Team Q&A: 7 questions with our Account Executive, Tanner

About Tanner

As a part of our Sales team, Tanner sets up customers on Coassemble with a clear sense of how our authoring tool will add value to their business. Tanner facilitates a smooth customer journey beyond the sales process by gathering all relevant details about where the customer is situated and where they want to go.

At Coassemble, we like to have fun and so does Tanner. A natural goofball, he adds humor and playfulness into his customer relationships.

1. Let’s start with an easy one, what is your favorite thing about Coassemble?

Easily, my favorite thing is the culture. From the day I started here in 2018, everyone has been supportive, helpful, and positive. It’s not every day that you meet a team as motivated as the people here at Coassemble are.

Quick pivots in a fast-moving SaaS (software as a service) industry can be taxing, but doing it with a unified team has made our growth process seamless.

2. What differentiates how you sell at Coassemble compared to previous companies where you’ve worked?

Prior to working at Coassemble, I had very little experience with the inner workings of a Software business, much less a SaaS-driven one. However, what matters most in any sales role is your customers and how you can find solutions for their business.

As Coassemble is a flexible and multifaceted authoring tool, our customers utilize its features in vastly different ways. This has resulted in a need to truly learn about each of our customers and understand what their challenges are as they scale their business.

When I work with a prospective customer, my goal is not to just find any solution for them, but to find the best solution that will deliver results quickly and set them up for success.

3. So, what would you say is the toughest part of being an Account Executive?

A lot of people in sales will tell you that the hardest part about selling is dealing with rejection.

That’s something that certainly must be endured consistently, but I think the biggest challenge for me personally has been to avoid complacency during times of success.

Working in a fast-paced start-up environment requires constant twisting of the dials to see what yields a positive result. This doesn’t stop when you hit a hot streak of sales. Instead, it’s important to constantly analyze what the market is telling you and stay one step ahead.

We work tirelessly at Coassemble to not only provide a platform that our customers will use today but also lead to where the market is going.

4. Despite the challenges, what do you love most about working in Sales?

At its core, connecting with a prospective customer is all about quickly building a relationship of trust and helpfulness.

A lot of the people I get to talk to every day are overwhelmed with the taxing work of supporting an outdated, analog system of employee training and tracking. I have the privilege of not only giving them a tool that will help their business but in many ways will drastically improve the quality of their day-to-day work, which cannot be understated.

The best part of my day is seeing the “light bulb go on” when a customer realizes that the feature I’m showing them in Coassemble is going to result in avoiding hours and hours of recurring work. The occasional “oohs and ahhs” are pretty fun too.

5. What advice would you give to others looking to pursue a career in Sales?

Never stop competing. Not just against your competitors, or against your fellow Account Executives - more importantly, don’t stop competing against yourself.

In the world of Sales, there’s no such thing as perfect, even when you are hitting your goals. You can always aim to sell better, sell faster or even just sell differently. Did you sell three new accounts last week? Great. Now do it again this week with half the emails. Do it again while focusing on only the single feature that they need.

6. What Netflix show are you binge-watching right now?

Tiger King! Well, I was binging on Tiger King but those seven glorious episodes didn’t stand much of a chance during a pandemic-induced stay-at-home order. Wow! What an experience!

To those who haven’t seen, Tiger King is a documentary series following the bizarre lives of big cat breeders in the United States. It stars an eccentric zoo-owner named Joe Exotic who will stop at nothing to protect his community.

7. What’s something interesting about you that most people don’t know?

A few years ago, after reading Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, I decided to quit my job of 5 years to go backpacking around the world. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made.

The trip lasted eight months, covering 24 countries on three continents. To say it was the experience of a lifetime is an understatement.

In India, I rode camelback deep into the desert where I spent the night under the most brilliant stars I’ve ever seen. In Croatia, I lived on a sailboat for a week, sailing island-to-island. In Tanzania, I tent-camped in the middle of the Serengeti (surrounded by lions - really!) and witnessed the sunrise from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Looking back - it seems unfair to have indulged in such wonders in such a short amount of time. But to anyone who has the opportunity and desire to travel long-term - I say, do it. You may miss home, but if you go you will at least know exactly what you missed out on. If you want to travel and never do, you won’t ever know what you’ve missed.

Want to learn more about the team behind Coassemble? Check out our 7 Questions with... Q&A series!