Boston Company Spotlight - CarGurus

As we look to highlight great local companies and sales opportunities for the Top Rep Boston Community, we wanted to welcome a new Boston Company Spotlight feature with Maddy Alves - Director, SEM Sales and Account Management at CarGurus.

Building the world’s most trusted & transparent automotive marketplace

Maddy Alves Director, SEM Sales and Account Management

 

What exactly does CarGurus do?  

CarGurus uses proprietary technology, search algorithms, and innovative data analytics to provide unbiased insights on car pricing dealer reputation and vehicle history, making it easy for shoppers to find great deals from top-rated dealers. CarGurus also helps dealers and private sellers quickly and easily market their vehicles and connect with ready-to-buy shoppers. Currently, we are the #1 automotive site per comScore when it comes to metrics like monthly visitors (according to the comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, March 2018, U.S.).

Why is it a great platform and product for dealerships?

CarGurus was built with the consumer in mind, which ultimately means that we are providing dealers with qualified, ready-to-buy shoppers. Dealerships work with CarGurus because we deliver an efficient customer acquisition channel driven by the volume of high-quality connections to our users. We not only offer products that help dealers acquire these customers and build their brands, we also help dealers market and sell their cars more efficiently.

What is SEM and why is it important to dealerships?  

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing which is an advertising solution that utilizes search engines like Google and Bing to advertise their business. SEM is one of the largest automotive digital marketing investments and is extremely competitive, it is one of the most important tools for dealerships to drive direct traffic to their own website where they get the highest quality and converting shoppers. CarGurus leverages a robust automotive search data set, years of investment and industry-leading technology to provide unmatched results and scale for dealerships.

Why did you decide to become a sales professional?

I decided to become a sales professional because it gave me the control and autonomy to be as successful as I wanted to be. There is a lot of freedom in knowing that you have that type of direct control over your success. However, sales roles and cultures can differ from company to company, and I also wanted to work at a place that supports and fosters a creative, autonomous environment.

What does a top rep look like at CarGurus?

A top rep at CarGurus is adaptable, hardworking and determined. As I previously mentioned, we have an environment that respects rep autonomy and creativity - it’s all about the way you harness them both. A top rep will take complete ownership of their business, grind to get results and are also an awesome person to work with.

What are some perks or benefits that make CarGurus exciting to work for?

There are definitely those perks you can read about online such as free daily catered lunches, an abundance of snacks, transportation reimbursement, and a free gym membership. However, while those perks are important and are more than appreciated, they could technically be offered by other companies as well. The real excitement comes from the people a.k.a “The Gurus” and some of the amazing abilities and talent that reside here. I highly recommend that anyone interested in becoming a Guru should check out CarGurus on LinkedIn and read some of the shared-first accounts of why people like working here. They’ll see that we truly have a collaborative culture with positive, optimistic people. Reading these accounts represents that awesome feeling I have every day when I walk through the door.

Interested in joining the CarGurus team?

Visit Here

About the Author - Maddy Alves

Maddy has been with CarGurus for nearly four years, she started there as an account executive and has gone on to build and lead various sales teams during her tenure. Prior to CarGurus, Maddy worked at UTC and TechTarget in inside and outside sales roles.

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Boston Company Spotlight - ezCater

Welcome to Boston Company Spotlight featuring Nicholas D'Ascensao - Vice President of Sales at ezCater. Our goal is to highlight local influencers, resources, and opportunities for our Top Rep Boston Community!  

ezCater is the only nationwide marketplace for business catering. ezCater’s online ordering, on-time ratings and reviews, and 5-star customer service connect business people to reliable catering for any meeting, anywhere in the United States.

NICK D’ASCENSAO - VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES

 

WHAT DOES EZCATER DO?

ezCater connects business people with more than 60,000 caterers across the United States. Business people who need catering get an easy, reliable, and rewarding way to order it. Restaurant and catering operators get catering orders, operational support, and insights they can act on.

We’re not just a great website. We have a team of 5-star customer support professionals who are ready to help. Call us and a real catering Ninja will answer. No “Press 1” nonsense.

WHAT PROBLEM IS YOUR PRODUCT SOLVING?

Solutions for Business People

Placing catering orders for work can be taxing and time-consuming, and it’s one of the many tasks our customers face. ezCater’s online marketplace streamlines the process so busy business people get more time back in their workday. Our customers say it best: we make their lives easier.

Solutions for Caterers

The restaurant and catering industry is tough: competitive, fast-paced, and stressful. ezCater’s off-prem solutions help restaurant and catering operators grow their revenue and customer base. Operators get a variety of efficiency-boosting tools so they can focus on what they do best: making delicious food.

WHO ARE YOU SELLING TO AND WHY IS IT A GREAT PRODUCT?

Our sales team has two sides. Caterer Sales reaches out to caterers and restaurants. National sales onboard business people and businesses. Both groups — caterers and business people — have little time to spare, and both save time and effort with ezCater’s technology and customer service. We make these people’s lives better. Their words, not ours.

WHAT MAKES EZCATER DIFFERENT THAN YOUR COMPETITORS?

