Women in Tech Trustmary Edition: Career Growth in B2B SaaS Sales

Today’s newsletter introduces you to Saila Salpakoski, the Sales Manager Team Lead. As a child, Saila wanted to become a teacher. Instead, she’s had a solid career path in Sales in different roles. She believes that anyone can succeed in B2B sales, and encourages people to try it out.

Climbing the Career Ladder at Trustmary

Saila Salpakoski started at Trustmary four years ago, when Trustmary was focused on producing high-quality video testimonials and doing customer experience research.?

She began her career as a researcher, making customer surveys on the phone and reporting the results to the client. Later she took maternity leave, after which she returned to a transformed workplace.?

Trustmary had become a SaaS company that helps companies gather and display reviews that matter, and Saila began a new job as Business Development Representative.

– At first, I was mainly finding new prospects, but soon I started booking meetings. Later I became a Sales Manager and had my own clients and sales meetings, she reminisces.

Since May 2022, Saila has worked as a Sales Manager Team Leader.

– Now, I’m responsible for the sales team and its results. My time is divided between team leader tasks and my personal sales tasks.

Saila enjoys her new tasks and responsibilities.

– I like managing the big picture, helping people, developing our practices, and coming up with new ideas. It’s also nice to be able to continue sales meetings with clients, she rejoices.

B2B Sales Need Everyone

While half of the college-educated workforce is female, in B2B sales, women only make up less than one-third of the employees.

Out of Sales Managers in the tech industry, only 16% are female.

In light of these statistics, one would think that being a woman in B2B sales and tech would be somehow different from their male counterparts.

Saila hasn’t noticed too much difference between her and her male colleagues.

– I have met hundreds of business decision-makers, and I can only think of a few occasions where I received bad or inappropriate behavior, she states.

When Saila looks back at those encounters, she acknowledges that some of the behavior was motivated by her gender, while part of it may have happened to any salesperson. Saila doesn’t let such things get under her skin.

– Personally, I don’t care about that kind of behavior, and I won’t listen to inappropriate people. I can understand that situations like that could be difficult for a young or timid person. But it’s very rare that anything like that happens, she reassures.

Saila wishes that more women would be interested in entering the field.

– B2B sales could benefit from more women. It could be a breeze of fresh air, Saila thinks.

Believe In Yourself and Your Team

– The most challenging part of being a team leader is time management and prioritizing tasks. You must be able to schedule your days very well to give enough time for each core task: team management and sales, Saila says.

Saila believes that anyone can have a chance at succeeding in B2B sales.

– Sales is a very educational career. I believe anyone can succeed very well in this field, no matter one’s gender, beliefs, or anything like that.

– When you believe in yourself and your team, and when you do your best, you can achieve anything!

What was your dream job as a child, and what do you do now? Share in the comments!