EPISODE #009
Barcelona based professional prospector, Aleksandra Andree, has an energy and passion for sales that is contagious. She shares her SDR story with host Neil Bhuiyan - from Avon lady to SDR at sales engagement and enablement platform Bloobirds and founding member of the SalesHacker community.
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EPISODE #009 TRANSCRIPT
TL;DR
+ Introduction (to Aleksandra and Bloobirds) [00:00:09.270]
Neil Bhuiyan Hi there guys and welcome to Episode nine of the SDR DiscoCall Podcast, I'm your host, Neil Bhuiyan. And today's guest is Aleksandra Andre. She's an SDR from Barcelona who's currently working for Bloobirds, we're going to be learning how she went from Avon Lady going through the interview and recruitment process to landing her job at Bloobirds, the great work she's doing with the SalesHacker community as a founding member, and also how she Prospected me during covid.
So how does the SDR DiscoCall Podcast work? Well, it's actually a Discovery Call, hence the name. And every Tuesday at 8am we're going to have a brand new SDR for 30 minutes and an agenda of introductions their SDR story and three key takeaways that they've learned to share with other SDRs. So with that in mind, let's begin.
So, guys, thank you so much for joining today's episode of the SDR DiscoCall Podcast. I've been really excited about this episode as the SDR guest is somebody who actually was Prospecting me at the beginning of the year.
And I loved her style. I really loved the way that she was consultative and she was kind of really trying to help me out without trying to push a product in my face. And then we reconnected later this year and we had a good chat to understand her story. And I thought, do you know what, we need to get this lady in. So this is Aleksandra Andre. She's from Bloobirds and rather than me going on about who you are, Aleksandra, who are you? Welcome to the show. Kind of what's going on in your world today.
Aleksandra Andree Well, hi, Neil First of all, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm super thrilled and excited. My name is Aleksandra Andree. I am a SDR with Bloobirds. Just a very brief intro to me, to my story and for my personal background as an SDR at Bloobirds. I'm responsible for prospecting, Prospects like Neil like you said it himself.
And Bloobirds in a nutshell is a sales engagement and sales enablement platform that is built especially for the SDRs to go through their daily activity Prospects and of course, give as much insight as possible into the research that they do.
Neil Bhuiyan Perfect, thank you. And where are you based, Aleksandra, for the people that can't see you but can hear you? Where are you based in the world?
Aleksandra Andree We are based in Barcelona, this is also where I live right now.
Neil Bhuiyan Oh perfect, so obviously, you're doing an SDR role at Bloobirds. It's a really cool company as well.
Um, with yourself outside of work, like, kind of what things do you get up to and what keeps you kind of happy and, you know, keep going during these times.
Aleksandra Andree Well, what keeps me really happy and what I really enjoy doing outside of work is hiking and sightseeing. I also have a dog which I'm super lucky to have, and get the chance to walk and just explore as much as possible.
Neil Bhuiyan And as before we started recording our show, we did say that the dog is asleep. So, listeners, we may have another special guest, Aleksandra's dog, who might join the Podcast, just FYI or if you hear any barks in the background. They're asleep at the moment, right?
Aleksandra Andree Yep, he's asleep, but in case he wakes up, we will all get to see him. All right.
+ Aleksandra’s journey into sales [00:03:37.880]
Neil Bhuiyan Wicked, love it. Thank you so much. So, Aleksandra, obviously, when I was speaking to you before and I did my homework by checking out your LinkedIn, you've had a few different roles, like working Avarto, so you've had some involvement with SalesHacker, and you kind of came to Bloobirds before you went into your sales career. What was the story like? What were you doing before sales and kind of how did you fall into sales?
Aleksandra Andree Right. So before sales, like you said yourself, I was working for Avarto as a customer service representative. It was a project directed by the government. And of course, I was in charge of all the inbound calls. You receive a call, you're there to help the customer any way you can answer all their questions. And actually, to be honest, it was a really great experience because the project itself was a start up as well. So that was also my first experience into the startup world.