We’re the only nationwide marketplace for business catering (not just major cities), we have top-notch technology, and our customers love us.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO WORK IN SALES AT EZCATER?

ezCater is where amazing people come to work with other amazing people to do amazing things. I see other companies hire a bunch of salespeople, cut the ones who don’t succeed and keep the few who do.  We set the bar higher at hiring phase so when you get here you are surrounded by truly elite talent and teammates that will help bring out the best in you. We don’t have a preconceived notion of what makes an amazing rep and in an interview, it's not uncommon to not even be asked for your resume.  We hire people, not paper. Which is reflected in our team. We have Ivy League grads and then we have people who never went to college. Whatever their experience level or background, we see the greatness in people and we have a proven system to unlock it.

With the greatest talent in Boston and the greatest tools and systems in Boston, we have curated an incredible and low-pressure yet high-performance sales environment. Sure, I’m responsible for a bunch of performance metrics, but I don’t impose those metrics on my team. All that I ask for is attitude, effort, and respect (we are all equal). Since my team gives me those, the metrics take care of themselves. This opens up time for discovering better ways to do things, time for personal development and mentorship, and time to prepare for the rest of your career.

WHAT DOES A TOP REP LOOK LIKE AT EZCATER?  

ezCater specializes in recruiting the ‘rising elite.’ We pride ourselves on the ability to find, recruit, develop, and mentor Boston’s next generation of elite sales talent.  We like to think of ourselves as the Harvard/MIT of sales education in Boston. We don’t hound our reps to make calls or send "x" amount of emails a day. The type of people we attract knows that doing the basics is part of the job.  What do we push our reps to do? We push them to think. We ask them to think about what is working and what could be made better. We push them to think more broadly about what we are not doing that could help move the business forward.  We want our amazing people to bring their entire brain to work and to use it to its fullest potential. Our top reps eagerly push limits, test things, and explore new ways of improving processes. They thrive in our incredible culture of flexibility and autonomy and go out of their way to take on more and help those around them.

WHAT ARE SOME SPECIAL PERKS, AWARDS, TEAM OUTINGS, ETC. AT EZCATER?

There’s always something to look forward to: the next exciting challenge, free catered breakfast every Monday, free catered lunch every Wednesday, free Beer O’Clock every Friday, a kitchen (three, actually) always full of up-for-grabs snacks, cupcakes and other treats, softball games, an annual ski trip, unlimited vacation… We’re in an awesome location in Downtown Crossing, generous commuting benefits make it easy to get here, and a great benefits package keeps us healthy and happy.

 Interested in joining the team?

Visit Here

 About the Author - Nick D'Ascensao

Nick is an award-winning sales expert with over a decade of experience building high velocity inside sales teams at hyper-growth start-ups. He specializes in creating the recruiting systems, sales processes, and training programs that ground organizations for their next phase of growth. During his career, Nick has held sales leadership roles at companies including Yahoo!, Criteo, (IPO), Jumptap (Acquisition),  Millennial Media (Acquisition), and AOL.

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Local Leaders of Boston: Alexandra Howley

Welcome to Local Leaders of Boston featuring Alexandra Howley - Program Manager AAUW Work Smart in Boston. Our goal is to highlight local leaders and influencers who are making a positive impact on our Top Rep Boston community.

Alexandra Howley - Program Manager

 

So, Alex, what is AAUW Work Smart in Boston?

Work Smart is a program of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that provides women the tools for successful salary negotiation.

In 2015, AAUW partnered with Mayor Walsh through the Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement to pilot ‘Work Smart in Boston’ as a large- scale grassroots initiative to provide free salary negotiation workshops to women that live and work throughout the city.

 

How does this program fit into the bigger picture….?

The Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement is doing some really forward-thinking work to address the wage gap. They have deployed a multi-pronged approach that addresses both policy and culture. The Boston model focuses on three categories; Employers (culture & policy), Individuals (culture), and Legislation (policy). You can read more about their work here.

Work Smart in Boston is one of the ways that the city is supporting individuals. Educating women directly in salary negotiation is a really innovative new approach for cities and states. The MA Treasurer’s Office also recently announced the expansion of these workshops throughout the state. In addressing solutions to the gender-based salary gap, Evelyn Murphy, the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and co-chair of the Boston Women’s Workforce Council argues that these issues can not be addressed through legislation alone.  “It’s actions by all of us. Women have to act for employers to react. Employers have to act to make this change.”

 

What is your new role there?

I recently took over as the Program Manager for the AAUW Work Smart in Boston program, working out of the Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement. My key focus since joining this amazing team has been to bring this program to scale. We have built a great foundation these first two years, and now we are increasing the volume of workshops and expanding to more neighborhoods across Boston.

I am also investing a great deal of energy into increasing awareness and accessibility for more women to be able to take advantage of these trainings. We have set really high goals for this program and my job is to do everything we can to get us there.

 

Can you tell us about some of your goals for the program?

Our primary goal set by Mayor Walsh & AAUW in 2015 is to train 85,000 women living and working in Boston by 2021. To help break that down, 85,000 is half of Boston’s working women.

