Stephanie Iacono joined Tyro straight from university as an account manager in their health team and now 5 years later, she’s in a leadership position and well on her way, saying “don’t be afraid of the word sales.”
Sales Aren’t Sleazy
Tyro provide eftpos acquiring services for organisations from small enterprises through to groups as big as Mecca Cosmetics, as well as providing business banking, loans, and ecommerce solutions.
Stephanie encourages people to be open minded about their preconceptions around sales and what it means. To her, working in sales at Tyro is about identifying the customers’ needs and seeing if there is a way to fill them.
“Providing value is the biggest thing in my eyes.”
Who’s Good at Selling?
Stephanie joined Tyro not really knowing what she wanted and said the office environment was totally different to what she expected. She thought she wouldn’t be friends with her co-workers, she’d go to work to do her job and go home.
“But actually, everything in the interview about Tyro hiring for culture was really evident. Everyone says ‘it doesn’t feel like coming to work’. I really like it here and I really enjoy what I’m doing.”
She says again that sales can have a bad rap, with people assuming salespeople are direct and pushy, without the customers’ best interests at heart.
The best salespeople don’t have to be the loudest or most confident in the room. The most important thing is to be interested in making a difference for customers and providing real value.
Moving into Leadership
After about two years as an account manager, Stephanie was offered a position as a team leader, which she was initially really nervous about. She was young, leading people who were older and more experienced, and feared she wouldn’t be trusted or respected as a leader.
Spending time to get to know her new team, respect their experience and build rapport paid off, and now Stephanie’s advice to her younger self would be, “don’t worry about being the youngest person. The things you worry about are usually just in your head, and people see you differently to how you see yourself.”
It’s important to trust the judgement of your managers as they have your best interests at heart, see what you are capable of and offer stretch suggestions to develop you.
Demonstrating initiative is a way to be noticed, and working with other teams to improve a customer’s experience or get to the bottom of an issue even if it’s not your responsibility is the type of behaviour that is remembered when opportunities come up. There are a lot of options once you master the fundamentals around sales and account management.
Should I Do Sales?
At Tyro they hire for cultural fit, “the culture is what we make of it, and the new people we hire in continue to grow and evolve the culture. The enjoyment we get, the laughter, smiles, camaraderie is from people encouraging each other, friendly competition and a supportive team environment.”
At Tyro, they also offer a good work-life balance that starts with leaders, and teams are empowered so the culture flows through the organisation. Stephanie says she is encouraged to leave things at work, and in her spare time she does “anything in the water”, spends time with family and travels.
“I love working really hard and taking time off, relaxing on the weekend, travelling to other parts of the world and exploring new places.”
It has been a fast-paced changing environment that keeps you on your toes, which is where innovation comes from. I’ve been here since we were 150 people to now 450. You need to be adaptive to change, and I’m looking forward to the next few years particularly as we grow our banking and eCommerce products.
Hear Stephanie Iacono share more of her journey to sales leader and advice for others at the WORK180-hosted women in sales panel discussion on 17 March 2020. Find out more.