Tech Sales is for Hustlers

Patrick Stillmun approaches each project with an open mind. He also believes learning from successful people leads to desired results. And above all else, he understands that no goal is too lofty if you are disciplined and ready to embrace a good challenge (even if it means taking it personally and fighting for yourself). After graduating from Catholic University, Patrick landed his first job at m...

Matt Genoa always wanted to be in sales, even before he entered college. That’s what made his eventual career path so unexpected. Hired into memoryBlue as an SDR, he had the chance to get heavily acquainted with the world of CRM software and it quickly piqued his interest. That early exposure to sales operations, combined with a corporate reshuffle later in his sales career that led to a job loss,...

Heather Bodenhamer didn't plan on entering tech sales, or the tech market, in general. She had her sights set on working in sports, but after coaching a professional women's soccer team in Switzerland, and realizing that she would never make enough money as either a women's coach or working for a physical therapy clinic, she went into bartending. That's when a friend of hers to...

Huy Nguyen moved to the U.S. from Vietnam when he was seven years old. He had never been on an airplane, didn’t speak English and had never lived in a house (or anything other than a hut made of leaves).  His path to tech sales was atypical. When he graduated with a marketing degree from the University of South Florida in 2018, he took a job as a graphic designer at a financial firm. He wasn’t a f...

Katie Lowry is competitive by nature. Her drive to compete led her to participate in 12 seasons of six different sports (with nine of them at the varsity level) while in school and eventually to a career in professional sales.  After graduating from James Madison University with bachelor’s degree in digital communication and Media/Multimedia, Katie landed her first job at memoryBlue as a Sales Dev...

One of memoryBlue alum Kellen Robideau’s favorite memories is when three coworkers dressed up as him for Halloween.  “I always want to introduce myself and make new friends … so I wanted to be that fun guy that people enjoyed being around,” Kellen says. Doing so earned him his nickname “Fun Guy Kellen” — which three coworkers dressed up as. “I was like, ‘Are you guys me?’ I was so shook.” After gr...

Caity Cover learned everything she needed to know about people from waiting tables at Red Robin.  “I really think that waitressing for so long taught me how to small talk and build rapport with people,” Caity says. “You make 100 dials and 10 people are going to answer, so how are you going to stand out to those 10 people? ... You have to be you.” Since her more than three years in the restaurant b...

We’re kicking off our five-part 2020 Phenom Finalists podcast series with the one, the only Conal Jaeger. Conal was a veteran at memoryBlue serving 19 months before finding his next role at Gartner. Today he’s managing full sales cycles as a Sales Development Executive at Gartner. A glue guy is a person who keeps the team focused on the task at hand and ensure that they stick together through roug...

When you become a manager your success is built from other people's successes. Arguably, fostering someone's else success is more rewarding than your own success. After a relatively short tenure as an SDR Josh Crippen became a Delivery Manager for memoryBlue. He was now leading his peers - some of which were his close friends. Over the year that he was a DM, Josh learned what it took to...

Erin Anderson has always been a competitive person. That competitive spirit led her to join George Mason University's D1 lacrosse team and excelling within professional sales. During her student-athlete days, Erin made the Mason record books by having the sixth-highest game time play. After graduation, she joined memoryBlue before quickly getting hired out by her client, where she was employe...

Robbie Connors was memoryBlue's first-ever Rising Star in 2016. Backed with an irreplaceable SDR experience, Robbie interviewed with a variety of companies and captured a handful of job offers. He decided on ScienceLogic and has been with them ever since. The Rising Stars program has blossomed since then and Robbie has even brought on two other memoryBlue alums to his company. Robbie has been...

If you want to be successful in high-tech sales it's going to take blood, sweat, and tears. Especially sweat. Julianne Thompson, formally known as Julianne Sweat is no stranger to putting in hard work. Before she entered the world of professional sales she was dominant on the softball field as a pitcher for The University of Mary Washington. After college, Julianne joined the memoryBlue herd...

