Jess Pashos

I am a sales coach and consultant who specifically focuses on making sales teams and cultures more inclusive for all – especially women. I am the founder of Project Athena Consulting and the Sales Director for indie Travel.

After reading countless articles and studies about the lack of women in sales leadership roles, I experienced such first hand while supporting an organisation in their sales executive recruiting process – every single external applicant was a male except for two. I realised that a much more proactive approach was needed, and that I was the right person for the job.

expertise:

Sales

tagline:

Growing the experiences industry

location:

Boston, USA

Describe Alt Marketing School in one word

Game-changing

What’s an underrated tool indispensable for your business?

Airtable – many describe it as just another Google Excel. Still, if you really dig into it, there are many ways to stay organised, track success, and save time formatting the same information differently. It’s been a lifesaver.

What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out?

Keep building upon your foundation. As I mentioned before, there is no one size fits all approach. I was a field hockey goalie and had a coach tell me in college that during practice, she would teach me all the skills that I needed to know, but come game time, I would never be perfect, but as long as the ball didn’t enter the net, that didn’t matter.

I took this to heart at the time, but it wasn’t until several years in the business world that I learned that it also applies to business. Learn as much as possible, but when game time hits, go with your gut to get the job done as effectively as possible.

You only have 5 minutes to yourself. What do you do?

Use my foam roller or do some posture exercises. I don’t have the best posture and often find myself sitting at my desk all day (try to stand too!!), so I take time between meetings to readjust my back a bit!

What is one challenge are you glad you experienced?

I was given feedback early on in my time as a manager by my manager. It seemed as though I wasn’t being practical or adding value to my organisation at the time.

In reality, I had been receiving a ton of positive feedback from my peers and those who I was managing about how much I was supporting them and helping them increase their own sales.

I learned the balance between helping and supporting others while still advocating for myself. In fact, I took this as a challenge and immediately started several campaigns. Those added a ton of sales value to my organisation. I quickly picked up my productivity to the point where I received a promotion into a new vertical shortly after that.

What have you learned since taking the certification?

I was a bit all over the place going into Alt Marketing School. I was in the middle of a career change and about to move back to the USA from the Netherlands, where I lived for four years. In fact, I had many different ideas about what I wanted to do next, but nowhere to channel them. I was a bit nervous about returning to an educational setting but knew I wanted to learn something new since I had felt a bit stagnant for a while.

At Alt Marketing, we had a sales session that ended up being my “a-ha!” moment. We discussed the overlap between sales and marketing, and during our breakout sessions, the “used car salesperson” approach came up.

This propelled me into my idea for Project Athena Consulting and allowed me to focus my approach. I knew I wanted to focus on changing sales culture for the better, starting with sales training.

How did the course support you in making marketing systems better?

I had been on a self-education journey for a while – trying to up my game and learn new skills. But attending the Alt Marketing certification laid all concepts out in an easy-to-understand way and often suggested tools to help make things easier along the way.

I’ve worked on a few different projects since. I have applied most marketing systems to my organisation (some launched, some have not). As such, I have linked more marketing concepts to my sales approach, which is especially important as I have been focusing on SMB lead generation and outreach.

Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration

I have been working to grow and train sales teams in SaaS for nearly a decade. My focus lies in using a team’s power to help each individual grow their unique skill set. Ultimately, my mission is to inspire more women to follow a career in sales while eliminating the “sales stigma” that sometimes follows those pursuing a sales profession.

highlights

Growing up, I always had a routine based on fitness. After college, I joined CrossFit and even became a coach.

HAVING A FITNESS ROUTINE ALLOWS ME TO FEEL HEALTHY GET UNNECESSARY ENERGY OUT SO THAT WHEN I’M AT MY DESK, I’M FOCUSED AND READY TO GO!

“Control the controllable”.My high school field hockey coach was the person who passed this on to me.Ever since it’s been the foundation for what I do.

let’s be friends