More Than a Sales Executive - Mary O’Kane

Tell us about your role at Decision Time.

I am a Sales Executive for Decision Time. We offer software governance solutions, mainly in regulated sectors. I deal with sectors like Irish healthcare, state agencies, and financial services, which include primarily credit unions, the insurance industry and the pensions sector.

Describe a typical day working at Decision Time.

On a typical day, we as a sales team meet at 8:30 every morning for a run-through of what we did the day before, not to look over the shoulder or from an accountability perspective, but a great way to share any problems you've been having. The meetings are also a great way to learn more from one another and share knowledge and experiences you've had.

After that, I go straight on to following up on any of the tasks in the pipeline, I will also do some outbound work as well. As a sales executive, I do a lot of demonstrations of the software to prospective customers which can be either in the morning or the afternoon.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I'm a very sports-orientated person, so I'm competitive by nature for anyone who knows me already. I suppose for a competitive person, being in a sales role like this is good because you put in the hard work. It's no different to the sport you play, put in the hard work and you will get the results.

For me, what I enjoy the most is being able to help people. It's satisfying when you know that you genuinely sold something that people will use regularly, and it's going to help make their job easier.

What are the biggest challenges of your role?

The biggest challenge definitely has to be speaking to the right people. Not everybody knows how good the software is and that they need it to help their organisation. It's like anything in life, you don't know you need it until you have it and then you think, “how did I ever manage without this?” The way the world is evolving, I suppose It's only natural to be afraid of change and of something new. But you just have to jump into it and keep an open mind.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I've mentioned earlier that I do a lot of sports. I have been playing an Irish sport called Camogie since I was nine years old. Just any sport at all, I love watching darts, snooker, you name it I'm there. I have three sons who are all in Australia at the minute. My youngest son who is 21, went to Australia a few weeks back. Although I miss them, I know that they're having a great life there, so it's just the real boss and me now at home!

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