Check out our latest blogs

For Trevor Jones, Director of Business Development at Celonis, investing in people is more rewarding than anything else. He is pretty good at selling and understands the pay out there, but his passion is helping early-career professionals build skills that will pay out for the rest of their lives.

Starting in 2013 as a BDR at Citrix, Jones quickly progressed to AE and then leadership, becoming responsible for growing a team from 3 people to 42. After a stint at Precision Hawk driving impact, he has spent the last 6 years at Celonis leading enterprise BDR teams. Through this path, his desire to help individuals thrive while building high-performing teams has stayed strong. 

Mentorship and leadership lessons

Building a network, relationships, and finding a mentor is critical in your professional development and makes you stand-out as an early professional to Jones. For him, mentors have shaped his leadership style, particularly one key figure at Citrix, Chris Leithe. “I used to struggle with leading meetings,” Jones remembers, “My mentor had me videotape myself leading the meeting, then watch the game tape, and revamp the structure of it, and I became obsessed with making that weekly meeting I led as good as it could be”. His meeting structure ended up becoming one of the ways everyone else in the company were supposed to base their own off of, becoming great at a weakness of his. With that said, Jones approach to leadership is to “find that one thing someone needs help with to be more successful and get closer to their goals, discussing that goal and how we can reach it, hold them accountable until it’s a skill set that they have, and then pick the next most impactful thing that’s gonna help them throw in the balance”. 

What makes a Top BDR?

• Hardworking/Desire to win= “They have to want it, more for themselves than anyone else does”.

• Coachability= “Not just someone’s ability to take feedback, but also their ability to find it themselves. Someone who is always trying to get a little bit better, all the time”

• Communication= “Verbal and Written communication is super important, especially at Celonis when we are calling and emailing executives at some of the largest companies in the world. Being able to have concise and compelling messaging that is going to resonate with an executive and capture their attention.”

Looking into a Sales Career?

If you want to stand out amongst the crowd, Jones advises “building a network, reaching out and asking for help, read books that prepare you for tech sales, and talk to reps doing the job and find out what the reality really is and if it matches what you have in your mind.”

Trevor Jones goals are clear and that is investing in people, building their confidence, sharpening their skills, and setting them up for long-term success. And if he could pick a fictional character to join his team and invest in? It would be Mike Ross from Suits.