Meet A ServiceTrader
Maribeth Steffen, Field Territory Manager
Maribeth is part of the sales team as the field territory manager for the mountain west.
She meets with customers and prospects to discuss their business needs and helps them find a solution.
What has been your ServiceTrade journey?
So, I actually started on the ServiceTrade campaign at RevGen as an SDR. RevGen partners with ServiceTrade (and other technology companies) to provide outsourced sales support, and I was actually on the first ServiceTrade campaign. Once I “graduated” from their program after 3 months, VP of Inside Sales, Anna McMahon, offered me a job to work as an SDR at ServiceTrade. January 2022, it will be 4 years.
I worked the SDR role for a few months, then was promoted to a closing role in the inside sales team. After a little over a year of being an inside territory manager, I joined the outside sales team as a field territory manager.
It was a really exciting time to join. I think at the time there were only 26 or 27 employees. We were in the old office, basically working in a shoebox. It’s been a really exciting ride to see how much personal growth I’ve had at the company and to feel like I’ve been contributing to the growth of the company as a whole. To see the exponential growth we’ve had over the last year and a half is really cool.
Now, I’ve gone from covering the southeast territory to the mountain west. It seems like as soon as I get comfortable in a role, it’s like, “Hey why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that.” It’s always been an opportunity to move forward, grow, and take on a new challenge.
I did not come from a technology background. I actually had my own business before this. I sold vintage furniture and did custom reupholstery. I had a little shop in downtown Raleigh.
I love to hike and be outdoors.
Tell me about your move from the southeast territory to the mountain west.
In January 2019, Lauren Rice had taken her role as Director of Sales – West with a plan to build out the sales team. I had visited Denver a couple of times, so I approached VP of Sales, Tim Spink, that if he ever had an opportunity for a position in Denver, I might be interested.
Well, COVID happened, and everything was put on pause. Tim entertained the idea, but at that point, I had just planted the seed. In early June 2021, Tim came to me and asked if I was still interested in the Denver role. I was like yeah, I probably am.
On July 4th, I was in Denver looking for a place to live. Which is pretty typical of ServiceTrade. Once the opportunity is there, it’s like “OK, let’s do it! It moves fast.” Which is a good thing, not a bad thing. I’ve always been supported throughout my transitions.
It was a pretty quick decision. I moved in August to start the new territory role in September.
One thing Anna always told me: Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. She told me this really early on in my sales career. It’s something I keep telling myself over and over again – for big decisions like moving to Denver or just days that I’m having a hard time prospecting or am having a mental roadblock. I always hear Anna’s voice in my head “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.”
So here I am in Denver.
What do you do as a field territory manager?
The reason I like this role so much is because the day-to-day is really different every day. Some days are 16-hour days, and I’m traveling and jam packed with meetings. Then other days I’m sitting at my house prospecting on my computer just like an SDR or inside territory manager. It really does vary, but that keeps it interesting.
There’s really not much monotony with this job, even with the companies that I talk to. Even though we structure our sales team by technician count, companies of a similar size are still very different in terms of what they’re using to run their service business, what their goals are, etc. I talk to companies that are still on paper, but then I talk to some companies that are using a platform that they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to procure. It’s an interesting diversity.
Sometimes I’m hosting meetings online, but most of the time – and hopefully – I’m joining meetings in person. That’s the big difference between my previous role as an inside territory manager and now as a field territory manager — we are on the road as much as possible.
The outside sales team is in a really unique role because we work with so many different aspects of the business. That applies to prospects and customers but also internally. We work with inside sales, marketing, and account management.
What piqued your interest in software sales from being a small business owner?
I have a lot of friends who are in the industry, and my best friend is the VP of sales at another company, so seeing the opportunities that other people had.
It was a bit of a difficult transition to go from an independent business owner to a kind-of corporate world. But ServiceTrade made that really easy because we have such a fun culture. It didn’t feel like this stuffy organization. I’m still able to be myself and bring my personality to the table.
