Naureen Swanson
San Jose,CA
Summary
I am a highly motivated "go-getter" that thrives in fast-paced environments. With exposure to sales, management, sales strategy, demand gen, commissions, coaching and customer relationships I love "rolling up my sleeves" to help my team improve processes. I continuously help my team solve complex problems, and push them to build their sales skills and confidence. I use data to make decisions and drive strategies and I'm extremely passionate about building a highly collaborative culture.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of North America Business Development
Palo Alto Networks
San Jose, United States
01.2021 - Current
- Leading a team of 50 BDRs, 4 managers, BDR Operations and an Academy PM.
- Record pipeline growth in FY22 $194M (30% increase YoY)
- 1100 meetings set in FY22 (record numbers)
- Built inbound strategy to qualify and convert over 4000 leads per quarter.
- Own and completely revamped corporate sales intern program (15 interns hired in summer of 22')
- Driving BDR strategy for building pipeline for all segments including Commercial, Enterprise and Public Sector.
- Built out BDR Academy program to arm EIC with Sales skills such as prospecting, lead generation, business etiquette, and financial accumen etc.
- Strong partnership with marketing to develop ABM strategy.
- Developed Career framework for BDRs which includes several opportunities for BDR growth (18 BDRs promoted in FY22)
- Collaborate with sales leadership team to build a strong feeder organization for the sales effort.
- Developed and implemented the sales development playbook to optimize pipeline generation within our top strategic customer segments.
- ... and so much more just ask!
Sr. Manager - Business Development
Palo Alto Networks Inc.
Santa Clara, CA
02.2020 - 01.2021
- Manage team of 9 BDRs and work with 5 DSM and several account reps.
- BDR Team generated $6.9M in Q3 and 151 Kept Meetings in June and July (+50% increase over previous year).
- Overall pipeline grew 27% QoQ or $1.4M, influenced by significant growth in pipeline generation QoQ
- Revamped entire BDR model including comp plans and team structure. Rest of BDR organization followed my lead.
- Regularly report to Executives and Leaders on team metrics.
- Hire, coach, and lead a growing team of Sales Development Reps.
- Developed, and A/B tested messaging to increase lead conversion rates.
- Built out an outbound sales development function and drove its strategy for targeted account based messaging
- Wrote and presented training materials for SDR and sales best practices.
Head of Sales Development
Workato
Mountain View, CA
06.2019 - 02.2020
- Manage global team of 17 SDR's (Inbound/Outbound)
- Hit and exceed monthly goals and refined processes to continuously improve. (Inbound: 18 Opportunities/Month, Outbound 5 Meetings + 3 Opps per month)
- Structured and wrote all SDR comp plans and lead implementation of SPIFF for all SDR commissions
- Hire, train, mentor, coach, and promote the next generation of Workato SDR's. Built Workato's first "NEW HIRE BOOTCAMP"
- Oversee a multi-channel, inbound/outbound prospecting program including messaging, tactics, systems, measurement, experimentation, and optimization
- Have an obsession with being data-driven, highly analytical, lead influence
- Coordinate and manage weekly and monthly 1:1's and team-wide coaching, and training sessions to ensure ongoing improvement and best practice sharing. (Obsessed with Gong.io!)
- Extremely goal oriented, and highly proactive about coming up with creative ways for us to hit our sales development targets (Sendoso, Texting, Outreach)
Sales Development Manager/ Account Manager
Forward Networks
Palo Alto, CA
03.2017 - 06.2019
- Developed and implemented marketing, lead flow, and inside sales processes from ground up including go-to- market plan for direct and indirect business
- Built and managed sales development process, hiring strategy, and scope with CEO, CRO, and heads of sales
- Implemented sales and marketing tools including Salesforce, Marketo, Hubspot, Lead Forensics, and YesWare
- Built customer relationships with Network Teams at large fortune 500 companies
- Built training plan and trained all new SE and AE hires
- Supported team through 5x revenue growth and 300% lead growth
- Managed all incoming leads, including Forward Enterprise and Forward Essentials product including on-boarding, upselling, and support
- Partnered with Product Team on product strategy, customer needs, feature and technology requests, and sales acceleration plans for existing products
- Nurtured sales and marketing alignment, partnering closely with VP of Marketing on content needs, customer reception, and event strategy
Sr. Inside Sales Team Lead
Palerra Inc. (Acquired By Oracle)
Santa Clara, CA
02.2016 - 03.2017
- Trained all new hires and managed daily activities for SDR's
- Increased new business opportunities leading to 25% increase in close revenue
- Top performer on the team, consistently exceeded quota of 12 meetings and 6 opportunities per month
- 100% quota attainment for qualified appointments passed on to territory reps
- Helped growth company from infancy start-up to acquisition by Oracle
- Tradeshow Ninja! Engaging in prospects and gathering quality leads at numerous security shows including: AWS Re-Invent (Vegas), Blackhat (Vegas), RSA SF, and CSA
- Improved sales cycle by streamlining messaging and revamping SDR team processes
- Wrote all external email campaigns for teams outbound prospecting and trained all new SDR's on the team
Sr. Inside Sales Representative
SurveyMonkey Inc.
01.2015 - 02.2016
- Manage 85+ activities per day, handling detailed questions about SurveyMonkey's Enterprise Solutions
- Promoted to closing role in which I facilitate closing fast pace Enterprise deals
- Closed 80 Enterprise deals in the last 5 months and qualified leads for Account Executives and met 100% of quota YOY
- Closed the most deals companywide in November 2015 (24 Enterprise deals closed)
- Educated B2B customers on SurveyMonkey SaaS solutions such as Marketo and SurveyMonkey for Salesforce integrations Page 1 of 2
- Nurture leads which are not ready to turn over to sales
- Collaborate with marketing and business development to optimize the inside sales processes and improve operations
Sales Development Representative
State Farm
Palo Alto, CA
03.2013 - 08.2014
- Managed portfolio of over 700 customers and 3000 policies
- Managed 60+ activities and client requests daily
- Exceeded monthly and annual quota goals in 2013 and 2014
Account Manager/Project Manager
Export Development Canada
Ottawa, Canada, Canada
07.2005 - 09.2012
- Developed and managed relationships with a portfolio of 300 customers
- Responsible for leading a team and working with McKinzey during the diagnostic phase of the LEAN Transformation project
- Developed tools and techniques to create streamlined processes while delivering a faster, more predictable service model
Education
Financial Accounting -
Algonquin College
Ottawa, ONBachelor of Arts - Criminal Justice And Law
Carleton University
Ottawa, CanadaSkills
- Solution selling
- Strategic account development
- Analytical problem solver
- Sales processes
- Coaching and mentoring
- Product Presentations
- Event Ninja
- Implemented commissions and comp plan
Timeline
Director of North America Business Development
Palo Alto Networks
01.2021 - Current
Sr. Manager - Business Development
Palo Alto Networks Inc.
02.2020 - 01.2021
Head of Sales Development
Workato
06.2019 - 02.2020
Sales Development Manager/ Account Manager
Forward Networks
03.2017 - 06.2019
Sr. Inside Sales Team Lead
Palerra Inc. (Acquired By Oracle)
02.2016 - 03.2017
Sr. Inside Sales Representative
SurveyMonkey Inc.
01.2015 - 02.2016
Sales Development Representative
State Farm
03.2013 - 08.2014
Account Manager/Project Manager
Export Development Canada
07.2005 - 09.2012
Financial Accounting -
Algonquin College
Bachelor of Arts - Criminal Justice And Law
Carleton University