It’s 2019, and a common trope is that automation and technology are job-killers. These fears are particularly prevalent in the sales world. Technology has changed the traditional buying process, and a common line of reasoning goes: “there is no need for traditional salespeople - or any salespeople - in a world where buyers can do research online and have their questions answered by bots.” Analogous arguments exist in almost every profession.

Far less discussed are the countless numbers of jobs being enabled by new technology every day. While these are often overlooked in broader discussions about the future of work, they are sharply in focus at Bandalier, because many important elements of our organization’s sales processes and culture could not have existed in the same form even a decade ago.

Our inside sales teams have conducted sales calls from Binghamton, NY on behalf of clients based in places as far away as Australia and the Philippines. A suite of software tools developed in the last few years makes our work immeasurably easier, from internal communications to collecting and analyzing data.

• Outreach.io (created in 2013) allows us to standardize e-mail and call cadences and record calls so our clients can get direct transparency into what’s happening on the phones.

 

• We use Periscope Data (created in 2012) to present our clients with real-time analytics on their program’s performance against an index of other Bandalier clients.

 

• Zoom's video conferencing software (created in 2011) allows us to communicate seamlessly with our clients as well as internally as a team on work from home days. This technology virtually connects our inside sales teams together with their counterparts in client HQs, to create a seamless extension of a client’s in-house team. This tool also enables our team to be flexible and helps to facilitate several work-from-home days each month.

 

• Like many growing companies, we use Slack (created in 2009) to communicate internally. We provide updates in a ‘stand-up’ channel and celebrate wins in ‘the_gong’ channel. But Slack also allows us to communicate with our clients through multi-org channels, enabling them to provide real-time feedback and share in our (their!) success when demos are scheduled.

 

• Zapier (created in 2011) allows us to automatically update clients (and their CRMs) with lead information when demos are booked.

Certainly, it’s true that tools like these have eliminated certain types of work--generally, mundane tasks salespeople used to dread (for instance, putting data into spreadsheets, or manually dialing numbers). Using these technologies, our employees are free to focus on higher-level work that is far more likely to generate results (for instance, researching client websites and Linkedin profiles before reaching out, and then tailoring their pitches accordingly)--and more difficult to replace with bots.

One decade ago it may have been hard for a sales manager at a growing tech company to wrap their head around using an inside sales team based thousands of miles away in a small city in upstate New York. They might have asked questions like: “how will we know they are actually working?” or “how will I provide them with feedback the way I could with an in-house team?” These tools have given us great answers to these questions, allowing Bandalier to create economic opportunity in parts of the country where start-ups and jobs in tech are usually harder to find.

​It’s hard to believe Zachary Gaskill has only been at Bandalier for one year. He first walked into our office at Koffman Southern Tier Incubator for an interview on a cold wintry day last February.

“The first thing that attracted me to Bandalier was the word ‘start-up’. You don’t hear that word too much in Binghamton, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to help a company grow.”

Zach started out part-time, a student at Binghamton University with a background in Business Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Yet it wasn’t long before Zach was promoted.

“I made my first couple of calls and I was super nervous, but then I found some success, and once I graduated from B.U. they wanted me to stay and be full time. They pushed me up into a managerial role after just 4 months at the company”

As an Associate Sales Manager, Zach has the responsibility of not only handling his own clients but making sure everyone else in the office is supported and productive.

“A typical day is a lot of work, it’s a lot of fun though.  You can be very creative here and think outside the box. Making calls, writing emails, training. It’s a lot but it’s well worth it.”

His favorite thing about working at Bandalier?

“Probably the opportunity for quick growth within the company. You know if you work hard, if you think outside the box, if you can come up with new concepts and policies for Bandalier, we love that kind of stuff.”

As one of the first employees, Zach has seen the growth that this mindset helps to promote.

Hired as Bandalier’s fifth full-time team member, Zach has had a front-row seat as the company has grown to over 35 people since. 

“We actually grew out of our first office which was pretty cool. And then we moved into a huge new space, and seeing the space almost full now is pretty amazing. It’s a really good thing to see a company growing so quickly.”
Zach takes particular pride in the company’s unique approach to lead generation.

“I think any salesperson will tell you that their favorite thing is getting the sale.  But I actually really like the human interaction, I really like making it feel not like a sales call but more like a conversation. I really like getting people interested in things that can actually help them. And that’s why I like Bandalier compared to your legacy call center or inside sales organization.”

When he’s not at work, Zach turns his talents from the art of sales to the art of poetry. A writer since the age of 12, Zach has published and sold many poems and songs through the years.

“My most recent publication was the 2019 Winter Edition of The Courtship of the Wind.  It was a poem called Love’s Ouroboros, basically about how you keep going around in circles, like a love and love-lost poem. My writing has evolved completely, and it’s pretty amazing to see your work published.”

Just as he brings his creative mindset and writing skills to his job at Bandalier, Zach is able to bring the lessons he learns on the job to everything he does. To him, sales is more than just an occupation: it is quite literally a way of life.

