My great manager series - Jia Woei LING

In the ancient Chinese story of ‘BoLe and The Thousand Miles Horse’ (659 - 621 BC), BoLe is someone who had an exceptional ability to identify talents when nobody else could see it.

To me, Jia Woei Ling is my BoLe.?

1 He was the first one who saw potential in me and gave me a chance to step into the Tech Sales world.??

2 He taught me some of the most foundational knowledge in IT.?

3 He gave me my first salary raise ensuring that my compensation was fair and commensurate with my performance.

Whenever I think about my career in Tech Sales, I could not help but thank him for giving me a great start.?

1 He was the first one who saw potential in me and gave me a chance to step into the Tech Sales world.?

It was April 2007 when I was referred by my senior, ZY from National University of Singapore, to interview for the SR position at salesforce.com.?

I was a fresh graduate with 0 sales experience then. Very few companies were willing to hire young people for sales positions due to the perceived risks.? I couldn't rely on any past track record to establish my credibility, not even my school grades.? It all came down to Jiawoei's assessment, and he had a unique approach.

In our first interview, he straight away engaged in a role play where he was an inbound lead. At the end of that interview, he assigned me homework such as learning about the product and reading the company’s customer story page. However, he didn’t tell me what he was going to do in the next interview. He also didn’t tell me the date of the next interview. I actually called him up later to follow up on the interview details, and only then did he provide me with the date and time.?

I can’t recall much about the second interview with Jiawoei. What I do remember is that he mentioned I had done well by sharing a customer story in my pitch.?

Following that second interview, I moved on to meet the big boss, the VP of APAC, for final confirmation. I still remember that just before my last interview with the VP, Jiawoei subtly hinted that I might want to dress more professionally. I picked up on the cue and bought myself a set from G2000 to blend into the dress code at the salesforce.com office.?

Later, I realized that Jiawoei had intentionally set up the interview this way to test if I possessed the qualities required for this sales job, qualities such as being proactive, quick to learn and receptive to feedback.

I found Jiawoei's interview method especially beneficial for a fresh graduate like me. He not only assessed the candidate's skills and character traits before hiring but also provided the candidate with a realistic view of the job. It was a win-win situation for all parties involved.

2? He taught me some of the most foundational knowledge in IT.?

Right after returning from boot camp in the US, I started to feel the steep learning curve of enterprise software sales. I needed to acquire not only product knowledge and sales skills but also beef up my foundational IT knowledge.?

For instance, when a lead mentioned during a call that they wanted to integrate with their ERP system, I didn't know what ERP was, and I struggled to grasp the concept of integration.?

Jiawoei would patiently explain how the integration worked between salesforce.com CRM and ERP. More importantly, he clarified when such integration was a 'must-have' and when it was merely a 'nice-to-have.'

This was extremely helpful because it was not covered in the bootcamp, yet it was super crucial for determining which salesforce.com edition the lead would buy and whether they had sufficient budget. Jiawoei recognized that I lacked this foundational knowledge as a recent university graduate, and he encouraged me to approach him with any questions. I don't recall him ever being impatient with my questions.

One thing Jia Woei was very conscious of when answering my questions was not merely to 'give me the fish' but to focus on teaching me 'how to fish.' For example, he would demonstrate how to search for specific use cases on the company's website so that I wouldn't need to rely on him for answers in the future. When he believed I should be capable of finding the answers myself, he didn't hesitate to encourage me to figure it out on my own. He would not “spoon-feed” me knowledge and make me lazy. He was truly the right teacher at the right time in my career.

3 He gave me my first salary raise ensuring that my compensation was fair and commensurate with my performance.

Not long after consistently achieving 100% of my monthly quota, Jia Woei arranged a 1:1 session with me. During this session, he handed me an envelope containing information about a pay raise. It amounted to nearly a 20% increase in my total package, including my base salary.

At the time, as it was my first salary raise, I didn't fully grasp how significant this was. It was only years later that I realized such salary raises don't happen frequently, especially when you remain in the same role at the same company.

Jia Woei did this because he always emphasized his commitment to fairness whenever it was within his power. He knew I was performing the same role and meeting the same quota as my peers, but my initial offer from salesforce.com had been lower due to my status as a fresh graduate. As soon as my performance met expectations, he immediately gave me this raise. Frankly, if Jiawoei hadn't advocated for this raise, I might never have realized that it was possible, given my lack of corporate world experience at the time.

For this, I will be forever grateful.

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