Arwa Kaddoura
Contributor
Arwa Kaddoura has worked for nearly 20 years in cloud GTM strategies and scaling startups and large enterprises. As CRO of InfluxData, she oversees global sales activities, including sales enablement, customer success, and technical support and services.
Technology leaders don’t like to admit it, but sales has a perception problem that deters many fabulous candidates — especially women and minorities — from pursuing careers in tech sales. I’ve seen and experienced these biases firsthand as a woman of color in tech sales.
Unfortunately, some of the best salespeople are often deterred from the profession because of sales culture. There’s too much of an emphasis on “alpha male” personality traits rather than the soft skills that allow individuals to thrive. Sales leaders need to create a culture of success for all salespeople regardless of background.
The reality is that many go-to-market (GTM) plans are shifting to product-led growth (PLG). Putting the product itself in the driver’s seat means that the product needs to be easily accessible, well documented and usable without requiring “gatekeepers.” In this context, the role of sales …