“I’ve realized that sales isn’t just a job. Everyone is doing sales.  You’re selling yourself to your employer, to your coworkers, to your friends and family every day. You’re selling yourself to literally everyone, every time you interact with a human. I didn’t realize that sales really is basically just human interaction. It’s very funny when you think about it…we’re all salespeople.”

A first-generation American and native of New York City, Jeremy Ruch founded Bandalier in 2017 to connect growing tech companies in urban hubs with talent situated in other parts of the country. Prior to starting Bandalier, Jeremy was the second hire at a FinTech start-up, Bond Street, and an associate at Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. He graduated Duke with a major in public policy.

What inspired Bandalier?
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"It was really a combination of two things; One was the fact that I experienced the problem we’re trying to solve first-hand at Bond Street when I was building a sales team. It was amazingly difficult to hire for these roles--expensive to fill them in New York City, an incredibly competitive market with lots of startups hiring for the same roles. I would have been a user of Bandalier myself had it existed at the time, and I spoke to lots of start-up veterans who felt the same way.

The other was the realization that we had the opportunity to employ thousands of Americans in areas where access to opportunities in tech isn’t necessarily widespread. That felt like a problem worth solving."

Favorite thing about working at a startup?

“My favorite thing has got to be watching the company and its people grow. I enjoy being able to work with my team to decide on the type of environment and culture we want to develop. I even love the basic things; Bandalier moving into a larger office space, for example. I love seeing people develop new skills and grow professionally as well. If you look at a startup relative to any larger company, people take on new roles much more quickly. At a startup, you’re given more responsibility rapidly. A company changes significantly more quickly when it’s in that “startup phase” than any other stage and I enjoy watching that and being a part of it.”

What has this experience taught you?

“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned--which is probably obvious to most people--is that people are incredibly complex. At the end of the day the ultimate success or failure of any business, especially a company like Bandalier, is the people. The processes that we put in place and the culture that we incubate rely heavily on our employees.

When you start a business you think about things in a very linear and structured way; ‘Okay, we’re going to do this, this, and this. We’re going to hire students and recent grads and we’re going to have a process by which people can go and work for our clients. We’re going to have this clear path of upward mobility and growth.’

We’ve been fortunate in that a lot of it has worked exactly the way that we thought it would. But it’s also true that everyone is totally different and motivated by completely different things. So even though we want our structure to work for 100 percent of our employees, realistically, it only works for 80 percent. Maybe that other 20 percent are motivated by something completely different. So the challenge is figuring out how to accommodate for the other 20 percent and present them with the same opportunities for motivation and growth.”

Why choose Binghamton over any other city?

“When I first had the idea for Bandalier, I explored lots of different cities I thought made sense as a venue to prototype Bandalier’s business model. The cities I looked at all had one thing in common; they all had very large pools of fresh talent and they all had growing tech scenes. What I found special about Binghamton was the passion for revitalization. I heard a lot about this desire to cultivate the same sense of energy and growth that existed a few decades back when IBM was headquartered here. Not to mention, I met incredibly talented sales leaders like Matt Scanlon who has his home here and is dedicated to raising his family in Binghamton. I think there’s a false perception among many growing tech companies that the only place they can find talent is in tech hubs like New York City and San Francisco.  We’re showing that this simply is not the case--it’s 2018, and we can help them identify and deploy sales talent all over the country in places they might never otherwise have looked."

Where do you see yourself in five years?

“In short, I hope we’ve stayed true to our mission of creating A New American Workplace where we’re connecting people all over the country who are really talented with tech companies that can use their services. I’d like to expand to cities besides Binghamton, and also see us eventually providing services besides customer service and sales.

My dream is a world where somebody can walk into one of our offices with a resume and say ‘Here; this is my skill-set.’ and we can help match them to a company, or several companies, that can use their talents."

What motivates you? What’s your drive?

"What motivates me most, honestly, is watching the process of people growing; growing their skill sets and watching them learn how to be successful in sales. One moment that always gets me excited is when an employee gets their first closed demo. To me, that means that somebody came in here, maybe having little to no sales experience, and now we’ve just given them a skill that won’t only allow them to grow at Bandalier but will also prove extremely useful irrespective of how their career evolves.”

If you could say one thing to people thinking about starting their own business, what would it be?

“Make sure you care about what you’re doing. That’s absolutely the most important thing. We’ve gotten really lucky in a bunch of ways--we’ve been fortunate to build a great team and we’re targeting a growing market successfully. Yet there are so many things that you have to put up with; so many things that can go wrong and at any given time can seem impossibly complicated. However, what has kept me going is the genuine belief that Bandalier is adding value to the world. If I didn’t believe that, it’d be very easy to walk away. I think that fundamental belief that your business matters, no matter how small it is or how significant the hurdles may seem is essential.”

Meet Jeremy and the rest of the team while developing your sales skills! Apply at Bandalier today.
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A special welcome to our new Director of Client Delivery, Anton Arnoldine. Profile coming soon!