I knew John Rosar, the CEO of RevGen, from high school. I saw him out to dinner one night, and I went up to him and was like “Dude, I want a job.” and he said, “OK, come in on Monday for an interview.” He hired me, and I ended up on the ServiceTrade campaign, and yeah, the rest is history.
The fun thing about sales is that it’s kind of like a game. When you win, it’s like this rush. You’re like “Yes I did it! I did it right.” And yeah, when you lose, it’s stressful but that just comes with it. I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my life, and I think the benefit of something like software sales outweighs the stress.
There’s for sure a grind, but if you run it like it’s your own business then you’re bought into it. There’s something about it – like the love of the chase.
It’s fun. You get to talk to people, learn about their business, and figure out how to put the puzzle together like “OK, here’s what this company needs, here’s what we have to offer, how can we align that and position it to the customer in a way that they’ll buy into it.” It’s like putting a puzzle together, and I really enjoy that aspect of it.
My favorite pastime: all things houseplants and gardening.
What have you learned throughout your sales career?
One thing that I learned that probably was not easy for me is to depend on the people around me. It’s kind of my personality to want to know all the answers and have all the solutions. But, it’s just not possible. I think that was a bit of a hard lesson for me to learn.
We have all these really great, rich resources with the team that we’ve built. It’s harder for me to reach out than for people to be there for me. We have this culture of collaboration. Everyone is here to work together. So being able to put aside the fact that you don’t have all the answers, and that’s why we have a team and why I’m not doing it all by myself. Learning to lean on people is something that took me a minute, but I think I’m there now.
There’s certain qualities that will really benefit you in a sales role. Of course things like being organized and process-oriented are important, but really understanding what you know and what you don’t know, and then figuring out how to put that puzzle together. Listening to what people are asking, being empathetic about that, being curious about those things, and being ok with the feeling of going into a meeting with a prospect or customer without already having all the answers.
No customer is one size fits all. Everyone has different needs and priorities, and you have to know what those are, pull those out, and listen to what the customer or prospect is asking for. It’s ok if you don’t have all the answers right off the bat.
What’s been your favorite memory since being at ServiceTrade?
Probably some of my favorite moments are from the Digital Wrap Conferences. The marketing team does such a good job of putting together really quality, useful content. Not only are our customers and prospects learning and absorbing, but we’re coming away with new stuff, too. Our customers come back and have all these ideas they want to implement, and we’re feeling all pumped about it as well. It breathes new life into the sales team and ServiceTrade. There’s such a ra-ra-ra feeling.
It’s also such a great opportunity to really meet with our customers in a relaxed environment. It gives them the opportunity to be themselves. And, gives the team an opportunity to bond as well.
Those are probably my favorite memories other than the very beginning when we were such a small team. We were all wearing a little bit more hats back then. It was like eight of us back in the sales pit, feeling the hustle, tracking everything on a whiteboard. To see the growth from that is really exciting.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I moved to Denver partly because I love the outdoors. I love to hike. I like to be outside. Moving to an area that embraces that is really cool. I also like to read.
My favorite pastime is all things houseplants and gardening.
I love live music. That’s one of my favorite things about ServiceTrade – the Slack culture. I love that we have a music channel. I’ve gained a lot of music knowledge and discovered bands or songs through that channel. And, I love that we embrace the Pets channel. I think it allows people to really show their personality and gives us a way to connect on a personal level.
That’s a really cool thing about ServiceTrade. Slack isn’t just for communicating between teams or within the team. It’s really an opportunity to share what you love to do.
I’m getting off-topic. I like to travel. One thing I really like about this new role is I’m getting to see parts of the country I’ve never been to. I had never been to Salt Lake City, Phoenix, or Omaha before. I like to travel in my free time. I’ll typically try to find a band I like, see where they’re touring, and book my travel around that.
I love my cat, Russell. I think he’s a rockstar. He’s a Slack rockstar. I have a niece and nephew who I like to spend as much time as I can with. Yeah, just the typical stuff. I’m not in a band, but I like to go see them.
My Slack rockstar, Russell.
