Valued Employees Create More Value

Sometimes when you meet a person, you're immediately impressed by their affable personality and charm. Pendo's account executive, Michael Hoy has his fair share of sales-y charm, it's true. But he showed another dimension last month when he and his three daughters attended a Friday afternoon "all hands" company meeting. There were a few things that struck me about this. One: No one gave Michael or the kids a second look as they shuffled into the room like Make Way For Ducklings. Two: “Hoy,” as we call him, doesn’t usually sport a giant pink Disney princess backpack. And three, he managed to listen, contribute some key points to the conversation and field a few juice boxes and goldfish crackers before the meeting was over. Why was this so striking? Because it was normal.

Pendo’s the kind of office where children show up after school or during summer break, and get absorbed into the office culture. Our founders work very hard to make sure work and family are not mutually exclusive. Valued employees bring more value to your company. Knowing that it’s ok to work from home or have a fourth-grader be your desk partner for the day, means that employees can focus on doing their best work without worrying. And when you listen to Michael make calls, he sounds as if his only care is making sure our potential customers see the huge value Pendo brings to their product. But don’t let his easy-going delivery fool you. As a fellow software entrepreneur, Michael knows exactly what it takes to run a business, create great products and close the deal.

What brought you to Pendo? Why here? Why this group of people rather than working elsewhere?
Before joining Pendo I ran another local company called BoomboxFM. In 2015 we worked beneath Pendo in HQ Raleigh. We even presented, one after the other, at CED’s Tech Showcase that September. In early 2016, Chas Scarantino and I had a couple conversations about my next move, and it quickly became apparent that Pendo was growing in a very exciting direction; a journey that I wanted to be a part of! Not to mention, I would be joining a kick butt team, building and selling an amazing product.

What aspect(s) of your job do you like?
Pendo is still very much a startup. We’re moving at light speed; that is cool. We’re encountering brand new challenges every single day; that is super cool. What I love most though is that we’re building a company the right way–centered around customer success and an amazing product. The best part of my job is being a part of that growth day in and day out.

What would you like to see happen more often with clients?
Loss interviews. Often this is hard…more often than not, a lost customer simply goes dark. But the few times I’ve managed to speak with a lost client, the learning has been incredible. To a certain extent the feedback can be all over the map, so its important to listen for trends. It’s hard to check every box for every user. So when we are fortunate enough to get a loss interview, I look for trends regarding any market changes and needs we don’t address.

An aha moment or story where you learned something from a client.
My most favorite “aha” moment came during my first sale of Pendo–to a marketing and sales team. We spend a lot of time training and preparing to sell to product and customer success teams, so the entire process of working with Hubb.me was an incredible learning experience. In all honesty, “aha” moments literally happen every day. It sounds cliché but every company is different, and Pendo is such a flexible platform that there seems to be a new use case around every corner.

How you approach a call? What about problem-solving?
Questions, questions, questions. We open just about every call with a “discovery phase,” but the discovery should never stop. Chas, our VP of Sales, loves to say “the salesperson with the most information, often wins.” I agree. (Read why sales teams should gather information from big data during the prospect trial period.)

If you had to give your job a different title, what would it be?
Product Coach: Our team tries to take a very different approach to selling our product; one based on communication and education. We aim to learn as much as possible about the potential customer so we can make recommendations on how to best improve their business and provide value. Thanks to a lot of great work, our tool is often the answer.

Tell us something unique about you that makes you especially well suited for this company or this type of work.
There is a famous saying that death is the second most feared thing among people. Public speaking is #1. I am one of a very few that LOVES public speaking. A good portion of this position relies on your ability to present effectively, as well as craft a story and message around a specific customer’s needs on the spot and I’ve always enjoyed that challenge.

Pendo is hiring for several positions, including sales account executives. We’re growing our teams smartly and that means we don’t hire just anyone. Our leadership team stems from Rally, Google, Cisco and Red Hat. We seek out people who know what it means to “hit your number, work as a team, grow and learn, be exceptional, and have fun.” So if you know what it means to be an entrepreneur, we’d love to chat.