Salesloft Expands to New York Location, Adds SVP of Sales Strategy

Today we’re excited to announce the addition of Jeremey Donovan to our team. Jeremey will serve as our new Senior Vice President of Sales Strategy and General Manager of our new New York City office.

New York City (NYC) is home to a vibrant sales community and fast-growing Salesloft customer base. With his leadership and his understanding of what buyers are yearning for, Jeremey will serve and empower NYC sellers to provide a better experience for their customers.

We sat down with Jeremey during his first week to officially introduce you to him. Please join us in welcoming Jeremey to the company.

In late 2015, I was tasked with building out a sales development function for a previous employer. After an extensive evaluation of sales engagement solutions, we selected Salesloft. I was blown away by the fast, seamless integration with Salesforce and with Microsoft Exchange.

As an early adopter of Salesloft, we had the opportunity to work closely with their development teams. Our implementation process went smoothly, thanks to the level of communication and quality assurance. The emphasis on putting customers first and rapid product development blew my mind. I’ve been a repeat customer ever since.

You might say that I was sold on the company because of its product, but I’ve renewed multiple times because of the service.

What made you decide to join the company?

Because I was so impressed by Salesloft, when the next Rainmaker conference rolled around, I took our entire 12-person sales development team down to Atlanta. We felt the #saleslove at the conference; I decided right then that working for Salesloft was in my future.

Prior to Salesloft, I’ve worked in sales strategy, operations, and enablement roles. Sales is actually my fifth career. I started out as a semiconductor engineer, then an industry analyst, a product manager, and a marketer.

How has your previous experience prepared you to be successful at Salesloft?

To be successful at Salesloft, it strikes me that you need to come in with strong alignment to the company’s five core values. For example, during my 16 years at Gartner, we had a high degree of focus on ‘Bias Toward Action’ and ‘Focus on Results.’

In subsequent places I’ve worked, I’ve felt the power of ‘Customer First.’ Finally, I’d say my parents instilled me with the values ‘Team Over Self’ and ‘Glass Half Full’ from a young age.

Beyond the values, I’m a voracious, lifelong learner and I’m excited to not only learn more from everyone at Salesloft, but also to apply the knowledge and skills I’ve picked up along the way in the sales, marketing, and product spaces.

How has the profession of sales changed over the course of your career?

The more things change, the more the profession of sales stays the same. Sellers don’t sell - buyers buy. For decades, the job of the B2B salesperson has been to consult with prospects to identify ways to create value by addressing known or unknown needs. That strikes me as fundamentally human.

What are the biggest challenges/opportunities for sales professionals today? 

I believe that the biggest opportunity for salespeople is leveraging technology to apply contextual best practices. I’m careful to use the word ‘contextual,’ since best practice depends on each company’s or division’s go-to-market strategy. Tech enablement simply makes it easier to do the things you know you should do, but have found tedious, difficult, or even impossible in the past.

There are still plenty of salespeople, especially at larger companies, struggling to manage multi-touch, multi-channel prospect engagements in notebooks and spreadsheets. I’m excited to be part of a movement aimed at helping improve the lives of the customers we serve.

You’re based in the NYC office - anything unique about the needs of customers in that market?

Working in NYC, part of me wants to say that the Big Apple is a special snowflake. But, truth be told, sales professionals in New York have the same core need as those all over the world - to crush their quotas.

When teams leverage a sales engagement platform, they demand a rapid return on investment. At a more granular level, they require swift implementation, ever-enhancing functionality, and relationships with customer success professionals who proactively recommend productivity-enhancing best practices that extend far beyond the platform.

I’m looking forward to building out our office and team in the NYC market and excited to lead our efforts there.

What are you most excited about heading into your first few weeks?

Building relationships with and learning from our prospects, our customers, and our people.

What do you do for fun outside of work?

As my wife will tell you, I don’t do well when I’m idle. When I’m not working, you’ll find me spending quality time with my wife and two kids, reading, watching movies, gardening, writing, or weaving Navajo-style rugs. That last hobby is a bit random; just something I picked up because it is mathematical and meditative.

Anything else you’d like to share about joining the team?

You think you might know the company you are joining from the people you meet, the interview process, GlassDoor, and so on, but you really don’t know until you are in the building and start working. Three things have struck me in the first couple days on the job.

The first is the culture here is real. For example, I’ve seen people call themselves or others out on core values, which is something I truly appreciate. We walk the walk.

The second is the level of disciplined execution that exists here. I’m 20+ years into my professional career, and this place is world-class. Years from now, people for whom Salesloft is their first job will look back with fondness on what they learned and experienced here.

The third and final thing I would add is that I’m sincerely grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received. I’m just honored to be a part of a team so committed to our customers and our organizational health.

Please join us in welcoming Jeremey to Salesloft!

If you’re interested in joining the Salesloft team, check out our Careers page or reach out to one of our current team members via LinkedIn to learn more.