“Kevin played a pivotal role in my career from the time we met on a recruiting visit to WMU, he still helps mentor me to this day. The first thing I remember about Kevin was, he was willing to give me advice with no expectation of anything in return. Even after my initial interview with MSDSonline, where I did not get a job offer extended, he kept in touch. Kevin even helped me prepare for interviews with other companies. Kevin is truly a great leader. A major factor in reapplying to MSDSonline before graduation was the relationship I had built with Kevin. I wanted to learn as much as I could from him. Kevin has an amazing ability to tailor his message to his audience. If you have the opportunity to work for or with Kevin I would highly recommend it. ”
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As I embark on a new chapter in my career, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to Sphera. Working at Sphera has been an…
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Tutor
Cabrini Connections
- 1 year 1 month
Children
Cabrini Connections helps economically disadvantaged students succeed in high school & move on to college or a career. We do this by pairing the students with an adult tutor who supports their academic achievement and provides guidance in life skills.
Publications
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How MSDSonline Started
built in chicago
Before MSDSonline was the profitable, 200-employee company it is today, the founders were struggling to stay afloat. It was around 2000 when the founding team really hit a wall: they were down to their last $100,000 and were only hitting 30 software orders a day instead of the needed 150.
After realizing this theory didn’t quite work for them, the founding team took it upon themselves to hire a salesforce, a class of 10 temporary salespeople, to help tell the product’s story. But still…Before MSDSonline was the profitable, 200-employee company it is today, the founders were struggling to stay afloat. It was around 2000 when the founding team really hit a wall: they were down to their last $100,000 and were only hitting 30 software orders a day instead of the needed 150.
After realizing this theory didn’t quite work for them, the founding team took it upon themselves to hire a salesforce, a class of 10 temporary salespeople, to help tell the product’s story. But still “people weren’t buying the product at the scale we needed because the people coming to our site weren’t the decision makers.”
The one who stuck around was the one person in the class who was fresh out of school. His trustworthiness and realism sparked something for Trout, and within the next few months Trout added five similar people to the sales team.
Of those original five sales whizzes, three are still at MSDSonline: Kevin Sy (who is now Director of Sales), Melissa Nelli (who is now Enterprise Sales Director) and Annie Prues (who is the Regional Sales Manager of the Southeast today). Not only have each of these early employees grown into their own roles, but they have grown the sales team itself to about 120 currently.
After these successful sales hires, it still took a few more years and two funding rounds (raised ahead of growth) for MSDS to get profitable because “the goal was to keep growing, not getting to profitability,” Trout said.
Today, 85 percent of MSDSonline’s revenue is from the software offering that was originally so hard to sell before hiring what Trout calls the “five salespeople that helped save the company.”
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