Employee Q&A: Briton Burgio

Briton is Mappedin's Account Executive for Inside Sales. We're discussing her transition between teams, qualities and skills that are important for a job in sales, how to handle client rejection, and how to stay motivated.

Briton, thank you for chatting with me. To start off, can you tell us about your current role at Mappedin?

I’m an Account Executive and my responsibility is Inside Sales. I chat with all of our current customers and hash out opportunities for them to take advantage of our products and features that they may not currently have as part of their Mappedin offering. This involves working with the Customer Success team and chatting with them to identify opportunities to help our customers get a better experience from our products and for their end-users.

You’ve been at Mappedin for almost a year now, what made you want to join the team? 

Joining Mappedin was a pretty big leap of faith for me to be completely honest. I came from an Events background primarily, and did Events for about 15 years. With the pandemic, events weren’t really available for quite some time, and it forced me to do a lot of self-reflection on what I wanted to do next career wise. After a lot of conversations with my network, I realized that what I enjoyed most about my career in Events was building relationships with people, and so I thought that transitioning into Customer Success would be a natural fit.

I actually reached out to Hongwei, the CEO of Mappedin, because I had been following Mappedin for a really long time. He mentioned that Mappedin was looking for a Customer Success Manager, and so I applied for the role and got to meet that awesome team. They took a chance on me, and not long after, another opportunity was presented to me to join the Sales team as an Account Executive (AE) for Inside Sales. Since joining Mappedin, there’s been no shortage of opportunities for career growth and development, which is really awesome. 

That’s great to hear! What made you decide to transition from a Customer Success Manager to an Account Executive? How has the transition between teams been for you?

I think what made me decide to switch teams was having the support of the Customer Success team and Ian, the Director of Customer Experience, presenting the opportunity to me to see if it was something I’d be interested in. Also, having conversations with Michael, the Director of Growth, about the role and what it was like was important to me. I felt very supported and confident in making the decision because everyone thought I could do it. I don’t have a sales background per se, but when your Director of Sales is telling you that you can do it, that instills confidence in you and your capabilities. 

Overall, the transition has been pretty smooth. I worked really closely with Ian to make sure that the customers I was working with as a CSM were handed off in a very meaningful and careful way. I didn’t want those customers to feel like they couldn’t talk to me ever again because I was moving over to the Sales team. It’s nice because I’m still able to interact with them and have those relationships with them, just as an AE now. Also, coming from the Customer Success team helped me from a Sales perspective because I was able to speak about our products and what they can do. As a CSM, you’re interacting and dealing with our product all the time, doing implementations and CMS training, so that’s made the transition a lot easier. 

What do you like most about working in Sales? 

Honestly, I love getting the deal. I’m a competitive person and there’s nothing more exciting than carrying a deal across the finish line. The gratification isn’t instant, you have to be really patient at times, but then it’s even sweeter when you get the deal signed after months and months of work and follow up conversations with customers. It’s the best feeling. 

What qualities and skills do you think are important for a job in Sales? 

You have to be a bit of a risk taker, and be comfortable with putting yourself out there. You also have to be patient and persistent. You have all these meetings and these great conversations with potential customers, so being persistent and following up with them is really important. Probably 80% of the job is following up with people! I would also say that you need to be likeable. People don’t want to buy something from someone they dislike unless they really need the product or service you’re selling. 

How do you handle rejection when a customer says they’re not interested?

I think the best way to handle that type of thing is to learn from it. Regardless of the career you’re in, I think it’s really important to reflect on any kind of mistake or rejection or challenging experience and take learnings from it. This way, going into your next situation or opportunity, if signals or things come up that remind you of the past time you encountered this challenge or rejection, you can prevent it from happening again or turn it into something more positive. 

How do you stay motivated?

I think what’s really cool about the Sales team at Mappedin is that, as much as we all have our own territory and quotas, we really are a team working together towards a common goal. Everyone is super supportive of each other, and when one person succeeds, we all succeed. We’re always congratulating each other and we chat every morning about any challenges that we’re having or any exciting opportunities coming up. The team is extremely motivating so it’s hard to not want to succeed when you’re surrounded by all these amazing people that are in your corner and cheering you on.

Since Mappedin has moved to a remote first environment, how has working remotely been for you? 

I’m a pretty extroverted person so working remotely has been really interesting for me. I struggled with it at first, but over time it’s been getting easier and becoming more “normal”. I like being able to connect with the team on Zoom, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to do a couple things together in person, such as a Go Karting event in the summer. It’s also nice having the opportunity to work in the office and see people outside of Zoom. Even almost a year in, it’s so exciting being able to see people in person! 

Overall, what I like most about remote work is the flexibility. I felt like I didn’t have to sacrifice some of the things that I might have if we had to be in the office 24/7. I’m a mom and I have a young child, so being able to walk her to school and pick her up from school has been really great. I have time blocked off in my calendar for it, and everyone’s really respectful of those boundaries.

What do you like most about working at Mappedin?

I know everyone says it but the people are fantastic. They’ve done a really good job culture wise, and I’ve never encountered an ego at Mappedin. The tech industry is usually criticized for that, but it doesn’t exist here. I’m never afraid of asking a question, and I’m never met with “Briton, how do you not know that?” or “I can’t believe that you don’t know that yet!”. No one is ever like that. There’s no ego, everyone’s really willing to help, and everyone wants you to succeed. I think it’s really cool that the entire organization is working together towards a common goal and it’s so ingrained in the culture that it makes it a really welcoming and enjoyable place to work everyday.

Mappedin is currently hiring for a Business Development Representative. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to apply for this role?

Yes. I would definitely say apply for it because the Sales team at Mappedin is great. I think it would also be very advantageous to reach out to Michael, the Director of Growth, on Linkedin and connect with our BDRs Lucas, Nathan, and Siewyee. Reach out to them directly and be like “hey, I’m interested in this role, can you take half an hour to talk to me about it, I want to know what it’s like to be a BDR at Mappedin.” Putting yourself out there and showing that initiative and courage to speak out to someone directly speaks volumes about you, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the response you get.

Interested in working with us? Check out our Careers Page for all open roles, including the Business Development Representative role, or send an email to our recruitment team at careers@mappedin.ca.