Whether you’ve been in the conference room named after him, worked on his campaign, or seen him work in Marc’s office throughout the week you know the man, the myth, the Godfather, Sohale Razmjou. Sohale began his journey with memoryBlue when he was the third employee ever back in 2005. And since then he has gone through the complete memoryBlue lifecycle. He became a successful SDR, became an alum...

Last year memoryBlue launched the inaugural Phenom Award. The honor is given to a recent alum who is off to a fast start since departing memoryBlue. Over 50 applications were submitted and Aaron Bravo reigned supreme. After getting hired out by his client, Motorola Solutions, Aaron became a field rep with one of the largest territories on the software enterprise team and oversaw a team of five peo...

It's hard being the new kid at school but when Ellen Hansen moved from Viva Las Vegas to the suburbs right outside of Richmond, Virginia, it taught her the life lesson of being comfortable being uncomfortable. That valuable life lesson has allowed her to adapt quickly to any new situation she comes across. After being an SDR for memoryBlue for a short five months, Ellen's talent was swif...

"If you're good enough, you'll win." And if you're Percy Darkwah you're in it to win it. Since the beginning of his tech sales career, Percy has always taken calculated risks and bet on himself to further his career. That undying will to succeed has led him to move from Virginia to Dallas, Texas, and now to Toronto, Canada. Today, Percy is crushing it as an Enterprise...

Everyone has had a moment in school where a teacher will ask you a question, you know the answer but you just simply don’t raise your hand. If you sit idly by, who will hear what you have to say? Ashley (Sprano) Lounsbury is a prime example of the benefits of raising your hand. She has always made it known what she wants and that she’s willing to hustle hard to get there. Today, Ashley is an Enter...

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Ever since a young age, Matt Bright has been making every deal just a little bit sweeter. Matt hails from Columbia, Maryland, and went to the University from Maryland. Shortly after graduation, Matt started his rewarding sales career at memoryBlue. He decided to stay on board and became the second salesperson ever to sell memoryBlue's services. Today...

Imagine working on behalf of a company for only 48 days and impressing the cofounders so much they make you a permanent job offer. SDRs at memoryBlue often get hired by a client, but usually it’s after working on a campaign for several months or even a year. It generally takes time to prove your worth. But Brian Thompson was a rocket ship, getting hired out by his client (Capterra) in one of the q...

Success isn't given, it's earned, and Mohamed "Mo" Hassan will do whatever it takes. Mo was born in Egypt before he and his family immigrated to the States. He learned from a young age to be successful meant hard work, tenacity, and above all family. Throughout his personal and professional life, Mo has faced adversity at almost every corner but has fought tooth and nail to ove...

In the small world of sales, it’s equal parts what you know and who you know. Over the past 14 years, Nelson Lawson built a vast and strong network of peers that he often leveraged on his path toward becoming Managing Partner of DC Consulting Service, LLC. His firm is a value-added reseller and leading provider of information security solutions and professional services. In fact, some of his vendo...

If one good thing came out of the Great Recession, it was David Collins. David was a senior at JMU when mB Cofounder Chris Corcoran came to his class and spoke about memoryBlue. Once class was dismissed, David emailed Chris and the rest is history. If the economy and job market were better in 2008, it's possible Chris wouldn't have been able to nail down such talent in those early days o...

In order to have a successful career in the small tech sales world, you have to leave doors open. Philippe Ghattas had barely started his career in high tech sales when he was laid off from his new job, and he had just turned down another offer from his former memoryBlue client. Fortunately, Philippe was able to renegotiate a new job offer from that client and get things on a positive track. Since...

Sales isn't just a career, it's a lifestyle. And if you're living the life of Keith Hoffmann, that lifestyle means no days off...and you love every second of it. Keith Hoffmann - affectionately called "The Hoff" by his fellow mB alumni - eats, sleeps, and breathes sales. Born and raised in a blue collar, tough-as-nails part of Philly, Keith was never afraid of putting in h...

In your sales career, much like a game of chess, you should be looking three steps ahead. When Arash Almasi first started his career at memoryBlue, he knew he wanted to become a closing rep as soon as possible. He mapped out the stepping stones necessary to get to that coveted position and created opportunities for himself, instead of waiting for opportunities to come to him. Today, Arash is an ou...