Ivana Zivkovic Meesters is a Partner Account Manager at Cisco Systems, an organization that enables people to make powerful connections–whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Ivana works in channel sales, focusing primarily on building relationships with her sellers, leveraging those relationships, and constantly adapting new sales strategies and best practices. A nine-year veteran at Cisco, Ivana has worked diligently throughout her career to achieve excellence. When she first arrived at Cisco, one of her main goals was to achieve the Chairman’s Club. Within a short amount of time, she reached that goal by becoming one of the top one percent of sales professionals at Cisco, marking the proudest accomplishment of her career.
In this episode, Ivana goes into deep detail on the three specific attributes that have contributed to her success at Cisco. These include the three ‘Ps,’ perception, perseverance, and persistence. Ivana takes a friendly approach to building relationships both with her clients and her team. Often she will start off a meeting by breaking out some freshly baked cookies to get off on the right foot. It is this attention to detail and personal approach that has allowed Ivana to find sustained success. Ivana shares her thoughts on accountability, focus, and success and discusses some of the major sales influences in her career. She speaks to the value of sound leadership and a strong culture within an organization. Finally, Ivana shares her perspective on why it is important to hire people with varied backgrounds in sales. Coming from retail herself, she is a great example of someone who came from a different field and has found tremendous successful because of it.
Ivana describes a typical day in the life, from getting her family ready and out the door in a timely manner to time blocking thirty minutes every morning to act on urgent emails, to spending time with her daughter in the evenings doing arts and crafts, baking and watching movies. A self-described night owl, Ivana finds time nightly to open up the laptop and continue working. She finds that she gets her best work done when the email activity levels are low, the house is quiet, and she is free from distractions. Finally, Ivana provides an actionable challenge to the audience and one that resonates, even more, today given our increasingly virtual world. She invites you to reach out to the people in your network who you haven’t spoken to in a while and see how they are doing and what is happening in their lives. Invite them to a virtual happy hour or dinner. You never know what you could learn or how it could impact someone’s day in a positive way.
What We Covered:
00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, Alyce, Vidyard, and Terryberry
00:40 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Ivana Zivkovic Meesters
01:18 – The top three attributes that Ivana attributes to her success
01:37 – Number 1: Perception
01:52 – Number 2: Perseverance
02:06 – Number 3: Persistence
02:36 – Ivana expounds on her role at Cisco and Channel Sales in general
04:59 – Ivana’s sales origin story
09:39 – What Ivana would do differently if given the chance
11:34 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Alyce
12:11 – How Ivana leverages the relationships with the sellers she works with
14:35 – Ivana’s favorite sales success story
17:42 – How Ivana has adapted her sales strategies in this new virtual world
22:01 – Scott takes a moment to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Vidyard
22:43 – Ivana’s proudest accomplishment
24:13 – What drives and motivates Ivana
26:42 – Ivana speaks to the importance of building sound relationships with her partners
37:26 – The specific sales philosophy that Ivana subscribes to
40:03 – Ivana shares her thoughts on accountability, focus, and success
48:47 – The most significant influences in Ivana’s sales process
55:49 – Challenges and obstacles that Ivana struggles with
59:04 – Scott takes a moment to thank the final sponsor of today’s sponsors, Terryberry
59:57 – The value of leadership and culture within an organization
1:02:19 – Ivana provides a quick story of how knowledge-sharing led to success
1:08:21 – How Ivana prepares and structures her work week
1:13:11 – Ivana breaks down the sales goals she sets for herself
1:14:46 – Ivana describes a typical day in the life
1:24:24 – Tools and apps that Ivana uses on a daily basis
1:26:06 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Ivana consumes
1:28:01 – One of Ivana’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:29:09 – An average sales professional’s belief that Ivana thinks is crazy
1:30:06 – Advice Ivana would give to an upstart sales professional coming from a unique or different background
1:31:18 – Advice Ivana would give to a middle-of-the-pack salesperson looking for a breakthrough
1:32:41 – Ivana’s actionable challenge to the audience
1:34:19 – Scott takes a quick moment to promote the 2020 Sales Success Summit
Tweetables:
“I look at the solutions that Cisco offers and I actually look at what can we do? What is the thing that we’re selling actually there for overall? So, when I talk to my sales teams as a partner, I talk about the big picture. I talk about the outcomes and then work backward.” (08:08)
“I tend to be casual. I am big on relationships. I want to make sure that my partner is comfortable with me and everybody on the Account Team, from the VP down to the Order Ops person that I work with. It’s a spectrum, and you want to encourage personal relationships. And, that’s really why I’ve been successful.” (11:10)
“I’m all about having fun and making sales fun.” (18:29)
“The reality is, most partners have a myriad of vendors that they can sell. And, that’s why the relationship is so important. I care about them achieving their goals. I always say I have two year-ends. I have the Cisco year-end and I have my partners’ year-end.” (27:29)
“Happy people sell. Happy people will achieve their goals because they will work hard for it.” (37:13)
“I refuse to accept failure. Failure is not an option. We will succeed, it’s just a question of how far we will succeed.” (42:05)
“You have to put your hand up and you have to share ideas. Put yourself in the uncomfortable spot and live in the uncomfortable place because that’s where you grow.” (1:01:10)
“I find I get my best work done at night. The house is quiet, the emails aren’t coming in, my phones not ringing, and I can actually get stuff done.” (1:21:25)
“I think that looking to people with varied backgrounds is important. I think they bring a lot. I think I’m a great example. And I could tell you about countless others who have come from different fields and have been really successful because of it.” (1:29:51)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
Sales Success Stories Podcast
2020 Sales Success Summit
Ivana’s LinkedIn
Ted Talks YouTube Channel
Sponsors Mentioned:
Outreach
Vidyard
Terryberry
Alyce
Books Mentioned:
The Challenger Sale
Lean In
Thriftbooks – Dan Brown
Thriftbooks – Patricia Cornwell
Thriftbooks – Anne Perry