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Interview With Kevin Mulrane, Feedvisor’s VP Global Sales

We interviewed Kevin Mulrane, Feedvisor’s new VP of global sales, to talk about his move to Feedvisor, his love of sports, and his vision for the company. By Keren Halperin August 4, 2017
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About the Author

Keren is the VP of People at Feedvisor. She has over 15 years of comprehensive experience in organizational and talent management in a wide range of organizations, including both recent start-ups and established companies.

“The salespeople don’t just think, ‘How can I crush my numbers every day?’ but also ‘How can I make the company better?’”

We recently sat down with Kevin Mulrane, Feedvisor’s new vice president of global sales, to talk about his move to Feedvisor, his love of sports, and his vision for the company. 

Kevin, tell us a bit about your background.

In college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I thought the creative / marketing / advertising spaces were really cool and interesting. I came across an advertising sales job, walked into the interview, and fell in love with the whole concept of doing sales in NYC. That’s how I got my foot in the door in my professional life.

I loved the energy and passion surrounding the NYC scene. Also, I was born and raised in New Jersey, so I already loved the idea of working in the city and then going home to quiet life and suburbia.

“What can I translate from sports into my professional life?”

I have a sports background and have always been very team-oriented. I thought, what can I translate from sports into my professional life? I leveraged the competitiveness, work ethic and dedication, and my ability to coach and be coached, into my sales career. I always want to learn and always seek opportunities to improve.

For the last five years, I worked at Madison Logic. I started when it was a small team; I had to put infrastructure in place and established our KPIs. It was a wild ride for five years, working with smart, ambitious people. I threw myself into any possible situation: operations, Salesforce administration, product, finance. It was a company that outside of an initial investment had no funding, so we didn’t have the capital to have a dedicated person for each one of these areas. I dove into them to help the company, and I also got something out of it personally, becoming more “dangerous” in each one.

“Everyone comes from a different background, and that diversity of ideas makes us better.”

Would you recommend that to a salesperson?

I don’t know if I’d recommend getting involved as much as I did, but you should understand how the business is run. Whether it’s me or a Sales Development Rep who started two weeks ago, I want everyone to understand the business and make suggestions: How can we become more efficient, how to streamline. [At Madison], not every one of my ideas was put into place, but I knew I always had a voice. When it was put into place, it was rewarding for me. Everyone comes from a different background, and that diversity of ideas makes us better.

“The people of Feedvisor are passionate. It’s a Team First mentality.”

How did you land at Feedvisor?

When I was first presented with the Feedvisor opportunity, honestly I had no idea who these guys were. Then I had a conversation with Victor [Feedvisor’s founder and CEO], and it was very inspiring. It was almost like he had a crystal ball: “Here’s where the market is going, here’s what we’re doing.” I loved how Feedvisor used data, trends and research to impact decisions – not just intuition or their gut. After looking at the industry and what Feedvisor is doing, it seemed so promising.

Victor seems like the type of leader who won’t control everything – instead he’ll give you the tools and trust. He’s done a great job of hiring one of the best management teams I’ve seen. I also met Keren [Feedvisor’s VP people & HR], and I loved the culture, too.

Now that you’ve been at Feedvisor for a while, what do you like most about the company?

The people of Feedvisor are passionate. It’s a Team First mentality. People come to work every day and enjoy what they’re doing. The salespeople don’t just think, “How can I crush my numbers every day?” but also “How can I make the company better?”

Visiting Tel Aviv was a major turning point: I learned what’s important to the team, why they’re at Feedvisor. I’m someone who’s here for the journey, and seeing people who were passionate, collaborative, and care about making something special was exciting and contagious. The best example was the first management meeting with the team. It was like a big family – not shouting, but everyone had a voice and opinions. Nobody was quiet; everyone threw their ideas on the table without fear of saying the “wrong” thing. People disagreed with each other. They tackled the root challenges and problems, not just fluff, but metrics and data. I really enjoyed that.

What has surprised you the most so far?

How well perceived Feedvisor is within the industry. We were at IRCE [the largest eCommerce technology conference] in June, and there was a good buzz at our booth. People knew what we did, had heard about us. There was a lot of positive press and brand recognition for a relatively small company. That was exciting to see.

Working for an Israeli company wasn’t something I thought I’d do. But exposing myself to something different, out of my comfort zone, was how I knew I was going to grow. I had no preconceptions of Israeli tech companies, no idea of what I’d be walking into. I didn’t know if the team was going to be welcoming, nice – would they think I was a dumb American?

We hired a director of sales in Tel Aviv, and we just clicked. I had a video conference with him and even over video, we just clicked – all the way across the world. And when I got to Tel Aviv and drove past the beach, I thought “This is beautiful. This is amazing.”

“The two most important traits for sales in my eyes are dedication and coachability.”

Any good books / speakers / blogs you follow and recommend?

Two really good books for sales are The Challenger Sale and Question-Based Selling, especially for what we do here at Feedvisor. Our job is to bring value to customers, and the only way to do that is to understand their needs, challenges, and opportunities. By asking the right questions, you can pitch the right product or solution and bring value. In turn, it’s also about long-term relationships with the clients. Not just landing them for two to three months, but for the long haul.

I like Jake Dunlap’s Skaled blog. It’s about the startup scene, hiring, sales enablement, and tech stack. Also, Adrienne Skinner at eMarketer. She’s done amazing research to help identify trends that help with prospecting.

 

 

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