People of Motive: Denise Grove, Manager Enterprise Sales Engineering

Denise has been at Motive for over two years, bringing a wealth of experience and industry knowledge to our team. With her strong work ethic, positive attitude, and dedication to customer satisfaction, she plays a vital role in the growth of Motive. Learn more about Denise and what it’s like to work with her.

What motivated you to join the sales organization at Motive?

Before Motive, I was working for a competitor and developed an appreciation for the impact of our customers’ work. Part of my job is to keep an eye on current and upcoming competitors, and the more I learned about Motive, the more I believed that the direction and innovation coming out of Motive would make them a leader in the space. I wanted to be a part of it!

Why did you choose a career in sales at Motive?

I wanted to play for a team that could win. The ability to sell a solution that can save lives and money simultaneously is icing on the cake in helping me feel like what I do matters. What has kept me here these last 2.5 years is that sales at Motive are indeed a team sport. I work daily with competent and collaborative people who are enabled to continuously drive us forward from a go-to-market, product, and enablement and support perspective to help us earn prospect’s business with the confidence we can deliver on our promises. If the tables were turned and I was evaluating a solution for my fleet, I would select Motive.

What does it mean to be an Enterprise seller at Motive?

In Enterprise, we are involved in the company’s largest, most complex and most strategic sales opportunities. We need to be aware that we are representing ourselves and Motive overall to some of the largest companies in the world.

That means you have to bring your A-game to every interaction. 90% of our work is not in front of the prospect to ensure that happens. Success in this space is achieved as a team. We have amazing people across many areas of our business that are integral to our success.

How do Account Executives and Sales Engineers partner throughout the sales cycle?

The collaboration between Account Executives (AE’s) and Sales Engineers (SE’s) leverages the AE’s business acumen and the SE’s technical expertise to effectively identify, engage, and convert prospects into satisfied customers. We ensure the sales process is comprehensive by working together from RFI to discovery, demo, POC, and RFP. We address both the business and technical aspects to attain a win for the company and a happy, referenceable customer after implementation.

What does a typical day in your role look like?

No two days look the same. The two primary things I do are manage the team and support AE/SE teams on significant opportunities. We’ve grown rapidly recently, and ensuring we get up to speed and scale appropriately is my focus.

What’s the most rewarding part of your career at Motive and why?

The most rewarding part for me (in addition to the gratification of being a meaningful contributor to driving new business to Motive) is seeing our customers turn into raving fans. Before Motive, I had never scrolled through LinkedIn and found (unsolicited) a promotion of us from someone I sold to. It’s happened multiple times at Motive. It’s particularly gratifying when they were a skeptical prospect initially.

What is the most significant benefit for you in choosing a career in sales?

From a pragmatic perspective, my career in sales helps me support my family. Intrinsically, being interested in the people I talk to, the problems they are trying to solve, and coming up with ways we can solve those problems and deliver value to them motivates me to try to be better every day.

What are three qualities that you think have led to your success on our Enterprise team?

For me specifically, curiosity converts to empathy, collaboration, and being obsessive about how we can exceed prospect expectations in every way possible.

Best advice you’ve received?

A coworker told me, “The days are long, but the years are short”, soon after I had my first child. That comment pops into my head quite frequently and makes me reframe today from the perspective of looking back on a lifetime. It helps me realize that sometimes what seems like the little things at the moment are actually important. I can consciously be more present for those things.

Today, our team is made up of more than 3,000 amazing employees like Denise, located all across the world. Interested in working with insightful team members like Denise? Visit our careers site to learn more about our open roles at Motive.