Sarah Altman
If you are reading this, you probably want to know if I know my stuff. Seems fair. Then you’ll want to know something about my delivery style, approach, sales methodology and consulting framework.
Or even why I’m different from other sales trainers and consultants. If we really get along you might even be curious about my hobbies (yoga, food, travel), what kind of coffee I like (black, pour over) and ask about my availability. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Ever since I graduated from college with a double major in Economics and Political Science from Macalester College and grad school with an international MBA from Thunderbird, I have ended up in customer facing sales roles – even when I sometimes didn’t start there. For example, when I tried to be in product marketing at Oracle in San Francisco, and ended up as an Oracle sales field rep in NYC selling to Citibank globally. #bestdecisionever I’ve been selling or leading sales and customer facing teams since 1992, as an inside and field rep, manager of global accounts, director of inside sales, and director of sales operations and enablement. I got my sales ‘basic training’ selling for Oracle and EMC in New York City, and then further realized the complexities, challenges and needs of successful sales organizations while working for a bunch of early stage and medium sized companies. You can check out a bit more of my background on LinkedIn if you want some more of my stats. |
Street CredI launched my own sales training and consulting practice in 2008 so I could take what I’ve spent my whole career doing—selling and leading—and combine it with my passion for coaching, training and ability to help companies and people get better at selling.
I also had to do my own thing. On the DiSC profile I’m sort of an off the charts ‘I’. I want to inspire. I want to empower people to know that they can be authentic and successful. In fact – I want them to know that they can only be successful (by whatever metric) if they are authentic. Cool stuff. There are lots of great sales consultants and sales trainings out there. I’m different because of my slightly off center approach. I too am turned off by the traditional sales persona. Instead I’m motivated by smart, thoughtful, curious, authentic sellers who understand their market, offering, buyers and the power behind having a framework and an approach that draws the buyers in instead of alienating them. |
My JourneyIf I was going to hire someone, I might be curious about what they do when they aren’t doing their ‘day job’. I’m glad you asked ☺ I was one heck of a lucky kid, and grew up with a geologist dad and politically active mom. That meant that I spent every summer in tents (true), a lot of time in VW Vanagons and with the belief that I could be anything that I wanted. I started exploring the world with a semester abroad in Switzerland in college, followed by working for Citigroup in Germany for three years after grad school, and then the penultimate after leaving NYC - spending two years traveling around the world skiing, doing yoga, and basically exploring the world. Highly recommended.
My journey has included living in Germany, San Francisco, and New York City, and now with my husband, David, Portland Oregon is our home. We spend some of our free time practicing yoga, playing the piano, hiking, cooking, skiing and traveling to do more of the same in cool places. |
"YOU NEVER REALLY LEARN MUCH FROM HEARING YOURSELF SPEAK." —GEORGE CLOONEY