Teneisha Graves

I've been in technology sales for over 20 years, starting my journey in the IT telecom space when I was just 15 and a half years old, working for Southwestern Bell. Throughout my career, I've always been in sales - it's something I knew I had a knack for because companies and organizations are always looking for improvement and solutions to problems, even if they're not ready to realize they have a problem. I've sold technology solutions to strategic Fortune 500 accounts, mid-market enterprise accounts, and public sector organizations. After spending 16 years with Verizon, I wanted to do something different, and a recruiter from Hewlett Packard (HPE) reached out to me, which led me into the pure play software role. What I enjoy most about my work is really being a problem solver, a true authentic problem solver and strategist, and tapping into my creative hat to bring solutions to clients that they may not have known was an option. I have the ability to custom tailor solutions instead of offering out-of-the-box type solutions. My biggest accomplishment came in 2022 while working for Gartner, when I landed the largest single contract they had ever received - a deal that started at $200,000 and ended up finalizing at a little north of $4.7 million, more than three times larger than Gartner's previous record of $1.3 million. I achieved this by taking the time to truly know and understand the client, identifying all stakeholders, and helping them see the value in investing in Gartner's already-established model rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Beyond my corporate career, I've also been running Perfect 10 Solutions, my tax business, for over 15 plus years, built entirely on referrals and word of mouth - it's something I'm very passionate about because I understand the tax code and love helping individuals not leave any money on the table.