Caroline, tell us about your role at ESRI.
I'm an account executive, and I manage the larger cities and counties and the state agencies in Florida. A lot of those are longtime ESRI customers, so I do a mix of existing account management and new business development within those accounts and with new customers.
Describe the collaboration between a solutions engineer and an account executive.
We have a team of folks at ESRI called solutions engineers, and they provide technical and demo support. In my case, I have two solutions engineers who are assigned to me, so we work really closely together in how we work with and engage accounts. Oftentimes, I'll identify a business need and then I engage the solutions engineer to either help craft a demo or solution for the customer or just come to meetings with me to help answer any questions they might have.
What is interesting or challenging about the work you're doing?
I've been at ESRI for over 11 years, and the main challenge, or the main interesting thing, is that the technology keeps changing. There's always something new to learn. In fact, every day there seems to be something new to learn regarding the technology. That certainly keeps it interesting. I really enjoy working with my customers. The customers are always bringing new business needs—always asking for new and different things. I really enjoy understanding their needs and then helping them find a solution that works for them.
Understanding the new technology can be really challenging. Internally, we do a lot of tech transfer information. We can use the same resources that customers can use to learn—training classes, live training seminars—and then within our office in Charlotte, we do a lot of work so that the technical folks are constantly educating the sales folks on what's coming up. A lot of it is really self-study. It's up to me to understand the technology and figure out how I can best explain that to customers. That's always a challenge to do.
Are there certain skills needed to be successful on the sales team?
To be successful as a salesperson at ESRI, I think you definitely have to be self-motivated. You're sort of left to find your own direction and make your own path at ESRI, which is a great thing. We have a lot of freedom to do what we think is right for our customers and find the best solutions.
What do you feel sets ESRI apart from other technology companies?
We're a corporate company—obviously profits are important, but we also strive to take care of our customers, and we strive to be a good corporate citizen and truly do things that help everything in the world be better. For me, that is a distinguisher. When I interface with other counterparts who work at other technology companies, that's just not there.
Working in a regional office is undoubtedly different than working at corporate. What do you like about it?
I've always worked in the regional office. I started in ESRI Charlotte, and I've been there the whole time. I think what I like best is that we're on the front line. We're the ones who are interfacing with customers. Usually that's good feedback; sometimes it's bad, but it's always challenging to deal with that and then figure out how to get that information back to the folks in the corporate office to make changes. I like being on the front lines and being the one that's working with the customers.
Any closing thoughts that might inspire other experienced professionals to work at ESRI?
For people who might be interested in being a sales rep at ESRI, I can tell you that it's a great environment. If you're coming from another technology company, GIS really is an exciting technology to sell. People get excited about it—certainly more so than servers or databases. From a technology perspective, it's an exciting place to be in the technology field. You can usually capture the attention of people with it. It's sort of easy to explain what it is, so that aspect of it is fun. It still does have sort of this grassroots feel in the broader technology industry.
