One-Pagers with Portage Sales

Tune into Episode #007 of our latest Portage One-Pagers podcast with Leigh Solomon, the Vice President of Strategic Growth at IGM Technology. In this episode, we dive into the concept of sales process, and how sales process can actually be quite powerful - when you focus on result-oriented practices that scale what works in your business.

Leigh has been in the sales game for 20+ years, building sales and business development teams that truly produce. Relying on data to drive effectiveness and results, Leigh is a big believer that numbers tell the story - and her numbers don’t lie. Generating millions of dollars in pipeline and revenue, Leigh’s passion for sales and sales training speaks for itself.

Putting a provocative spin on a topic we know all too well, we tackle Leigh’s vision of a ‘proven process’ - what it is, how to get your sales team to commit, and why it’s the missing ingredient to closing more deals.

Join us for Season 2 Episode #2 of the One Pagers with Portage Sales podcast featuring sales enablement expert, Ashton Williams, Sr. Manager of Global Programs at Slack. Wondering what it takes to get your sales team engaged in impactful training? Need help making the connection between empathy and its value in selling for your team? Struggling to get your sales rep engaged in more exciting conversations with the C-suite?

Ashton has extensive knowledge in building process strategy and sales enablement foundation. She grew her expertise by establishing an enablement team from the ground up as a Sr. Manager of Revenue Enablement at Ada. Ashton’s success lies in her ability to nurture her team and scale success at a rapid rate by truly understanding the importance of enablement and it’s correlation to company growth. During this podcast, we dive into sales enablement, forms of powerful training, and how to keep your employees engaged and motivated to strive for more.

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1 of Portage Sales One Pagers! Wondering how your value prop needs to be served up for partners? The benefits beyond revenue that can accrue to your direct selling? Curious about the types of partners that fit best for your revenue strategy?

This month on Portage Sales One Pagers, we take a deep dive into building partner ecosystems in your business. Trity Dow, of Trity Dow Consulting, spent several years at Salesforce managing their Consulting Partner Program, and now she helps other B2B SaaS companies build out partner ecosystems. Listen, learn and enjoy!

For our fifth episode, we are pleased to have Daniel Nilsson, a notable marketeer, entrepreneur, energiser and CEO of Up Strategy Lab! He is a thought leader in B2B Sales, Marketing, Strategy, Value Proposition, Growth, Design (UX & UI), and Skills Training & Utilization.

Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Daniel sits on the board of numerous Swedish companies and has written many articles on B2B value propositions, developing successful partner programs and designing effective sales processes. At Up Strategy Lab, Daniel leads a highly skilled team that offers B2B Sales & Marketing Consulting, Digital Design, and Partner Programs. He has helped to grow and scale various companies ranging from medtech to digital gaming marketplaces and lots more.

Along with his exemplary work in consulting, Daniel Co-founded One Life Dreams Along with Swedish Artist and Costume/Fashion Designer Aviad Arik Herman. One Life Dreams is a non-profit organization that accomplished their goal of  inspiring change and making dreams come true in partnership with Miss Universe Sweden 2016. Daniel is also extremely passionate about promoting diversity through his Accelerator Program, which invests in founders who are women, persons of colour, and/or LGBTQ.

For our fourth episode, we are excited to welcome Rekha Rao-Mayya from Amazon Web Services! With over 25 years of experience, Rekha leads strategy, sales, and growth for Canada’s leading software innovators and strives to build innovative technology in Canada. Rekha has a passion for learning and a positive attitude, Rekha has a zest for supporting others in their journeys, such as women’s education in STEM.

Rekha is currently the Sales and Strategy leader for AWS Canada’s ISV customers. In her senior leadership role, she is responsible for driving growth and accelerating innovation for Canadian software manufacturers and disruptive technology makers. Before her role at AWS Canada, she was a senior leader at Microsoft Canada and Oracle Corporation. Rekha is known for her impactful work as an Inclusion advocate and has been the recipient of awards such as WCT’s Diversity Leadership Excellence Award and CSPN’s Diversity Leader award!

Rehka is passionate about her work with “Langar Seva”, a community service dedicated to providing meals for the elderly. She enjoys reading various genres and is keen on facilitating women's career advancement through mentorship, skills and leadership training, networking, and recognition.

For our third episode, we are excited to welcome Marie Rodgers from Softchoice! Marie is a learning and development professional with over 15 years of experience, including an extensive background in sales. Well-traveled, she has had the opportunity to go around the world to learn industry best practices for employee development and engagement, with an eye to putting adult learning principles into action.

Marie is currently the Manager of Sales Excellence at Softchoice, a tech company, where she leads an incredible team of facilitators and coaches, responsible for the development of sales professionals through a Sales Academy for new hires and beyond. Prior to that, Marie acted as the Sr. Manager of Learning & Development at another tech company, led the sales training program at FedEx Canada, and was herself in sales as an account manager for over 7 years!

Marie is passionate about creating strategy and structure around employee development, particularly when there is little to nothing in place. She has overhauled multiple on-boarding programs, with an eye to knowledge retention and integration with company culture, along with leadership development programs.

Episode #2 is LIVE! Thrilled to have Jeffrey Freedman, Country Manager, at Proofpoint join us to share his insights on what it takes for Sales teams to be successful, why tech firms keep talking about features versus impact, and how to win by focusing on your unique value to customers in your customers' language!

Jeffrey (Jeff) Freedman brings over 20 years of leadership expertise in sales, channels, marketing, and customer knowledge to his current position as Country Manager, Proofpoint Canada. Jeff has executive responsibility for developing, supporting, and executing the sales strategy in businesses across Canada. In this capacity, he devotes his expertise and efforts to lead Proofpoint in delivering award-winning cybersecurity solutions to Canadian clients. Proofpoint is a proud employer of over 200 professionals in Canada. 

Prior to joining Proofpoint, Jeff had a 22-year career at IBM where he worked in a variety of business units and leadership positions, including VP of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group. Jeff lives in Toronto with his wife and two children. In addition, he contributes his time generously to the United Way and the Sporting Life 10K fundraiser.