“You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.”

—The Eagles, Hotel California

September’s Woman of the Month holds a couple of distinctions. She was our first female sales leader in Canada as Regional Vice President of Sales back in 2005. She also holds the unique distinction of being our first Woman of the Month to work at Salesforce  — twice. Yes, this month’s honoree left the company in 2007 and returned in 2016; however, she never really strayed far from our Ohana (the Hawaiian word for family). Congratulations to our September Woman of the Month, Cinzia Bazzo, Strategic Account Executive in our Toronto office.

Cinzia’s story starts when her family emigrated to Canada from Italy. She was only 8 years old and didn’t speak English — at a time when English as a Second Language (ESL) courses weren’t taught in schools —and experienced discrimination as a result. This eventually became a huge motivator for her to work hard to prove herself. It also taught her some lessons that she still lives by today.

“I learned that you need to be kind because people fear what they don’t know and kindness brings people together.”

Although her teammates will tell you how great she is in sales, Cinzia’s career actually started in public relations — and at the ripe age of 21, she was responsible for taking a tech company private.

“I was working in PR, was 21, and found myself sitting in the private boardroom of the top floor of the TD Bank building in Toronto with my CEO, thinking, ‘WOW … How did I get here?’”

Not long after, Cinzia made the decision to get into sales. Her only relevant experience: selling shoes at a store to put herself through school. It was enough for her to convince a hiring manager to hire her for a month doing computer hardware sales — without pay — to prove herself. And prove herself she did by winning the Proctor and Gamble account, which would become the company’s biggest account. 

Like so many of our employees, Cinzia discovered Salesforce as a user. She used our platform while selling for a small software company and liked it so much that she started a year-long campaign to get hired. Given her track record of convincing hiring managers to have faith in her abilities, you know how this story ends: Cinzia became our first ever female Regional Vice President in Canada.

Then about two years later, she left the company. <womp womp womp>

“I wanted to work on longer, more strategic projects, so I left to do enterprise software sales. In all honesty, I missed Salesforce, my team, and the product the entire time I was gone, but I was determined to make the most of it and learn as much as I could about enterprise selling.”

“During the time I was gone, I was asked to mentor someone on my previous Salesforce team. That led to more calls. There I was, mentoring people at a company I didn’t work for anymore, but I loved Salesforce so much and was honored to help. It was a delight when my mentees were promoted to some very significant roles at Salesforce. This is where my love of mentorship started.”

But like the story in the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” it wasn’t so easy for Cinzia to truly get away.

“I have always regretted leaving. I came back because of the leaders. One very important criteria for me is finding people to work for that I respect, admire, and can learn from. It is fundamental to who I am, and I love the team here. Peter Theocharis (National VP for Retail, Canada) and I had worked together. He’s a brilliant, principled leader and most importantly a great human being. I knew Richard Eyram (Country Manager, Canada) from my prior experience at Salesforce. He has a very loyal sales following and is well liked among the executive ranks of Canadian businesses.”

Cinzia continues to mentor women through our employee resource group — the Woman’s Network — now as an actual employee. “The impact on me has been tremendous. I learn a lot from my mentees, I learn a lot about myself, and I take great pride in seeing people do well.I feel blessed.”

Today, Cinzia is back in her happy place as part of the Salesforce Ohana, albeit one she says is much bigger than she remembers from over 10 years ago. She loves that Salesforce’s scale today lets us be a leader on the world stage of equality and volunteerism, helping her feel like she’s part of something greater — something that fulfills her both personally and professionally.

To learn more about Cinzia Bazzo, connect with her on LinkedIn. Then, stay tuned for our next edition of Salesforce Woman of the Month, coming your way in October.

The Salesforce Woman of the Month campaign turns the spotlight on the amazing women who help make Salesforce one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies according to Forbes and one of Fortune Magazine’s Best Companies to Work For. Honorees are nominated by fellow employees and selected by a dedicated committee that works to ensure a variety of roles and regions are honored.