Her Story
About Michele
I started my career as a secretary for an economist at Exum Bank. Shortly after, he told me he really thought I should get into the world of sales, but the president at that time felt that women should not be in a sales position. At that point, I didn't have college, so I decided to go and register for school and work on getting my degree. Shortly after, he said he'd give me a shot, and I blew the numbers out of the water. Then he said, well, I guess we're gonna keep you in sales, and I said, no, I'm gonna quit, and then I became a broker. I ran a profit center for trade credit, and I really believe in the product. I think it's excellent. I wrote a lot of business with, at that time, Continental Insurance, and they hired me to come in and just start producing. I really love the product, I think it's great. I don't know how companies operate without it. To me, it's business life insurance. People take insurances for everything and leave their largest asset unprotected. So I just love it, and I believe in it, and I just enjoy selling it and educating people on it. I work a lot with brokers where I educate them on the product, I train them on the product. For those that know it well, I partner with them to write trade credit. I do a lot of mentoring for the newer people here at Coface, so I join calls with them, webinars with them, I help them to ask the right questions and get them aware of what needs to be done to be successful. I started as a sales exec, and then I actually ran the Northeast for over 20 years as the regional sales manager. And then about 3 years ago, I just decided that I really, really missed the connection with the brokers and selling, and really going back to what I loved most, so I took a role back into the sales side of it as Senior Vice President of Direct Sales with Coface. I keep up with my existing clients, and I stay very involved because I have relationships. Some policies go back 35 years, so it's important for me to stay connected.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Michele
01What do you attribute your success to?
Relationship building. Totally. It's all about relationship, it's all about delivering when you promise, it's staying in touch, staying connected, and my clients, my brokers, know that they can contact me 24-7. It's not a 9-to-5 job. But relationship, I would say, is number one. I think being a better listener is also key, because salespeople tend to talk too much. As a salesperson, you gotta learn that you should listen more than you should talk. I love to talk about what I do, but I think people that love what they do would prefer to talk about what they enjoy doing. So I think my thing would be to be a better listener, because I think people that love what they do would prefer to talk.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
When I was on the broker side, and I was very young, and I was a junior partner in this brokerage company, the president, who is still my mentor in life, he would hear me on the phone selling something, and I loved to talk. As a salesperson, you gotta learn that you should listen more than you should talk. So I would talk and talk and talk, and he would listen to my conversations, and then say, you already got the sale, like, hang up, hang up. But I would just continue to talk and talk, because I love to talk about what I do. So I think it's being a better listener than to talk, because I think people that love what they do would prefer to talk about what they enjoy doing. So my thing would be to be a better listener, because salespeople tend to talk too much.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Know your worth. You're good. You're good at what you do. Know your worth. Be confident. Know your product, learn it inside and out. No one is better than you. You're here for a reason, and you could be really successful if you just work hard, learn your product, continue to build pipelines. And most important, build relationships, let people get to know who you are, let them trust in you, become their advisor, their consultant. Everything that's needed to partner with a company and know that you're in it together. But for a woman, years ago, it was a lot more difficult. I think women today seem to still hide behind that shield. They don't need to do that, because they're as valuable as a man in this workspace.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
We have competition, and competition is always out there, so you always want to make sure that you are being ahead of competition, knowing their product better than, or as much as you know your own. So just making sure that everything is being handled in the timeframes that are needed. Set expectations and make sure that you deliver on time. It's really just prioritizing and making sure that you're living up to what you need to deliver.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, trust, teamwork. I like someone to just be open - if something is bothering someone, especially when I'm managing a person, talk to me about it. Let's iron it out, let's talk it out, let's see how do we fix it. So communication is key. Communication is really key. Just being open and honest. These things need to come natural if you're that person, and if they're not, maybe you're not in the right position or situation. So I just think that values are the norm, what it should be, just to be honest and trustworthy, and power and everything else will come your way, because people will see that. That's key. It's just so important.
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