coloradobiz.

com
MAY | JUNE 2019
Volume 46, No. 03
A WiesnerMedia Publication
$3.95

Colorado’s
MOST POWERFUL
MAY/JUNE 2019

2019
Top Salespeople

MOST
P OW ERFUL
SALESPEOPLE
Nine standouts driving
business on the front lines 
BY MIKE TAYLOR

C
oloradoBiz introduced the “Most Pow-
erful Salespeople” feature 10 years ago
in the midst of the Great Recession. It
was an acknowledgment in those bleak
times that the path out of the doldrums, while de-
pendent on factors seemingly beyond the reach of
any individual, ultimately would be led by the people
who drive nearly all businesses: salespeople.
Times are good now, but the role of the sales
professional — often well-paid, but just as often
overlooked outside their industry or company — is
no less vital. So we’re back with our “Most Powerful
Salespeople” for a third time. The 2019 sales stand-
outs were selected by our editorial board from nomi-
nations submitted over several months on Colorado-
biz.com, based on sales performance, persistence
demonstrated in achieving or surpassing sales
goals, and factors such as challenges surmounted or
indications of exceptional effort to get deals done.
Along with their accomplishments, the insights
these salespeople share about their work reflect the
noble and often difficult calling they’ve undertaken
to bring people, businesses, products and services
together.

30 ColoradoBiz | COLORADOBIZ.COM | MAY/JUNE 2019
Top Salespeople
AJETA SINHA, 33
SENIOR VP OF STRATEGIC RELA-
TIONSHIPS, NET2SOURCE
Net2source.com
Sinha has been a key player for Net2Source, a
global workforce management company, since
she became VP of sales in 2015. In the past
three years, she has helped grow revenue from
$15 million to $35 million for the company,
which was founded in 2007. Last year, her
sales revenue topped $50 million, an increase
of $15 million over the previous year.
“For me, sales is all about being passion-
ate, being different, partnering, adding value;
building life-long relationships, being a part of
something meaningful that challenges me to
push my limits,” Sinha says. “The ‘one-size-fits-
all’ approach is no longer acceptable, and every
day you have to strive to be better than you
were yesterday. That can only happen when
you are open to learning and embracing new
things. I learned from experience that leading
with empathy is the best way to attain success
in business, and by cultivating and advocating
a culture that prioritizes the human element,
you can truly make a difference.”
How has the sales profession been impacted
by the internet and greater access to informa-
tion that customers now have?
“In today’s world, Google has become every
salesperson’s best friend. Technology has made
us more aware and informed, and by and large
shrunken the boundaries by providing infor-
mation at the fingertips. Customers have more
choices, more autonomy to make decisions.
These days, decisions are much more calcu-
lated and focused on value addition. If you are
not convinced, you cannot convince others.”
FAVORITE SALES BOOK:
“Life is a tough teacher, and it’s an ongo-
ing learning process. My best lessons are
learned from my experiences, decisions made,
mistakes. I strongly advocate learning from
people, environment, situations, hardships,
blunders. They teach you to be stronger, wiser
34 ColoradoBiz | COLORADOBIZ.COM | MAY/JUNE 2019
and smarter. No school, no college, no book can
impart the toughest lessons life teaches you. I
am an avid reader, and most of my time is spent
reading articles from HBR (Harvard Business
Review) or Forbes or LinkedIn postings.”
BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT SALES:
“It’s a long-time persistence paying off even-
tually. No one is born a successful salesperson.
The success you see or hear about is just the
tip of the iceberg. Beneath lies the endless
hours of hard work, sleepless nights, unbear-
able rejections, undying patience and dusting
yourself off after every defeat. The misconcep-
tion is that a successful salesperson is always
successful, or you can close deals on one call,
that there is a secret recipe to cracking deals,
or it’s just about luck always. Many times it
boils down to perfect ‘timing,’ which people
think of as luck. If the time is right, people can
pay extra to get a resolution to their problem.
You just have to keep an eye on connecting
when the timing is right.”
TYLER MURPHY, 36
DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
& MANAGED SERVICES,
PROOFPOINT
Proofpoint.com
In his role with Proofpoint, a publicly traded
cloud cyber security company, Murphy has
worked with a small team to develop and
expand a new global MSP (managed service
provider) partner program. Focused on stra-
tegic partnerships that can each deliver tens
of millions of dollars annually, Murphy has
worked to execute agreements, manage rela-
tionships and develop go-to-market strategies
with a “who’s who” list of global Tier-1 MSPs
and systems integrators.
“My favorite part of being in sales is seeing
a partnership and business plan that I have
developed transform and differentiate the go-
to-market strategy for my business partners,”
Murphy says. “To develop and enable a new
global strategic partnership from scratch takes
significant resources and cross-functional col-
laboration. Being able to then stand back and
watch those efforts transform into a flourish-
ing business is incredibly rewarding.”
FAVORITE SALES BOOK:
“Secrets of Question-Based Selling,” by
Thomas Freese. “When you ask the right
questions, you uncover genuine needs. Having
this understanding then allows you to position
relevant solutions that align with the custom-
er’s goals and solve tangible business prob-
lems. I have found this technique to be one of
the most effective ways to differentiate myself
from my competitors.”
BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT YOUR
WORK:
“I travel frequently, but I also work from home.
I think my friends and family sometimes
confuse that with vacationing and working
very little. In reality, I do visit some interesting
places and have quite a bit of flexibility, but I
also work significantly more than they proba-
bly imagine.”
ARE SALESPEOPLE BORN OR MADE?
“Early in my sales career, a mentor said to me,
‘I can mold a tiger, but I cannot create one. I
cannot teach passion.’ All things being equal,
everyone prefers to buy from the people they
like. I think building rapport with a stranger
quickly is easier if you have natural passion
and an extroverted demeanor. Personally, I
had my first business cards in third grade so
my neighbors could contact me to buy more of
the homemade products that I would sell them
door-to-door.”