In the first two years, we’ve held more than 250 workshops and trained over 6,000 women. Coming from General Assembly (a growing education company), it has been really fun applying some of the strategies we deployed scaling in the startup space to this work with the city. With the continued support from the Boston community, I am confident that we will reach this goal.  

The other underlying goal of this program is to create a model for other cities and states to support women and increase pay equity.

 

Who should be utilizing these services?

The program is designed for anyone that identifies as a woman, but we do welcome men. We recognize that men of color and other groups also experience a wage gap, so we try to be as inclusive as possible. Knowing how to negotiate for yourself and feeling empowered to do so is a necessary life skill.

The Boston Women's Workforce Council, a public-private partnership between Mayor Walsh and the Greater Boston business community, released a new report in January 2018, which dug into the Greater Boston area gender wage gap. The model uses employer-reported wage data to measure the localized wage gap, a first-in-the-nation approach, which is seen to be more accurate than the commonly referenced analyses that use U.S. Census data.The sample that represented 16% of the city’s workforce revealed that women working full-time in the Boston area are paid, on average, $0.76 to a white male's $1.00. Even worse, black women are making $0.52 and Latina women $0.49.

The two-hour workshop is broken down into the following four key pieces to help guide participants through the process:

1. Understanding the gender wage gap, including its long-term consequences

2. How to identify and articulate your personal value

3. How to conduct objective market research to benchmark a target salary and benefits

4. How to develop an arsenal of persuasive responses and other negotiation strategies, including how to get a raise or promotion

These workshops are FREE and we’re hosting them in locations across all 23 of Boston’s neighborhoods!

If you would like to register to attend a workshop, visit boston.gov/women

If you want to get involved:

Sign up to become a workshop facilitator, visit salary.aauw.org/facilitate  

(we are always looking for more women to get involved)

Or if you have the space to host a workshop, contact Alex at Howleya@aauw.org

About the American Association of University Women

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is a national nonprofit committed to advancing equity for women through advocacy, education, and research and has been around since 1881.

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This One Rule Is The Secret To Sales And Customer Success Alignment

A few weeks ago, a member of the Drift Customer Success team and a member of the Sales team both approached me to share that they felt the customer handoff process was broken. So we grabbed a whiteboard and started talking about the steps in the process...

“There are details we tell the customer they’ll review with the CSM, but they’re not consistently addressed in every kick off call.”

“There are notes that are supposed to be filled out in Salesforce from a rep that doesn't always get filled out.”

The back and forth discussion on process precision would certainly make any operations employee smile, but we had to take a step back and put someone else’s sentiment into focus: Our customer’s.

“Forget OUR process and how we’ve architected the way WE think things should be. What would our customer say?”

The conversation changed.

The whiteboard was erased.

We started over, with the customer at the center of the conversation, and landed someplace completely different.

A few weeks prior, we had Lisa Rubino, Program Manager of Patient Experience at Boston Children’s Hospital, come in to run a  lunch and learn with the entire Drift team about patient experience. We were stunned by the number of similarities between patient care in health services and customer care in SaaS services, and how dependent they were on partnerships, much like the relationship between sales and services.

Lisa mentioned the tough feedback they’d received from patients about the transfer from nurses between shifts, and how they wanted the exchange of patient information to feel more human. It resulted in a change they now call “the warm handoff,” where both nurses -- as well as the patient -- are present to review important patient details. This required a change to their process, training for employees to get onboard, and follow-through to make sure it was happening. And it was the right thing for their patients.

It taught us to challenge ourselves to throw process in the trash if it didn’t solve for the needs of the customer and to also look in the mirror when it came to how important our Sales and Customer Success partnership is in the eyes of our customers.

Our Drift customer handoffs are now “warm” (thanks to the change-agent nurses at Children’s for inspiring us), have far fewer steps, and more immediate tool-driven automation. The updates reflect what our customers want and need when they first buy our product, instead of the process steps we’ve trained on and predefined internally.

At Drift, we continue to find that over-dependence on the internal business process is where Customer Experience dies, and alignment between Customer Success and Sales falls apart. Alignment works when customers are at the center of what we build, across every part of the business.

 

IF INTERESTED IN A CAREER AT DRIFT

VISIT HERE

About the Author - Julie Hogan

Julie Hogan has been on the front lines of the customer experience her entire career. She began her career in the Human Capital practice of Deloitte Consulting servicing customers across multiple industries, and then spent 7 1/2 years at HubSpot in multiple customer-facing roles, most recently as the VP of Customer Success and International Services. She was responsible for the retention of HubSpot's global customer base, global services strategy, and for building, developing and leading HubSpot's Services organizations in Dublin, Sydney, Singapore, Latin America, Japan, and Germany. She spent the first half of 2017 living in both Singapore and Dublin. In October, Julie joined Drift as their first female executive as their VP of Customer Success and Services. 

Julie is a member of the Board of Directors for the International Institute of New England, a nonprofit supporting the refugee and immigrant communities of the Greater Boston area, and is a Team Captain for Cycle for Survival, a nonprofit supporting the research of rare cancers.  Julie is a proud Woburn native, Penn State grad, and mom of two boys ages 3 and 1. 

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