CTM Team Spotlight: Patti Poole
At CTM, we like to give credit where credit’s due. Whether that’s a quick shout out when a teammate goes above and beyond, or a nomination for our internal culture awards, which recognize outstanding employees who embody our core values as a company.
With that in mind, it’s time to get to know our latest CTM culture awards winner, Patti Poole! Her 20 years of experience helping customers solve their business needs, her never-ending persistence, and her curiosity to keep learning, all make Patti an integral part of the CTM team. And I’m not just making this up—the culture award each month goes to the employee who receives the most nominations from other team members.
Patti took a break from her busy day to chat about life since quarantine, the most rewarding (and most challenging) parts of her job, and her #1 favorite CTM product feature.
Name: Patti Poole
Title: Account Executive
Favorite food: Pierogies
Drink of choice: Light beer or a Kentucky Lemonade
Currently watching: Documentaries about anything and everything
Work soundtrack: 80’s is go-to
Early bird or night owl? Early bird—I’m the most productive when I wake up
80s band name? Punky and the Primo Preppies
Bio:“I’ve spent over 20 years in Sales and Account Management helping customers solve their business needs. I pride myself in getting to know my customers and the challenges they are facing so I can provide them with the best solution. In my spare time I enjoy hanging out with my husband and 3 cats (Coco a.k.a Lovey; a Traditional Applehead Seal Point Siamese, Button a.k.a Button Girl; all black, and Peanut a.k.a The Peeps; a calico), attending my daughter’s swim meets, visiting my frat boy son at WVU, and zipping around town blasting music in my bright red VW Beetle.”
You’ve been a part of the CallTrackingMetrics team for a year and change now—how does that feel?
Patti: The year flew by. I feel like I’ve learned so much, yet there’s still so much to learn. Thankfully, our team is always quick to share knowledge. I have a joke that I ask Jason questions so often that you would think his last name is Question.
The last few months certainly shook things up, too. Has your workload or focus changed much as a result of COVID?
Patti: For the first two weeks after we went remote, things were kind of slow, and that made me nervous—I like to be busy. I didn’t know how long the slowness would last. But after those two weeks, we had a rush. So many companies suddenly needed to pivot and figure out how to enable their employees to work from home, so our cloud-based phone system became a lifeline. Now, the conversations are mostly back to normal—companies who were exploring remote work for the first time have settled into their remote setup.
View remote resources at calltrackingmetrics.com/remote
It sounds like the biggest change has just been staying home. We’re now in week 19 of working from home (but who’s counting?). How is remote work life treating you?
Patti: It was a big adjustment at first, but now, I like it! With the extra time in the mornings I’ll go for a walk, work out, then take a shower two seconds before I need to sit down and start my workday. Plus, I love to have a cat in my lap! Peanut seems to be a good luck charm—whenever she’s around, I have a good day at work.
Moving on to what you live and breathe each day—what are you working on this week?
Patti: This week, I’m calling each of my customers who signed up last month to make sure they were able to schedule time with our onboarding team and get off to a strong start. If they’ve run into any roadblocks or questions, we can work through it. It takes a lot of time to check in individually, but it’s important to make sure that each of our customers has a good experience in those first few weeks after they’ve signed up, and that they take advantage of onboarding or professional services to get their accounts set up properly.
Did you know? Every CallTrackingMetrics plan includes a complimentary onboarding package. Plus, weekly Onboarding Office Hours offer face time with our expert team!
What is the most challenging part of working as an Account Executive at CTM?
Patti: On the sales team, we each have a lot of balls in the air and we need to be able to shift quickly between tasks. For example, I may be in the middle of calculating a pricing estimate for one client when the phone rings, and I need to shift gears to focus on the needs of the caller. Then, that call could lead me to asking teammates for help finding a solution, and then following up with the caller—and finally, going back and finishing that pricing from earlier. That’s a pretty typical day in the life!
That’s a lot to juggle! Your teammates have described you as organized. How do you keep on top of it all?
Patti: I go through a lot of small sticky tabs, writing quick notes whenever I will need to revisit a task later. Follow up is involved with everything we do—whether that’s sending an email after a first demo, or checking in with a new customer who signed up recently.
I also keep a running notebook of every little tip or feature I learn about within our product. Every so often, I’ll read through my notes as a refresher of what I’ve learned that I may have forgotten or that might help solve the needs of a potential client.
What do you find is the most rewarding part of your job?
Patti: The best feeling is when someone wants to move forward with CTM! When I have all of the information a client needs and we can help solve their challenges, it’s a great feeling.
I also enjoy when there’s an ongoing relationship and I’m able to help a client from their first demo, to comparing options and plan types, all the way through to onboarding with CTM and working with our Professional Services team.
As you know, there are so many facets and features within our product. Do you have a favorite CTM feature?
Patti: Absolutely—triggers! Whenever I ask a question about how to accomplish a specific task in our software, the answer is almost always triggers. A customer might ask, “How do I tag a call based on talk time?” There’s a way to do that with triggers. Basically, you can do anything and everything through triggers.
Read more: The Benefits of Using Call Triggers for Your Salesforce Integration
What’s one of the creative or surprising use cases you’ve seen for our product?
Patti: I had an interesting question recently, dealing with two-factor authentication. The person was using a specific software (completely separate from CTM) and wanted to have two employees sharing a user account in the software. So, when the two-factor authentication prompt popped up, they wanted to be able to send the authorization code to multiple phone numbers. I had never heard this question before and didn’t know if we would be able to help, but it turned out that we could do it with—you guessed it—triggers!
From our annual holiday party to the halloween costume contest, we try to keep things fun here. Do you have a favorite CTM tradition?
Patti: I always loved Bagel Friday. I didn’t always participate, but I loved the smell of bagels associated with making it to Friday.
Hopefully we’ll get to enjoy Bagel Friday again one day! What else are you looking forward to when we go back?
Patti: Just seeing everyone, and laughing again!
About the CTM Sales Team
Every business is unique, but our sales team loves getting to know more about our clients and their industries in order to offer the best solutions in our product. They make our product better by paying close attention to the challenges marketers and business owners face in growing their companies. In this series, we celebrate the employees who make our product great and act as champions for our customers!