Mona Samkari

I attribute my success to daily habits that are in alignment with where I want to be in the future. I think everybody needs to set those personal short-term and long-term goals, and then every day, take one step closer to attaining that, because it's the consistency of what you do daily that leads to that success. I wake up every day with a smile on my face, and having a positive attitude makes all the difference in every single thing that you do. I bring the same energy and the same enthusiasm to every meeting that I take, whether it's a new customer discovery or a post-customer issue. I always have the same positive attitude, and I think those are the things that contribute to the future success - the consistency, attitude, and approach.

The best career advice I've received is to do what you're passionate about, and I think that leads to success. If you don't believe in the solution that you're selling, for example, then you're not going to be able to sell it. I can't get behind a company that doesn't do things ethically, and I've had experiences in the past where maybe there was a team that does things kind of maybe not aligned with my moral compass, and that's not something that I'm gonna stay doing for any period of time. So being really focused on doing what you're passionate about and what you believe in, success will find you.

I would say find a mentor, because we don't have to be in it on our own. Women need to help support each other. It's actually very challenging - it's a male dominant industry for sure. I don't see that many women in this field, but we have to empower and support each other. The best way to take your expertise and your style to the next level is to find a mentor and learn from them. I think having that continued education type of approach to what you're doing is so important. You can learn from people who are younger than you, you can learn from people who are older than you, you can learn from women, you can learn from men. That part doesn't matter. But the point is, if you're always trying to improve upon yourself, then that's the reason I recommend having a mentor, so that you can continue to grow in your field.

In my field, I think the biggest challenge is that it's a long sales cycle, and it takes a lot of perseverance and understanding of all of the different moving pieces. It's not a small transaction, it's not a short sales cycle, it's not something you sell and walk away. You're building long-term relationships with the people at the customer site, and you're building long-term relationships between those two companies. The most challenging thing is maintaining all of those relationships across different companies, different levels of contacts at those organizations, and being able to manage your book of business by maintaining those relationships, because people buy from people they like at the end of the day. It's more of a long-term relationship - it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You have to persevere through ups and downs. Sometimes you lose a deal in the short term, and in the long term, they come back, like, a year later, and they realize that your solution might have been a better fit and want to reevaluate. Being in it for the long haul and being patient is really, really important.

I would say treating others how you want to be treated is a huge thing for me. In my work, how that applies is always do what's right for the customer. I always try to be an advocate for my customers. Even if it's not in my personal best interest, because I think a lot of salespeople can be coin operated, you have to detach yourself from that and always put your customer first, make sure that they're successful. When you invest in your people, when you invest in your customers and make them successful, inadvertently, you're paying it forward, and it will come back to you in some way. So always doing what's right, even if it doesn't benefit you. I think I have a very strong ethical and moral guide, and that's really important for me to teach my kids as well. It's not always about me. Sometimes there can be things that would be not in my best interest, but if it's the right thing to do, that's kind of the way I've got to do it. I really do think that those kinds of things contribute to a person's success - you can count on those people to do the right thing.