Episode 126: Attentive's Jenn Zhou is a Long Term Optimist and a Short Term Pessimist

Jennifer Zhou is the top Senior Account Executive at Attentive, a personalized text messaging platform built for innovative e-commerce brands. Attentive is the most comprehensive text message marketing solution, driving 18.5% of total online revenue for businesses by creating thoughtful SMS experiences. Jenn is an accomplished and knowledgeable sales professional who knows how to be effective and intentional in everything she does.

In this episode, Jenn talks about her sales origin story and expounds on her role and sales results at Attentive. Jenn lists the three traits she attributes to her success. These include self-love and confidence, organization, and having a mindset of taking personal responsibility. Jenn is a big believer in taking advantage of every opportunity you’re lucky enough to be given in work and life. This thoughtful approach is how she’s been able to achieve sustained success throughout her career.

Jenn continues by taking the audience through a typical day in the life. She starts her day every morning at 6:00 am with either a run or a Barry’s Bootcamp workout. After that, she dives into her emails so she can reply to any urgent requests before she’s in all-day calls and meetings. At the end of the day, she likes to unwind with a good sales book or autobiography (her current favorite is Matthew McConaughey’s Green Lights). Jenn provides advice to sales professionals who are just starting out and those who might have experience but are struggling to achieve their desired results. Finally, Jenn provides an actionable challenge to the audience. Jenn’s challenge is for listeners to take one hour each day to create a habit or routine that can be utilized in times where you might not feel so motivated. In building this foundation daily, Jenn is certain it will set you up for long-term success.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott thanks the sponsors of today’s episode, QuotaPath, Outreach, and Gong
00:38 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, Jenn Zhou
00:58 – The top three things that Jenn attributes to her success
01:07 – Number 1: Self-love and confidence
02:55 – The Five-Second Rule explained
03:17 – Number 2: Organization
04:21 – Number 3: Having a mindset of taking personal responsibility
05:43 – Jenn speaks to her introvert-extrovert personality
07:01 – Jenn expounds on her role at Attentive
09:52 – Scott takes a moment to thank the newest sponsor of Sales Success Stories, QuotaPath, and let’s listeners know that they’re hiring!
10:32 – Jenn’s sales results
11:24 – Jenn’s sales origin story
13:59 – What Jenn would do differently in her career if given the chance
16:13 – The transition from SDR to Account Executive
17:57 – Jenn takes the audience through a typical day in the life
19:36 – Other habits and routines that are crucial to Jenn’s success
23:15 – The books, news, podcasts and trade information that Jenn consumes
26:30 – Jenn’s tech stack
30:54 – Jenn’s sales style and philosophy
32:38 – What the typical sales process looks like for Jenn
36:15 – What motivates and drives Jenn
38:24 – One of Jenn’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
39:07 – Why Jenn loves to hear ‘No’
41:12 – An average sales professional’s belief that Jenn thinks is crazy
41:34 – Scott takes a moment to thank another of today’s sponsors, Outreach
44:28 – The Matthew Principle explained
46:16 – Jenn’s prospecting process
48:00 – Advice Jenn would give to an upstart sales professional
51:40 – Jenn explains how she made more money as an SDR than most enterprise AEs
54:00 – Advice Jenn would give to a struggling, middle-of-the-pack sales professional
55:46 – Scott takes a moment to thank the final sponsor of today’s episode, Gong
57:00 – Scott promotes the upcoming Sales Success Summit
59:01 – Jenn speaks to what she would like to learn from top sellers in other organizations
1:00:09 – Scott shares his own personal ‘Why’
1:02:28 – Final thoughts from Jenn
1:02:51 – Jenn’s actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“You don’t change your circumstance by complaining about it, but more so by doing what you can to change your situation.” (04:59)

“Every once in a while you’re given an opportunity that you probably don’t deserve, for lack of a better word, but take it and work really hard and give it your best shot.” (16:58)

“I think that when you’re happy in other areas of your life, that translates to success in the workplace as well.” (23:06)

“The cool thing about text message marketing as a channel is it’s performance marketing. So you can see exactly how many people clicked the link from the text message that made a purchase.” (33:56)

“The most crazy thing that I think is I love ‘No.’ ‘Yes’ is easy. ‘No’ is ok you fell short somewhere and now you can get better and figure out why ‘No’ is a ‘No.’ And it’s more satisfying when you turn a ‘No’ into a ‘Yes.’” (38:33)

“I only sell to people that I know are really gonna love and thrive off of this particular solution.” (1:01:57)

Episode 126: Attentive’s Jenn Zhou is a Long Term Optimist and a Short Term Pessimist

What We Covered:

Tweetables:

Links Mentioned:

Sponsors Mentioned:

Podcasts Mentioned:

Books Mentioned:

Tools Mentioned: