Ever wondered what it’s like to work at Salesforce in the UK? We’re highlighting some of our fantastic women in technology here on the blog - check back to see more and visit our careers site to find out about our unique #SalesforceOhana culture!
Today we caught up with Damilola Erinle, Area Vice Persident, Commercial Business Unit, UK&I, to see how a hugely productive sales leader manages her time and priorties, whilst no doubt having a little fun along the way. Over to you, Damilola...
05:44: And I know it's coming......
05:45: There it is, my alarm goes off and I'm about to hit the snooze button but I remember - not today, my flight to Dublin leaves in less than two hours!
06:30: I'm out of the house and on the way to the airport, and the taxi time gives me a chance to review all the Chatter digests from the evening/night before and I cascade the best bits to the team. Chatter is a great internal social network, which allows you to follow relevant people, opportunities and groups, keeping you up to date and allowing you to collaborate effectively across the company
07:00: It's too early for food but I grab a coffee and paper and wait at the lounge as i get ready to board the plane. The plane time allows me to start looking over and editing the presentation I have later in the day.
08:50: I land in Dublin, John (the taxi man) is waiting for me with a big hug and I head straight to the office where I pick up another coffee and greet the Dublin team.
10:00: I have my first strategic account team call. This is the forum where, as a team, we try to understand the trends influencing our customers; we review news articles, blogs, customer feedback and the whole team share their thoughts. We take the time to discuss what the vision for this customer might be and how we might help them realise it. Everyone is on the call, the account manager, the solution engineers, the management team, specialists, customer success managers, and solution innovation experts. I just love bringing together such a wide team of contributors like this, it really showcases the special Ohana (meaning family in Hawaiian) spirit that Salesforce's culture is based around.
11:00: I have my regular bi-weekly meeting with my management team and Ciaran McCullagh, my alliances business partner for UK&I. We use this as an opportunity to discuss our partner landscape, where we see challenges and opportunities and try to create concrete plans on how to support and grow our partner ecosystem.
12:00: I’m hosting a free lunch at the local Baan Thai restaurant so that I can spend time with the extended team. With the UK&I commercial business split across London and Dublin it’s great to get the teams together and ensure we stay connected. It's initially for a small subsection but with the words “free lunch” in the calendar invite it doesn't stay small for long.
13:30: With lunch over, I quickly head back to the office to run a final interview for a candidate who is applying for an account management role within the UK. Recruiting the best team members is a huge part of my role as our business continues to grow at such a rapid pace - make sure you check out our careers site to see what roles we've currently got open.
14:00: It's time to kick off my management meeting. This time of year its vital to revisit our annual plan to ensure we're all on track. To build our plans and ensure we're aligned all the way across the business, we use Salesforce’s V2MOM (Vison, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Metrics) process to flesh out our vision for the year ahead, the values that are core to how we operate, what our key methods will be in achieving the vision, what obstacles we foresee and what metrics we will be using to measure our progress. This is shaping up to be a big year!!
16:00: It's time to have my bi-weekly call with the industry business development lead for financial services. We spend a bit of time talking about key campaigns for the quarter and agree representatives for up and coming events.
16:30: Time to review any unanswered Chatter posts, approvals and asks, and I refresh my sales dashboard a few times...just in case :)
17:15: I get my usual text reminder from John that he is early if I want to beat the traffic back to the airport. Ah, he's a good one.
17:40: I'm late (as John knew I would be) I rush round, say my goodbyes and head to the airport. The taxi journey is a combination of catching up with John and returning phone calls.
18:30: I'm at the airport in good time for my flight, I check in, grab a coffee and a snack and start to look at my calendar pulling out which meetings need specific prep. I have a monthly AVP meeting with my peers, a women's innovation lunch, 121s , more industry business development calls, a town hall and a prep call for a careers event. Not looking too bad…...
20:00: We take off, I use the plane journey to finish any last minute actions for the next day, and get back into my Game of Thrones book. Yay!
22:00: I'm home sweet home. Off to bed to get ready for another great day in the office tomorrow!
If this sounds like a place you’d like to work, you’re in luck because we’re always hiring! Learn more about joining the #SalesforceOhana at salesforce.com/ukcareers