It was a chance to see how the project was came to life, how my contribution helped, how everyone's contribution helped build the project. So that was a really good experience. And then from Avarto moving on to another role, again, within the customer service field and also before that, I worked a little bit in sales for Avon. It was well at the time, I didn't think it was a sales job, to be honest. So at Avon is a cosmetics company and well, my duty was I had a catalogue I had to go around and share their cosmetic products to people and try to get them to buy it. But at the time, I didn't think it was sales because for me was something that I naturally liked. Oh, I'm going to talk to my friends about perfumes and creams and lotions and stuff like that. And that was super fun. Looking back now, I see that. Oh, I actually did the sales, but, at the time it wasn't.
So that was my first introduction into sales. And then when I moved to to Barcelona, I again tried to find a job within customer service. Since that was my experience, I worked for VIA quite briefly. It is, VIA, in short, is a shared Uber service, so to say, and then from then on, around December last year, the project was downsized, so I found myself looking for another job.
Honestly, I wasn't looking for a sales job for a sales position at the time. I was like, alright, I need a job. Let's get down to this. Find anything, sales, customer service, whatever. Of course, one big part was a good financial salary support. It's important. And then I came through a recruitment agency. I initially applied for a job at another company. So when the recruitment agency called me Christina, she was like, Hey, Aleksandra, you applied for this position?
Well, that position has been filled, but I think we might have another position open. Are you interested to join an interview? I was like, yeah, sure, of course.
Please give me a time and date, I'll be there. And so initially, going to my interview with Bloobirds, I was thinking that I'm going at this other company that I applied at.
So I had my research down for that job, for that company and everything else. So I arrived at the offices for the interview. My first interview was with the recruitment agency, so with the interviewer. And then she kind of told me, OK, what is the role about? Why did you apply what brought into sales? And that, of course, when the interview starts, we're like, all right, let's get this, why did I get into sales, I love communicating!
I love people. I love being in touch with people and then so on. I gave my my little pitch, so to say.
Neil Bhuiyan Yeah.
Aleksandra Andree So after the first interview, she was like, oh, well, you know what, let me get let me get the person responsible for this job from the company and you can go ahead talk to him directly. I was like, OK, I will, I wasn't expecting that. I was like, OK, let's see, so, our marketing director now comes in the comes in the room. Hi, Aleksandra. How are you doing? Good to have you.
And he starts over immediately. All right. Two things. Who are you and why are you here?
I don't know. No, I of course I gave him another pitch and so on. And then that's where he said, all right, Bloobirds does this and this. And I was like, in my mind, aha. So I'm not for this position. I'm applying for Bloobirds. That's good to know. That's great.
Aleksandra Andree But no, we had a great chat with Mark and about so the two interviews I had them one after the other. Then after the interview he said, we'll get in touch with you, we'll send you an email, do a little homework to see your skills, writing skills, speaking skills and so on. And then two days after I got confirmation that I got accepted into Bloobirds.
Aleksandra Andree Yes, it was it was quite an experience, the whole process especially. Well, having to find the job landing into Bloobirds. I didn't know what Bloobirds does. And then when I saw I went to the offices, I met everyone. I felt I felt overwhelmed. It was great. It was amazing. Mhm.
Neil Bhuiyan That is a really cool story. So from Avon lady selling cosmetics and products to your friends and then you know the opportunity to speak to people face to face. And in essence you're kind of pitching a product. Right. And then going into kind of your first feeling of like a startup vibe, working in kind of a, as you say, customer service orientated people facing you, speaking to a lot of people on a daily basis. You love communicating.
+ The interview tip everyone needs to know [00:09:44.840]
Neil Bhuiyan That's kind of what gets your buzz and the whole fact of going through that process with the recruitment agency. And then coming up to Bloobirds. And you mentioned a lot of key points there, such as like you did a bit of research to kind of figure out what's right for you and a little bit about the company. And then you get thrown into these meetings where you meet this one person and then they come and get one of the people that started the company to sit down with you and kind of ask you again to pitch yourself like, why are you here?
And you did a valiant effort by the sounds of it and you got the role. And you said it was a really good learning experience in itself. Um, kind of looking back on it.
Like, you may have had a couple of fears of kind of like what they're going to think about me and what should I be saying?
Oh, now that you're kind of in the role, kind of what advice would you have given to yourself for that person that was going through maybe going through the same process in the coming weeks?
Aleksandra Andree Right. Well, I will admit, I was terrified when I went into the interview. I was terrified, especially because, like I said, I wasn't expecting another person, another round of interviews straight away. But what really helped me at the time was just thinking, all right, well, I will do my best. I will give one hundred percent. And whatever happens, happens. I will just make sure that I do my best. And this is actually the advice that I would give to anyone looking for a job, applying for interviews, for different jobs, going to interviews.
