times, four times in sales roles and twice in her current position. She values honesty, respect, and ethical practices in her work, advising others to be confident, consistent, and adaptable to the industry's constant technological changes while not sweating the small stuff.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Laura
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say drive and motivation, and my family. I have always been competitive in nature, so I think that I always want to be at the top of the scoreboard or whatever. In any kind of sales or account management role, there's always a ranking, so I like to do the best I can and work hard to get to do that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Don't sweat the small stuff. It's really easy sometimes to get caught up in things that really don't matter and lose focus. It's important that you are able to quickly decide what things are worth to fight and what things are not, or what things are taking your time that shouldn't be, or taking away your focus, so that you can keep being productive and doing things that are beneficial rather than problematic.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be confident, consistent, and stick with it. I learned a lot when I was very young and didn't know anything really about this field when I started in it. But I think confidence goes a long way, and consistency does too, and just keep going and roll with the punches. You gotta be able to adjust to all the changes, and they're all the time coming with technology, so it's kind of fun. Like, buckle up.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is keeping up with the changes. I work for a smaller company and there are tons of people competitive or different vendors that we compete with in the space, and a lot of them are a lot bigger than we are. It's very expensive to maintain a network like that and to keep it upgraded. Price is always a thing, it's very competitive in the pricing area too. The biggest opportunity would be to lead the innovation, to be the first one to do it, whatever the next great thing is.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, definitely honesty. I think that respect is important in both relationships. Being ethical at work, practicing what you preach. There's a lot, but probably number one would be honesty.
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