Brian Via on reimagining sales
For recent graduate Brian Via,
a first job at Dropbox gives sales new meaning
Brian Via graduated from the University of Virginia and joined Dropbox Austin’s inbound sales team as an account executive. Here he describes his daily workflow in the context of the Austin office culture.
Why did you choose to work at Dropbox?
It’s so rare to find a company that will truly jump-start your career and is filled with such hard-working, intelligent, compassionate, and successful people who are so down-to-earth and friendly.
What do you do as an account executive?
The majority of my day is centered towards client interaction — chats with potential clients, phone calls, follow up emails, and sending resources. Our goal is to bring Dropbox for Business to customers who would benefit from its services, and demonstrate just how much Dropbox will change the way they do business in a positive way.
Every day I feel like I’m learning something new, and every day there are new challenges that push me. We interface with clients from every background imaginable, and with personalities all across the spectrum. You’re exposed to diverse scenarios, and you gain a better understanding of the product, its applications, and the people who depend on it everyday.
I love being part of such a dynamic team — we all support and push one another, and it’s allowed us to reach some pretty significant goals in a very short time here.
What makes doing sales at Dropbox unique?
The fact that it completely shatters every expectation and stereotype of sales. I know when I heard the word “sales” I often thought of someone who ignores the needs of a customer and simply pushes a sale. Yes, we do sell Dropbox, but we take a consultative approach and really strive to understand the client, their problems and needs, and assess how Dropbox can solve those problems.
We work with a variety of clients every day that cover the spectrum of size, area of expertise and value. One minute you’re dealing with a non-profit team of five, the next minute a multinational corporation is on the other side — it’s incredibly exciting. It teaches you a lot very quickly — you learn how to handle all different types of customers and situations.
How would you describe your sales team?
Our team is like one big family. All of the new hires that came in together really bonded, and we rely on each other every day. That kind of strength and bond makes us incredibly effective at closing deals as a team. That’s the result of an incredible on-boarding process and the investment of so many experienced Dropboxers into our growth and development, as well as the hard work of our amazing team leads.
What’s the culture like in the Austin office?
Everyone is incredibly smart and driven, but also friendly and especially helpful. There’s a very strong sense of camaraderie and friendship, everyone knows everyone, and there’s an exciting vibe throughout the office.
Every day there’s something new. It’s exciting and humbling to play a part in building such an incredible new office and to help build an even greater company.
What have some of your favorite moments been?
One of my favorite moments would have to be a team event where we went out to Top Golf, a really neat driving range, to celebrate hitting our team goal our first month at the company. Everyone poured so much into making sure we could do our jobs effectively, and when we did, they were there again to celebrate it and show their support.
Another great moment occurred this past week when our CEO, Drew, came to visit the Austin office. He spent so much time with us, stopping at every table for dinner, telling some awesome stories, and passing on some priceless insight. It really was an incredible experience, a great learning opportunity, and really excited everyone in the office to know that he took time to come out and really recognizes the amazing things the Austin office is doing.
What surprised you about Dropbox?
I kept anticipating a “bad part” of the deal or a downside, but I can’t find any! It just doesn’t seem possible that anyone could have a first job as amazing as this, but we really are that fortunate.I don’t know of many other places where employees look for reasons to stay in the office and spend time with the people they work with — it’s truly remarkable.
In my experience there aren’t many places that will invest so much in your development as a young professional, while also creating such a warm and enjoyable environment.
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The Dropbox sales team is hiring. We’d love for you to join us.
