Crossing the Chasm – From First Sales to Building Sales Growth

Co-Sponsor

IEEE Technology and Engineering Management (TEM) Society, Boston Chapter 

OK…You started a business and now aren’t sure how to produce revenue.  Do you need to begin your company’s sales effort and don’t know where to start or what to do?  Simple questions yet no simple answers. Don’t be confused by all the jargon out there!  There are many different strategies and opinions, but every company is different. Therefore, your plan to roll out sales is going to be unique to your company.  Our panelists combine many years of sales successes and failures in many verticals and will be joining together to discuss how to begin and ultimately consistently grow your sales.

Panelists:

Janet Comenos is CEO and Co-Founder of Spotted, the leading celebrity data company that helps consumer brands and agencies make smarter celebrity endorser and ambassador decisions. In 2017, AdWeek named Spotted “a diamond-studded data firm” and Janet was named one of the Boston Globe’s top 20 female tech executives. She was previously SVP of Sales at Promoboxx. Janet is a Board Member of TUGG, an organization that pairs tech companies with philanthropies that serve unprivileged youth, and a Board Member of Influence Examiner, the leading FTC monitoring and compliance solution for consumer brands. She holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and is an avid tennis player.

Louie Balasny is Managing Director of botkeeper, a company that does everything a bookkeeper does, only faster, 24/7, with more reporting, beautiful dashboards, and at a fraction of the cost through the use of software, machine learning & skilled human accountants. Louie holds his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and began his career at Thomas Brady & Associates. There, he was Regional Director of Advanced Planning and was responsible for strategic development and implementation of advanced planning strategies.

He specialized in the execution of estate planning, business planning and insurance placement for individuals, executives and business owners. After several years, Louie moved into banking and was a Relationship Banking Officer at Admirals Bank where he was part of a team that helped bring in over $200 million in deposits. The startup world and lifelong desire to build something from the ground up has always been his passion which ultimately led him to botkeeper where his in charge of growing the sales as well as everything else that is done to get a startup off the ground.

Tom Libby, CEO, Diversified Sales Solutions Co-Founder Smarketing Institute

Tom is a seasoned Sales VP and Business Development Executive. He is a Co-Founder of the SmarketingInstitute.Org and the CEO of Diversified Sales Solutions, Inc., a firm that provides outsourced sales solutions.  Getting Sales strategy right is part vocation, part mission for Tom. Over the past 18 years Tom has developed his management, leadership, and sales skills in diverse industries and includes experiences in startups, small companies up to and including fortune 500 companies.

Tom, has received numerous awards and accolades during his career. He is a business professional with demonstrated results, as well as the ability to produce in high pressure situations. Today, Tom uses his sales & management experience to deliver interim management, training and coaching to small companies

Moderator:

Ceri Ruenheck is President of It’s Your Call (www.itsyourcall.com), a business to business telemarketing firm that was established in 1994. It’s Your Call helps small businesses make the necessary outbound calls that they might not have the resources to perform themselves. In 2009, Ceri opened a second business www.twocoolcats.com, a website development company. In addition to running those businesses, Ceri consults to small companies who need help with putting together a marketing process.  She is also a noted speaker and author of the e-book “Cold Calling for the Clueless” www.coldcallingfortheclueless.com She is the mother of two boys and two cats all living in out of Harvard, MA.