Just make sure that you do your best. You present yourself as naturally as possible and just share your experience.
+ The importance of research [00:11:17.240]
Neil Bhuiyan That's some solid advice. Thank you so much for that, Aleksandra. And again, guys, if anybody that's listening, I'd really highly recommend taking these points in. If you're thinking about joining a SaaS startup or going into these SDR role and going back to that point of, like, researching. So obviously, as a SDRs, we're researching companies, we're researching personas and profiles, et cetera.
What was your research process like when you were looking for your job? I heard an element of salary, but what other things were you looking for?
Aleksandra Andree Right so well, first of all, the platforms that I use, LinkedIn, of course, was one of them. I used a lot of Glassdoor, Indeed. So all the main job advertisements and platforms. So first of all, I would start with something that I'm familiar with and I have experience. So for me, that case was a customer service representative. So that is the main keyword that you input. You try to maybe filter by experience entry level or one your experience, whatever your experience is.
And then just go from there from one job to another, you find maybe skills that you also are good at, for example, communication be that multitasking, whatever it is that you're confident you're good at. Put that in into the filters and then just just browse in, see what's out there.
Neil Bhuiyan I love it. I love it. I went through like a similar thing, like when I was looking at jobs, like trying to get into sales. And I think sometimes I used to look at job specs where they would say, OK, these are your responsibilities and here are the requirements. And I'll be honest, like many years ago there was things I wasn't experienced in and I was fearful that I may not hit the mark because I lacked a certain lot of skills.
+ What to think about when looking for a new job as an SDR [00:12:59.950]
Neil Bhuiyan How have you like when you've looked at specs and stuff like if there are missing gaps, how do you view those things that you may not have today, but, you know, you want to aspire to getting at one point? How do you view that?
Aleksandra Andree Look, I will speak from as an SDR perspective now. So going back, if there's anyone interested out there applying for an entry position level as an SDR, my advice is don't focus so much on the requirements or the skills that you don't have, rather, focus on the type of on that, first of all, on the duties that you will be doing, see if it matches the personality, your personality and who you are, what you want to do, and then the skills the SDR job is actually is a fantastic opportunity for anyone.
Now, looking back, I SDR role as a key. So consider it. You've been given a key and it's up to you to use that key to open as many doors as you want or any doors that you want, experience, that's the beauty of being an SDR you don't need an experience. It's an entry level position. Just make sure that the company that you're applying at, the product, you like it, you believe in it, then and then you will build up the experience you can go from SDR, there so many opportunities you can go into marketing, sales, enablement, sales, ops, business development, anything. So this is why compared it a little bit to a key.
You turn in and there is there is just so much more into it. So experience will come. Don't worry about the skills that you don't have yet. Make sure that you are passionate about the role, about the company, about the product, about the things that you will do about Prospecting, talking to people and then everything else will sort of fall into place as you go.
Neil Bhuiyan That brought a tear to my SDR eyes, so Aleksandra, I really love that the whole analogy of like a key to open all those doors. And it's a similar thought that I used to have. Like I remember I was reading like one of my Facebook memories where I kind of put in the word I was looking for the key to success.
But I realized it's easier to kick the door and go with as many doors as you can. But you're right. Like it is like an entry level into a company, not just into sales. Right. And there are so many different avenues that you can go down. And I think I've met a lot of people that have been in the SDR position of going into marketing. Like you say, they've gone into customer success, they've gone into operations. But you've got like a front row seat to a company.
+ Essential skills for any new SDR [00:15:38.800]
Neil Bhuiyan And, you know, you can go into different ways. And as you said, in time, those skills and experiences have come in. So what would you say if you were to pick three of them, like the three favourite skills that you did pick up in like the last year that you're really happy to have learned? What would you say, those three things that you've learned?
Aleksandra Andree Well, first of all, research research is key, especially when you're in a startup environment. So everything is sort of a big experiment. So you have to do a lot of research, see, see what's out there, make connections. This is something that I love as a person. I love learning new things. So every opportunity that I get to learn something, I utilize it. So one will be research. Second is well connected to research making making those connections.
