The Goal Is to Be as Authentic as Possible: Mallory Mullen on Hiring, Growth, and Cross-Country Trips

Like many sales professionals, Mallory Mullen didn’t start out her career journey thinking she would be in sales. She saw herself in politics. That is where she began, first on the administrative side and then producing political events.

Event planning was a great fit for Mallory, but after a decade of producing events and spending the better part of 10 years living out of a suitcase, she decided to transition to a job that allowed her to stay in one place for more than a week at a time.

That’s when she considered getting into tech sales, and why not start with technology she was familiar with? In 2019, she joined Goodshuffle, which provides all-in-one software for event professionals. “I thought Goodshuffle would be a place that I’d be for a year or so, cut my teeth, and then go on to the big enterprise sales and make the big bucks,” she jokes. But Mallory fell in love with Goodshuffle, and Goodshuffle fell in love with her. She’s had several roles at the company and is now the associate director of sales.

HIRING ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO’S HIRING

When we ask Mallory if she’s had an opportunity to interact with her fellow Maestro Hall-of-Fame members, she tells us she’s in the process of hiring one of them. Hiring is clearly top-of-mind for her, and she knows exactly what she’s looking for. “Coachable, articulate, reflective, resilient, and organized,” she rattles off. “Those are the five that, after a lot of soul searching, I deemed to be most important across all sales roles.”

One of the most important things at Goodshuffle is having strong feedback loops, so Mallory has structured her hiring process to figure out who will enhance those feedback loops. “Feedback in all directions is a fundamental skill at Goodshuffle. I need to know that the wind won’t fall on your sails when receiving coaching from me, so I’ve set up my interview process to be feedback-rich. It’s a good litmus test in determining who can handle the feedback cycles here.”

Besides gauging how prospective hires will take in and act on feedback, Mallory says she’s assessing their sales acumen based on how well they’re selling themselves. “I’m judging your follow-up, how much you’re doing, outreach—all of these things. You’re selling yourself in the interview process. You are the product, so I’m gauging how well you sell yourself. How you handle my ‘buying’ process with you is how I assume you’ll handle our buying process with our prospects. And I’m surprised that some salespeople miss the fundamentalness of that. Even something as simple as a follow-up email after an interview—if I don’t get one, I’m thinking, ‘Is this something that you don’t practice in your own sales profession?’ It makes me second-guess your sales professionalism. All of those actions or inactions that you take during an interview I relate directly to your sales process.”

THE POWER OF KNOWING WHEN TO SLOW DOWN

When we asked Mallory to relate her hardest sales experience, she initially mentioned learning how to get into the buyer’s mindset. While she could have ended her answer there, she offered a second, more personal story—one that she thinks is important for people to hear. Mallory explained that, while she was a sales manager, she reached the point of feeling completely burned out. That’s when she made an uncommon choice, one that she wants to empower more people to make.

“I told my team I needed to take a step back and be an individual contributor for a while…In retrospect, I think a lot of people are scared to do those things in their careers because most folks wonder if they’ll recover from a step ‘backward.’ And, of course, I did too! But taking a step back really allowed me to reset personally and mentally and sharpen some of the skills that had gotten dull. So then flash forward to this year, and I was able to skip two steps ahead in my growth. Life isn’t always one step forward, two steps back!”

Mallory recognizes that this can be a scary choice and that she was fortunate to have a team around her that supported her, but she also says that if you aren’t with a team that will support you, maybe it’s not the right team.

TEACHING CUSTOMERS TO BE BETTER BUYERS

It might appear that Mallory is far away from her initial political aspirations, but it doesn’t seem so far once you better understand her approach to sales. “I view my role as a salesperson as one of helping my customers become better buyers.”

Mallory sees this as the role for everyone on her sales team. “I don’t expect my team to close every deal…hopefully our interests align, and that means Goodshuffle is a good choice for you. But if my team has done a good job of showcasing our value and how it can fix the pain point, and you ultimately decide that it’s not for you, it is what it is. We can’t make a prospect do anything. It’s one of the best lessons I’ve learned in my sales career.”

Teaching customers to be better buyers is a role Mallory takes to heart throughout the sales cycle beyond the initial pitch meeting. She is transparent with her clients and explains what the whole buying process is going to entail. And she has the most amazing metaphor for what it’s like for customers who aren’t given this courtesy. “We need to be clear on what this process is going to look like because otherwise, it’s like offering somebody to go on a cross-country trip with you, right? And you can either ask a lot of questions and take them on the journey that matches their needs or kidnap them, put them in the trunk, and ‘Surprise! Here we are at our destination!’ One of those is really fun for the passenger. The other? Not so much.”

I can’t help but point out here that much of Mallory’s outlook on sales and leadership isn’t just applicable to sales and leadership. Most of us would probably be better off if we applied them to our lives in general. “The goal is not to be liked by everyone,” she says. “The goal is to be as authentic as possible with the people who resonate with your message.” That really is the goal, isn’t it? Well, that, and don’t take people cross-country in your trunk.

Mallory is currently the Associate Director of Sales at Goodshuffle, an event and party rental software platform. You can learn more about Mallory here. Be sure to congratulate her while you’re there!