Interviewee: Patricia McLaren, Sales Development Rep at Datanyze

Interviewer: Jorge Soto, Blogger at SotoVentures, Partner at Sales Hacker

Jorge: What's your professional background and how did you get into sales?

Patricia: I am originally from Ontario, Canada and grew up in Milwaukee, WI. I was craving some excitement and opportunity, so I packed up my bags and moved to the Bay Area about 3 years ago.

I worked in retail sales and danced professionally for the NBA for 4 years before transitioning into the tech industry (Go Warriors).

When I'm not setting demos for Datanyze, I'm out and about in San Francisco, constantly meeting new people and making new connections. I'm passionate about what I do and the impact I make in people's lives, personally and professionally.

I actually began my sales career in retail. I worked as a part-time associate while going to school, and I ended up working every position there was at the company, eventually taking over the entire district as the District Sales Manager.

I made the transition into tech and have leveraged my sales and management experience to be successful in this industry.

Jorge: What is it about sales that gets you excited in the morning?

Patricia: I get fired up about sales every morning because it's a constant challenge and the success is worth every struggle. There are many ups and downs in sales, but you learn through every call, email, deal, or conversation.

There is always room for improvement and personal growth, and that's what keeps me going every day.

Jorge: As a top performing sales development rep at Datanyze, what tips would you give up and coming SDRs around how to be the best?

Patricia: To be successful as an SDR, I've had to try things I've never tried before to get a better result. There are so many SDRs out there that are sending the same emails or making the same phone calls, so you've got to be creative and reach your prospects in a way that will catch their attention.

Learn about the spaces you're selling into, be crafty with your outreach, and don't be afraid to try something new and fail.

Jorge: What are your favorite sales development tools out there?

Patricia: I use Datanyze every day to prospect. I'm also a big fan of Outreach and Yesware. They're great to alleviate some of the manual work so I can focus on filling the top of the funnel.

Jorge: What does a day in the life of a top SDR look like?

Patricia: A day in my life usually starts with a necessary jam session to my favorite song and a good read about sales and business development. I read about and learn from others in this industry who are crushing it every day.

Jorge: For those who are not familiar with Datanyze, what do your technology and how does it help companies generate more revenue?

Patricia: Datanyze is an all-in-one sales intelligence platform. We track who's adding and dropping your competitors' software every day and provide contact data into those companies.

We help companies generate revenue by providing them with perfect prospects and enabling them to reach out to these prospects at the perfect time.

We built the platform around our technology data but have also rolled out some amazing prospecting tools and predictive models, which makes for a killer all-in-one.

Jorge: What is one fun fact that most people at work don't know about you?!

Patricia: They probably don't know about my hidden talent, the drums! I used to rock out on a drumset put right in the middle of our auditorium for every assembly or school event back in the day.