So you have to have an open mind and be open to learning new things and connecting them all together. So see, for example, in your role as an SDR, see how your role connects with marketing, see how your role as an SDR connects with sales within the company, within the industry as a whole. So just learning as much as you can and then learning opportunity, it was the best for me. It is. It is still and it has been it has been an amazing experience.
The amount of content, the amount of experience that you get out of out of the job as an SDR. It's really amazing.
Neil Bhuiyan That's so cool, and a question I love to I used to ask Prospects and I still ask clients today is we all learn in different ways. So some people are audio learners, so they like to listen to things. Some people are visual learners, so they like to watch things and other people love to read up on things and perhaps look into the technical detail. How do you best learn when you are taking in new information, Aleksandra?
Aleksandra Andree So I'm definitely a person that goes into the little details, technical details. I'm very visual as well. But I really when I learn, I try to for example, I read a piece of text or a piece of paragraph. So in my mind, I'm going behind the words, behind the paragraph, like why it has been written this way, what can I connected with that I know. So going into very, very technical details and just being able to make the connections
+ Behind the scenes tips on how Aleksandra prospected Neil [00:18:06.310]
Neil Bhuiyan I love it and to be honest, so opening up a little bit.
She, Aleksandra, you made a connection with me earlier this year where guys, I was on the receiving end of Aleksandra's prospecting, and I'll be honest with you, and I do read all emails where I get outbounded because I'm always looking to see if there's something I can learn from it and the way that you approached me, I think I was working at a client called Intuo at the time, and your email had hit my inbox and I opened it and I was just like, wow, OK, this is a little bit different.
What I would love to know and maybe to share your trade secrets a little bit. What was the research that you took upon before you reached out to me? And kind of what was the outcome? Where did we end up, Aleksandra?
Aleksandra Andree Sure, let me let me back up and go from the beginning then, so when I was prospecting Neil, it was actually during quarantine time here in Barcelona, it was March or April somewhere around that time. And I had this company in my pipeline, Intuo. I see Neil actually signed up for one of our webinars with Trish Bertozzi.
And a couple of days later the webinar happened. I'm like, right now I need to reach out to Neil, see how he liked it and get him to buy the words, you know, get him on there.
So my research first, of course, going into your LinkedIn profile, seeing your bio, what have you written there? What do you like what do you like to talk about your experiences at Intuo and previous experiences, activity feed especially, which is super important. What does Neil do in linkedIn, does he post something. What does he like? What is he engaging with, the types of content, then of course HappySelling. So I saw. It was really great, actually, when I when I saw your profile and I said the whole concept of HappySelling and helping SDRs, I was thrilled.
I was like, oh my God, yes. That's the guy to talk to. He will get me. I know what to say to this guy. He deals with SDRs like me. And actually for me, I didn't I didn't look at it as an opportunity to sell as much of as much as opportunity to learn. So I was like, all right, so he's an amazing coach. I'm going to try and do my best.
Well, you might pitch and actually try to learn from him.
What will his feedback be? How how will he like it? And so I think we also spoke on the phone. I started with a webinar. So hello, Neil. This is Aleksandra calling regarding the webinar. And I remember at first it was I was actually four months into the role, so I was super nervous. Um, having this person that is really experienced knows a lot about the industry, about SDRs, about prospecting, and probably could hear it in my voice that it was shaking and trembling, just trying to hang on there.
But I went through the whole pitch and then we discussed it. How I like the transition. I went from the webinar to Bloobirds and then now thinking back, of course, I did a lot of talking. So that was that is one point that I would change, but it was a great learning experience, just being able to learn from from that and from everything else, it helped me improve. So now I know when I call for a webinar or something else, I'm not going to go on and ramble I am going to be short and to the point
Neil Bhuiyan I love it, and you did the research on my profile. You kind of saw kind of what the field that I'm in, kind of like, where do I work? What's my past experiences this is really great research and intel building. And you said a magic piece here that you perceived me not so much as a sales lead, it would be nice if we can get Neil, Into you know, book a demo for Bloobirds and close them in. But you thought this is an opportunity to learn from someone.
And this reminded me of me being an SDR where, ok, if I was selling to a VP of sales and marketing, I would always want to connect with them because the End Goal would be yes, I'd love them to fall in love with my solution. But if you're an industry leader, I could learn a hell of a lot which could help me in my position and make me better. You know, and I remember vividly sitting in my kitchen when I was doing some work for Intuo, we was building out a deck on cold calling, funnily and it was an afternoon, I think it was like two o'clock in the afternoon. Nice springtime afternoon.
