Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Websites
Clubsassociations
Timeline
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Karen Blackstone

Great Falls,VA

Summary

Accomplished Strategic Account Manager with a proven track record at companies like Salesforce, adept at transforming high churn risk accounts into long-term, valued customers. Specializes in sales negotiations and client relationship building, achieving significant revenue uplifts and operational cost savings. Recognized for driving sales enablement initiatives and leveraging data-driven decision-making to exceed revenue targets.

Overview

14
14
years of professional experience

Work History

Strategic Account Manager

Deepwatch
02.2024 - 02.2025
  • Managed a $28 million book of business out of a company total of $50 million AAR for their largest customers.
  • Performed 85% of OTE.
  • Transformed 3 churn risk accounts to customer references: RTI International, Mandarin Hotel Group, and Artera (customer case study) https://www.deepwatch.com/resource/deepwatch-enhances-visibility-for-construction-company-artera/.
  • Transformed a strategic account from a high churn risk profile to them inviting us to their company-sponsored event as a panelist.
  • I survived three layoffs, and this role was eliminated due to a 70% customer retention rate and a 30% churn, with net new revenue sales producing rock-bottom results.

Cloud Account Executive

Salesforce, Inc.
09.2022 - 04.2023
  • Engaged with existing Salesforce financial and insurance industry customers and new leads to close sales on CRM Analytics by directing account planning, coordinating internal resources, and engineering sales to meet customer business needs.
  • Partnered in the development and execution of a long-term account strategy, aligning customers' business objectives with available products.
  • Hired by a former Oracle colleague for quick results – closed $300k CRMA revenue in my first quarter.
  • With a hunter mentality, I rolled up my sleeves, doing my own demos, and enabled cross-functional Core, Tableau, and BDR sales teams.
  • The entire CRM Analytics Sales Organization was eliminated in 2023 due to product consolidation changes and cost-cutting initiatives.

Global Strategic Account Manager

Salsify
02.2021 - 09.2022
  • Recruited by an executive sales leader to exceed revenue targets in five $2B+ strategic CPG/Manufacturing accounts; then selected to manage five additional $2B+ high-risk strategic accounts.
  • Skilled at transforming high-risk accounts into long-term, repeat customers.
  • I closed the largest deal ($204k uplift) within my first 90 days.
  • Saved two churn-risk accounts with a total AAR of $900k, and expanded to multi-year term contracts.
  • Transformed two accounts from a one-year term to a three-year term, totaling $250k AAR uplift.
  • Pulled forward $60,000 from Q1 to Q4 so my team could achieve the Q4 forecast.

Independent Consultant

Independent Consultant
06.2018 - 12.2021
  • Independent consultant on revenue generating projects with various clients including cybersecurity start-ups, coaching platforms, and cybersecurity executive recruitment firm

Senior Sales Enablement Partner

Palo Alto Networks
10.2017 - 06.2018
  • Collaborated with sales leadership and department heads to design programs expected to affect behavioral change for the Americas sales organization.
  • Drove education in sales knowledge, soft skills, and best practices to increase sales productivity.
  • Leveraged data and metrics to achieve desired results in sales performance.
  • Our family relocated to Northern Virginia due to my husband’s job change

Senior Sales Enablement Advisor

NetSuite (acquired by Oracle)
10.2015 - 01.2017
  • Redesigned and led consultative sales enablement and reinforcement training programs within high tech, wholesale and distribution, and manufacturing.
  • Earned a 5-star performance rating for training programs utilizing the art of storytelling with customer use cases.

Senior Network Account Manager

Akamai
03.2012 - 10.2015
  • Negotiated global, financially secure agreements with Akamai's largest network partners in North America (Comcast, Verizon, Charter, Lumen, NTT, GTT, Cox, and Sprint) to enable Akamai's global CDN and Security Platform.
  • Consistently drove Akamai's network operating costs downward, saving millions of dollars year over year in IP transit costs, peering expenses, and costs for space and power by successfully leveraging direct sales expertise.
  • Developed and executed strategic plans to evolve contracts consistent with technical platform requirements.
  • Evolved datacenter strategy to create a more stable and flexible growth structure by extending agreements with key datacenter partners from 1–3-year agreements to 7–10-year agreements that reduced operating costs while maintaining the required flexibility for growth and/or retraction.
  • This reduced the number of strategic partners from 35 to 12 data center partners.
  • Also, while bandwidth requirements expanded by 10x (20 Tbps to 200 Tbps), we were able to maintain the same effective costs by reducing rates and transforming CIR-based contracts to extended revenue commit agreements.

Northeast Account Manager -High Tech Vertical

Akamai
09.2010 - 03.2012
  • Resilient hunter of new logos and large strategic accounts (Nuance, PTC, Xerox, etc.).
  • Consistent top performer in pipeline growth and time to close.
  • Collaborated with the Analytics and Security team to upsell real-time monitoring and cybersecurity services.
  • Top #2 global contributor to the employee referral program.

Consulting Sales Executive/Regional Technology Sales Manager/Senior Inside Sales Manager

Oracle (7 years)
  • Selected to successfully lead various start-up pilots within Oracle, such as the first Fusion Middleware (Oracle Cloud) and SMB segment.
  • Promoted to Regional Sales Manager to grow a team of six in uncharted territory, I surpassed a $6M team sales quota, and 50% of the team earned President’s Club within six months of their start date.
  • I am honored to earn 2X MVP RM Awards in the North America Strategic Accounts Division.

Regional Sales Manager

Tibco (2 years)
  • Recruited two former Oracle colleagues to join the team.
  • One out of nine account representatives generated new logo revenue and resuscitated a dormant region by customer-facing events, such as the Northeast User Conference in NYC.

Education

Bachelor of Arts - Human Development

Boston College

Skills

  • Transforming high churn risk accounts to into long term and referenceable customers
  • Sales negotiations
  • Data-driven decision making
  • Client relationship building
  • Upselling and cross selling
  • 80/20 rule active listening/collaborative discussions
  • Pricing strategy
  • Sales enablement
  • Sales operations management

Clubsassociations

  • Member of Boston College Alumni Association
  • Corinthian Yacht Club
  • Riverbend Country Club

Timeline

Strategic Account Manager

Deepwatch
02.2024 - 02.2025

Cloud Account Executive

Salesforce, Inc.
09.2022 - 04.2023

Global Strategic Account Manager

Salsify
02.2021 - 09.2022

Independent Consultant

Independent Consultant
06.2018 - 12.2021

Senior Sales Enablement Partner

Palo Alto Networks
10.2017 - 06.2018

Senior Sales Enablement Advisor

NetSuite (acquired by Oracle)
10.2015 - 01.2017

Senior Network Account Manager

Akamai
03.2012 - 10.2015

Northeast Account Manager -High Tech Vertical

Akamai
09.2010 - 03.2012

Consulting Sales Executive/Regional Technology Sales Manager/Senior Inside Sales Manager

Oracle (7 years)

Regional Sales Manager

Tibco (2 years)

Bachelor of Arts - Human Development

Boston College

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