Don Kennedy’s Post

I've got a soft spot for Oracle as my tech sales career launchpad. The big O set me down a 9 year path that has opened up exponential opportunities professionally and personally. Oracle gave me the marketability & world class sales training that led me to Google and my current role as a founding seller at Bespin Global US. Oracle sparked a deep passion for sales that has evolved into my YT channel. Oracle brought friends and mentors into my life who continue to bring out the best in me. If you're an aspiring SDR looking to start your tech sales journey on the right foot I made a video reflecting on 3 reasons why I think Oracle is one of the best places to start (especially if you have no prior tech sales experience)...link to the video in the comments below! At the end, I mention some other great tech sales career "launchpad" companies that you may want to consider. Cheers to more people hopping on the tech sales wave and riding it to greater growth, freedom, and impact! Happy Selling & Happy Living, Chris #ChrisBussingTechSales #techsales #oracle #salescareer #careertips #highpayingjobs #careerchange #salesdevelopment #millenials #genz #careeradvice #careersuccess

Oracle Partners! A series of free partner OCI enablement sessions with accreditation badges on completion during April including: 3. MySQL HeatWave Migration 2023 Solution Engineer Specialist 📅 Date: 18th April Check out all sessions available below. #oracle #mysql #oci #heatwave #AI

What made you decide to become a channel partner? ✏️ Everyone that knows me were surprised by my decision in 2022 to move from the sales organization at Oracle to the channel team. Understanding the business from different perspectives is essential in our industry. Our success isn’t measured only by the number of deals we lock, but by the number of successful go lives and implementations of Oracle Saas applications In my role, I make sure that the best partner is mapped to our clients based on their requirements . The role involves developing and implementing channel strategies, ensuring optimizing sales performance, and fostering strong partnerships to maximize revenue and market presence. Channel Managers often act as a bridge between the company and its distribution network, working to align business goals and drive mutual success. #oracle #channelsales

If I have one piece of advice* for any CX or GTM leaders starting new roles it's this: Do not accept the internal performance data you're presented with at face value. We tend to look whatever these systems spit out as some infallible oracle bestowed to us from upon high 🔮 But guess what? Humans set up those systems. Humans made LOTS of decisions about what or what not to include, how to define those parameters, and what “good” is supposed to look like. Last year I helped a company I was working with discover that they were missing 5% of their CASH because of a spreadsheet error they were previously unaware of. Something felt off to me, so I followed the thread and lo and behold… Don’t assume the data you’re looking at is 100% (or even 90%) accurate. Make it your job to understand not just how those numbers are calculated, but also specifically how the variables are defined. Keep asking questions. Don't care if it's "annoying." Get to the bottom of it. ------ 👋 Hi, I’m Erica  🚀 I have 20 years of experience in saas GTM roles 🏆 Now I help CX leaders operationalize and enable their teams More: www.sliceadvisory.com

⚠ Online Recruiters - The phone is still king! ⚠️ I love a good chat - can't beat it. LinkedIn has become hugely important... vital even. It widens your network and has enabled me to reach X10 more NetSuite , Oracle , PeopleSoft, Inc. and Amazon Web Services (AWS) contacts at speed. For small, niche agencies like mine, it's indispensable. However... you still need to pick up the phone! DM's, emails etc are so one-dimensional. You can't build a relationship with a new contact behind a keyboard. Also...... Emailing all day is, well... BORING! Being on the phone talking to candidates for 15 / 20 minutes at a time is the best bit. It's also what's going to pay the bills! Pick up the dog... If you don't call them, someone else will 😉 #netsuite #oraclecloud #peoplesoft #recruitment

Amazon AWS Declined Growth and Sales Team Downsizing: Key Career Insights You Can Draw A. Amazon's Results Recently Amazon has posted subsequent decrease in the growth of its cloud business. In terms of Market and profit with $80 billion profit, it is still a market leader. However Microsoft Azure and Google cloud are catching up with their very high growth. Amazon has also announced downsizing of their sales team, and using associates and partners to drive their sales. B. Understanding Amazon Trends 1. Amazon AWS is the first mover, and provides one of the best cloud infrastructures. However they lag the utilities that comes bundled with Microsoft cloud such as Office, Vision APIs, etc. 2. A lot of market shares has recently being captured by the SMEs and Startups. Traditionally large infrastructures are needed by enterprises. Current market trend of fast, frugal, liquid businesses have changed the traditional enterprise businesses as more or less consumer businesses. Applications are now App, and traditional need to maintain customer through talks and relationships doesn't work. Consumers look for options, upgrade and utilities. So rather than managing sales through manpower and relationships, trend will swiftly be towards building more technologies. C. Deriving Insights 1. Build and offer more utilities. 2. Resumes and number of years of experience will be least in shortlisting criteria. 3. Technical skills will rule over talks. 4. See yourself as an associate(intrapreneur) rather than employee. 5. Build Multi-Domain collaborative network. D. Using Insights in Career 1. Irrespective of the role, identify challenges in your company and build tools to solve the problems. (Even simple excell tools) 2. Associates excel because they educate. Start writing blogs offering solution with technology of your company. 3. Maintain digital records of each of your daily activity. (Become your own HR, present real-data driven daily/weekly update of your role to management) 4. Prepare reports for meetings. Talk less, show more. 5. Number of projects you did in past, number of people's team you lead, number of sales you closed in the past doesn't matter. Measure how you are better than last month(whatever parameters you want to us) and accelerate this self-growrh. E. Change in Resume 1. Resume should reflect your impact on the market and past companies, not your abilities. Examples I) I delivered 50k LOC at $0.7/KLoc for Lyfas in comparision to $3.9 KLoc market and $11.6 kLOc average in Acculi) II) In last two years I have increased my efficiency from 311Loc/day to 691 Loc/day, an increase of over 200% whereas average growth in my company was 7%. 2. It's no more who are you, what you have done, it is about what you have that no one has, and what you can do, and a proof of your claims. Your worth is company's cost to replace you. 3. Tools, Data, numbers, document will rule over claims, talks, promises, degrees, years.

The tech firms that offer you the most "job security"... Salesforce, Google, SAP, Microsoft, and Meta? Definitely not the largest. It’s an employer which: ▶ Hasn't stupidly over-hired in the last 2 years ▶ Has a unique, must-have solution ▶ Has a sticky customer base ▶ Pays you the right salary ▶ Is resilient in a downturn ▶ Has money in the bank ▶ Offers work flexibility ▶ Focuses on profit 🔥 Don’t make the mistake of thinking the big names offer the most job security. #hiring #jobsecurity #saas

What market do you work? “Tech”. But what tech? What geographies? What level? Perm or contract? “I work it all”. I’m always puzzled when candidates explain how they are quite literally covering everything. I interviewed a candidate last week who worked the Tech market. They had done 1 senior SAP deal in Germany, 1 DevOps role in the US, and handful of low level Development roles in the UK. Their knowledge of their market was poor. They could not even remember which firm they had done one of their deals with. Zero strategy. Shot in the dark stuff. Pure numbers game! If this is your firm’s approach, MOVE! The best recruiters pick / are given a lane and they stick to it. I’m forever tempted to work sales jobs, in-house roles, different geographies but I remind myself being known for R2R in London will generate the best results for my clients, candidates, and me. Become a 'Master', not a 'Jack of all trades'!