And then I got a phone call from a number which I didn't recognize. And not many people have my number. And I was like, Hmm, who is this? And I answer the call.
Neil Bhuiyan And you went in. And yes, I could hear those nerves, but I love to hear that because you're giving it a shot. You're trying and I will never shoot somebody down. I will allow them to speak. But you effortlessly introduced yourself. You really bought in the relevance as to kind of why you were calling and Trish Bertuzzi, the person that's the book that I love, the sales development playbook, that was super relevant for me because, again, I was trying to build up plays and you were looking to ask for feedback.
And I was honest and saying, look, I didn't have a chance to look at the webinar because I was quite busy.
Neil Bhuiyan But the way that you ran that call, inspired me so much that I remember actually reaching out to you and saying, is there any way, Aleksandra, that you could transcribe the phone call that you'd just done with me? Because I want to share it with my SDRs to say, this is how, because we were doing webinars as well. And I said this is how we should be following up. Here is a blueprint and bless you. You actually did that for me.
And obviously there wasn't an end result of getting in time with Bloobirds. But what I offered back to you was if you ever, ever need help as an SDR, call on me like, ask it of me and I'll be more than happy to help. And I'm happy to say we did take your template we did use it and we had a lot of successes. So I have to say a huge thank you. And it's the impact that you made on me as a coach.
+ The story behind Aleksandra and SalesHacker [00:24:02.740]
Neil Bhuiyan I thought, you know what, I'm going to give this lady the time of day if she needs it any time. So I'm really happy that you Prospected me, you did it in a really good way. And again, guys, if you ever want to get in touch with Aleksandra to get her tips and tricks, by all means, reach out. I'll make sure I'll put links in the show notes. Which leads me on to the next topic, which is really interesting.
I think when I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, I saw SalesHacker So for a lot of people out there, SalesHacker a huge community for sales and sales development, something I've always wanted to be involved in. I always read their blogs and posts and I actually share it with the SDRs like when we need tips etc.. But what is the story behind you and kind of working with SalesHacker. Aleksandra?
Aleksandra Andree So as a SalesHacker, I'm a founding member of the SalesHacker community. It's a volunteer experience. So as a founding member, I am there to support in discussions, start discussions, answer questions and that sort of things. And how I came into touch with SalesHackers' it was actually again during quarantine time, I believe it was around April, those months, April, March and I first joined their LinkedIn group.
So the SalesHacker group I found it through another Prospect I think or LinkedIn at work, I joined the group, hey, I'm happy to join, I've heard so much about it glad to share the experience. And then one day I think it was Colin Campbell, he posted a post on the group saying, hey, guys, we're we're sort of starting a new project. It's going to be a surprise and we need as much help as we can get.
So whoever wants to to join in to help just type I'm in, and it got me curious, you know, the whole approach of, hey, there's a surprise coming. If you want to contribute, join whoever you are. There was no requirement, no nothing. If you want to join, join. And that got my attention. I was like, yeah, sure, I'm in quarantine. I have nothing else to do at home all day.
I'm going to join you. So I typed I'm in, in the comments and then Colin reached out through LinkedIn message, saying a little bit more about SalesHackers' how they are building something new and then sent me an invite to the Slack Channel where all the founding members were part of giving instructions and so on, and that kind of developed in the background in secret. So nothing was out there. It was only the people who signed up for that knew and the idea was to start a community for the sales professionals, for sales leaders, for SDRs, for all professionals into the industry. A community which offers help offers is sort of like a safe space. So if you want to ask someone some a question or if you want to share your experience, that's that's the community to go. And it's so great the way that they involved so many people and how it is open. What I really like about SalesHacker, the fact that at any time that you post a question or discussion, you start a discussion.
There's always someone there to answer. There's always someone there to support you, to share their experience, to give you advice. And of course, the more it has evolved now we create a lot of EMEA webinars. We try to bring in as many professionals in the industry to just connect with each other and share our amazing stories, our experiences, advices and everything.
Neil Bhuiyan That is so beautiful and I love the whole concept of a community, because I think coming up as an SDR when I was younger, it was a case of I knew there was other SDRs out there in the world and they'd either work at competitor company so we wouldn't speak or they worked in different industries and verticals.
