In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, Hannah Schack, Administrative Assistant, gives us an in-depth perspective on her colleague, Patricia Babson.
When I think of a “stereotypical” salesperson, the first thought that comes to mind is a loud, outgoing man with a firm handshake and slicked back hair. When I sat down to interview Trisha Babson, out of the Boston office, she could not be further from that stereotype.
Trisha answered my questions in a calm, steady voice. She is soft-spoken and she thought about my questions before answering the first thing that came to mind.
Trisha didn’t plan on becoming a sales person at a technology company. When she was a kid, she wanted to be a vet. However, her interest in playing college lacrosse led her to her chosen college, Babson College in Wellesley, MA, which had a great Business program.
Even though Trisha’s childhood dreams of taking care of animals didn’t pan out early on, Trisha never expected to be working as one of the most technologically savvy salespeople in her office. She has become one of the few people who has switched to hardware sales from Backupify, working currently as a channel account manager, working closely with partners to help them set up sales and marketing campaigns. Trisha explained that she “picked up the technical side by working with tech people and engineers”. Not surprisingly, Trisha’s latest personal project is to teach herself the guitar. Even though she describes herself as “not super artsy or a music person”, Trisha bought a guitar with no previous knowledge of plans of learning from YouTube videos.
I wanted to know how Trisha felt being one of the only women on the sales team. Trisha described that her least favorite part of being a woman in a male-dominated field was the constant distractions and high energy of the men on the floor. Unsurprisingly, Trisha’s keys to success that she learned was to “come into work and keep your head down and hustle”, and “make sure each month and quarter is organized”. She is clearly very focused on her job and dedicated to moving forward in her career at Datto.
The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.