Lori Jiménez on Listening, Sales Leadership and Retention

In this 2023 quickfire interview, WorkRamp chief revenue officer Lori Jiménez answers Harry Stebbings’ questions about sales, leadership and customer retention. Her answers reflect her experience and judgment.

Jiménez says good listening, connecting with a buyer and responding with value remain central to selling, even as tactics change.

She observes that mandatory in-person visits have become less common as teams learn what they can accomplish remotely. She does not claim that in-person meetings have disappeared.

A founder hiring a sales leader should align expectations about what the company can achieve. Without a shared understanding, Jiménez says, the founder and the leader can start with incompatible goals.

For a new sales leader, she recommends spending the first 90 days learning the business and joining customer calls, then revisiting those assumptions with the context gained. Learning should continue beyond the first quarter.

Jiménez would like to see more women in senior sales leadership. She acknowledges progress during her career while arguing that continued attention is needed.

As an example of a sales process she admires, she describes a recent purchase of customer-success software from Vitally: clear communication before the sale and continued attention during implementation afterward. This is her account of one customer experience.