libby lawford

I really attribute my success to my family - they've taught me pretty much everything I know. My dad is a Senior Vice President of Sales for a pretty large corporation, my sister works for a competitor in this industry, my brother is a broker and we work together as referral partners, and even though my mom was a stay-at-home mom, she was a born salesperson - she was natural. My husband is in sales as well. I'm the youngest, so just kind of following their footsteps and learning from all of them has been what's taught me the most, honestly. What has shaped me and who I look up to the most is all of them.

I would tell them to just stay the course. When new people are coming into my company, I tell them don't try to reinvent the wheel. A lot of the successful people before us have kind of figured out how to be successful. You can think outside of the box a little bit, of course, that's important, but just use the resources that are there for you, stay the course, and be patient. This isn't a quick sell all the time - it can definitely be a little bit frustrating. So just continuing to do the work and doing what's shown to be successful, and just keep pushing through.

The biggest challenge is that what we do can be very complex - there's a lot of parts to it. Being able to get in front of the decision maker and explain to them how we're going to help them in a short amount of time and grab their attention quickly can be a challenge. So getting in front of the right people and just showing them the value quickly is definitely the biggest struggle. On the opportunity side, there's a lot of growth potential here. The sky's the limit, which is really great. I'm compensated based on how much I sell, so to me that's the best part of this job too - being able to support my family and do something that I'm weirdly passionate about. People aren't always passionate about HR, but I am.

Honesty and transparency are the most important values to me. I always joke that I'm not the kind of salesperson that could sell ice to an Eskimo - I need to sell something that people need. I was in a meeting yesterday where the guy was showing me the system that he uses, and we're not going to be able to do that for him. I think it would make his life harder if we tried to switch to what we do. There's other areas that I can help him and refer him to other people that I know elsewhere that might be able to enhance what he currently has, but my particular product is likely not going to be the right fit for him. As an advisor - and that's our title, and that's important - what I love about my company is they encourage us to do that. If it's not a right fit, I don't want to sell you something you don't need. I want to just get you in the right place. I have a lot of passion for really helping people in their business and helping them be successful and grow. Being transparent and saying 'you know what, I don't think this is the right thing, but let me help you find what might be the right thing for you' - honesty and integrity is very important to me.