Good Things Come to Those Who Hustle

Name: Danielle Perkins
Role: Business Development Executive
Location: Cincinnati
Joined Sogeti: March 2018

Sogeti offered me a chance to break into the rapidly growing IT space, which was very appealing to me. The world is becoming more digital, so the chance to go deeper and develop breakthrough innovations in marketing was exactly what I wanted. 

In fact, one of the reasons I switched from market research to IT was to broaden my understanding of this field, and Sogeti has absolutely enabled that.  We have unparalleled access to resources and training—and let’s be honest, when you’re on the hook to sell these innovative technological solutions, you need to make sure you know what you’re talking about! Since I work across all the practices, there’s been LOTS to learn, but luckily there are plenty of experts to help me along the way. 

Change is always hard, especially when you’re moving to a field that requires quite a bit of technical knowledge. But I had a feeling that Sogeti was the place for me.

What really sealed the deal for me though was the personality of our team—we are energetic, hardworking, scrappy, agile people, and I’m proud to be a part of this group. It was a perfect fit right from the start, and my first day started with a bang. It was the week of our sales training where business development executives (BDEs) from across the country came together with practice leadership and partners to talk about capabilities and win strategies.  I was able to network quickly with others like me—and even picked up a peer mentor that week.

In my role as a BDE, it’s my job to talk to clients about what we do, and I get energized by that. I once had a colleague tell me that working with me was like strapping on a jet pack – and I love that! I’m high energy and a natural conversationalist, so I love hearing about our clients’ businesses problems and then working with our incredibly smart team to develop solutions to those problems. I love being a problem solver and one of the great things about being in sales is that the goals are so clearly defined and measured.

I’m talking to one of the brands at my client about developing an app that would help you identify areas of your home that need to be cleaned and recommend products.  In today’s market, technology that enables personalization and just-in-time recommendations can be very powerful. And it’s amazing that I get to see the ROI on these kinds of projects and hear from clients how our solutions have impacted their business.

I have a plaque in my office that reads ‘Good things come to those who hustle’ - and I live by that every day.  That’s not to say you need to be a workaholic, but rather you need to bring energy, excitement, and urgency to everything you do. And that is definitely something I try to do every day.