So we didn't find it relevant. But I'm finding more and more, that SDRs are kind of like joining together sales professions' they are doing these communities, they're doing these hubs to share best practices because we're all trying to reach the same goal. But I also love it with your involvement, how you kind of got into it through the LinkedIn post with Mr Campbell and then it was kind of in stealth mode. But you're there to support each other. And I think it's always great to have these type of channels because knowledge is a powerful thing.
But when it's shared, it's you know, it's put out there and it's something, something tangible that people can get hooked into. They can receive the support. So obviously, like you're in Barcelona and you're talking to international people, what kind of cool friends or kind of network connections have you made off the back of this? And how has it impacted your sales career?
Aleksandra Andree Well, as an SDR, of course, our job is to get as many connections as possible with everyone within the within the industry. But what's cool about SalesHacker that because they have such a huge and large network and so when when I have it there in my LinkedIn, hey, I'm a founding member, I help or participate in the community itself. You can see my questions. You can see my discussions, my answers, and just being able to to share the connection, the experience with so many professionals.
It has helped me build a huge network, especially in the States, because mainly that's where SalesHackers is based. So now I have let's say I have my network in Europe because of my job, because of my companies and connections that I work with and then SalesHackers in the States. I have connected with so many wonderful sales thought leaders and it has been amazing experience. And I have to say that one of the reasons that I actually joined SalesHacker was not only because I had a lot of time and I was bored in Quarantine, it was actually because this is something that I was looking for. You know, when I when I first joined, then I started as an SDR. I had no experience. So I was like, OK, I need to learn how to be an SDR. What should I do? What should I say? How should I send an email? And so on. So of course you get that support from the company. I got that from Bloobirds and our amazing team I had calls and support, but you kind of want to see what's out there.
So how do other people do it? How do my colleagues, bigger companies, smaller companies, what's out there? Basically, and as I was looking into this, researching how to become a better SDR, I was actually thinking, well, you know what?
At that time, there was a lot of posts going around LinkedIn about sales leaders and then processes and so on. I was like thinking, hey, I see I see the role of an SDR, they are such such an important and crucial role. Why is no one talking about it like we do?
Of course, other jobs are really hard, but we do we do quite a lot, you know, similar to what we do.
I was like, how can we not being mentioned? How come there is no space for me to share it? And then when I saw SalesHacker launching, I was like, oh my God, it was actually the best timing, it was the best opportunity for me. I was like, yes, this is the place I can go here, ask questions, post questions and get the support that I need from outside.
Neil Bhuiyan Perfect timing, and I always think that things don't just happen by coincidence.
It's always it's destined to happen because I'm kind of like this whole Podcast I thought the exact same thing. I would always see a lot of content from sales leaders that have been there, done that, worn the t shirt.
But the actual SDRs who do a lot of the legwork, the hard work of getting people interested in companies. You guys, we have a hard job trying to convince people. And even though that I was an SDR many years ago and I still have to be an SDR for my own company, I was just like that community, the vibe sharing best practices so that when we connected early this year and I said, Hey, Aleksandra, I've got this really cool idea for a Podcast for new SDRs,
+ How can new SDR’s get involved with SalesHacker? [00:32:09.830]
Neil Bhuiyan We were both smiling because we were on the same wavelength. Um, so obviously we have our Podcast here, but like with SalesHacker If I'm an SDR and I'm brand new to the role. What's the best way that I could get involved with SalesHacker or what advice could I get from, you know,
Aleksandra Andree well, in SalesHacker I would really suggest the the channel of sales development.
So that is kind of the one of the busiest channels where you get all the hot tips or all the hot gossip about sales, sales development, Prospecting, and that's also the channel that I'm most active at, so if you have any questions about Prospecting, about fears or you know have regarding sales, I would really recommend that channel go to sales development.
Neil Bhuiyan Perfect, guys so you're listening, so definitely I'll put in in the show notes like contact details for Aleksandra, and if it's something you want to get involved in, if you can point them in the right direction, that'll be super appreciated.
+ What’s next and Aleksandra’s key takeaways [00:33:05.690]
Neil Bhuiyan So as we're coming towards the end, I'd really like to know, like I know before the Podcast, we spoke about progression and updates with yourself, kind of like what's going on in your world in terms of next steps. What's happening in your world, Aleksandra?
Well, there's a lot happening. So apart from being an SDR, surviving Corona, surviving quarantine, being here in this Podcast, which is amazing opportunity for me. Thank you. Thank you so much Neil.
What I'm really excited about is that I have been given the chance to contribute into another role within the company. It is something that I was looking into for the future. So what I want to do for the future is transition into a sales enablement position, because I love learning, I love technical details. I want to see how everything connects. I thought that is a perfect fit for what I want to do and my skills. And so now I've been given a chance to contribute into that area, into the new business development side of our business.
And that is actually something that I'm super excited about. I'm stressed. I'm very nervous because I asked for it. Now I have to deliver, but no, I am super excited about it, just having the chance and the opportunity to to contribute into something else. Apart from my role as an SDR, which I think is key for I would say for any SDR this is this is what I would my piece of advice, I guess, is that, try to learn as much as you can from anyone, from anything within your role, because there's so many opportunities, there's so many things that you can do apart from being an SDR.
If you want. Of course, you can go in and just focus on booking meetings and then getting your quota and whatnot. But if you really want to develop as a person, as a professional, try to learn and be passionate about learning and this is this is what I've done within my company, here at Bloobirds. This is what I do as a person in my personal life. I try to get out as much as possible out of anything, and, well, I am being given it's working, I've been given this opportunity and I'm so excited about it.
Neil Bhuiyan I love it.
I think that is solid advice and your key takeaways. And as a coach, somebody that did that role that went into kind of enablement. I'm so proud to see you actually taking that step. And I want to save this because we're definitely gonna have to get you back as a future guest to see how this will pan out. Yes, but you're very right. You have to be careful what you ask of the universe because you'll be surprised when it comes back and it says, OK, Aleksandra, there you go. And the stress, Yeah, it's nerves. But I think if we go back to Avon lady that was selling cosmetics and products and then getting fired up in front of like these this marketing director at Bloobirds, you did it. I think you're going to be able to do it again, 100 percent believe in you. And yeah, I look forward to bringing you back as a future guest on The SDR DiscoCall Podcast.
+ Shout Outs [00:36:12.910]
Neil Bhuiyan But before we part ways, I just wanted to know, are there any special shout outs, anything interesting the listeners should be aware of?
Aleksandra Andree Yeah, of course.
So first of all, a big shout out to our SalesHacker community, to all managing members, community Managers. Everyone there, guys, go there. You have to check out the community, go ask a question, start a discussion and you'll see. You'll see like your life will change. Literally. It's out there. You have support. Everyone supports you. Big shout out to HappySelling, DiscoCalls to Neil. He's an amazing coach. And thank you so much for having me here for this amazing opportunity.
Another big shout out to OppGen. It's a community powered by Bloobirds, but it is actually unlike other communities, it is a content community. So it's a community where it gathers all the sales leaders, all sales professionals and have sort of all their content in one place. So if you want to check out what Trish Bertozzi has published recently, you can find it there. Aaron Ross, we have Sara Braizer. So all these professionals, if you want to have one place and see what they do, you can go there and check that out.
And yes, a big shout out to everyone every SDR, they are working hard, worrying, you know, just stay strong and get through it.
Neil Bhuiyan You've got so much passion and energy, I love it and I love the community based work. And you're there to really support and help other people. I love that. I genuinely feel that there are big things to come from you Aleksandra. And I can't wait to get you back as a guest. And for anybody out there, I'm going to put all these links and all this information in the shownotes so that you can access it. And Aleksandra, like I always ask guests, if they want to get in touch with you, what is the best channel to get in touch with yourself?
Aleksandra Andree That will be LinkedIn so you can find me LinkedIn. I am quite active there. I try to stay online and just mingle around network, whatever you have, any questions, any suggestions, whatever it is, you can reach me through LinkedIn.
Neil Bhuiyan Perfect. Aleksandra Andree, thank you so much for joining today. I wish you all the best of luck in future endeavours and we'll get definitely get you back in, as I've said multiple times, because I really want to get you back in!
But most importantly, thank you and HappySelling Aleksandra,
Aleksandra Andree Thank you so much. Neil, thank you for having me. And Happy Selling as well.
Neil Bhuiyan Love it. Take care. Bye bye.
Aleksandra Andree Bye bye.