Our next interview features an alum that we were excited to catch up with – Laura Horton! She joined our team as an outsourced inside sales representative in late 2020, grew into a leadership role with us in 2021, and joined her client’s team at the end of 2022. After settling into her new role, she took some time to talk about her journey with Bandalier.
Building a Career
When Laura joined us, she didn’t intend to take a major career step. She was studying marketing and inside sales, working to earn her degree, and started looking for a part-time job to keep her busy:
“I was still in school when I joined the team. It was still peak pandemic, and I was locked down at home. I loved being able to spend that time with my family. But I went back to school and just worked from my apartment. I needed something else, and thought ‘Well, time to start looking for part-time jobs again’.”
Instead of a part-time job, she found a full-time role with Bandalier. She joined us shortly after we rolled out Bandalier University as our standard training course. Though Laura had past sales experience, she had never been formally trained:
“Bandalier University was super in-depth. It truly felt like the most prepared training I had ever done. The summer before the pandemic, I had an inside sales rep job with a local company that did kitchen remodeling. There wasn’t really any training – I showed up, and they told me to go stand over at a table and talk to people.”
Continuous Growth
With our two-week sales boot camp completed, Laura joined her first program as an outsourced inside sales representative. With Courtney at the helm, Laura started making calls for a marketing-focused client. But the fit wasn’t quite right for her. We saw another opportunity for her to use her skills, though:
“I remember when Pressman called, he told me, ‘hey, it’s not exactly sales, but we think it’d be a good fit.’ I was super excited to be one of the first team members on Bandalier’s first customer service account.”
In early 2021, Laura moved on to our largest customer success program. Her client, a cryptocurrency exchange, was piloting Bandalier’s outsourced customer success team, and our teams had a lot to learn together. Working with four other team members, Laura helped establish key structures that helped her client expand from 5 outsourced team members to 20 over the course of a few months.
With the team growing alongside her, Laura stepped into a leadership role. She trained her new team members, guided them toward best practices, and built a warm environment that helped everyone stay positive. Customer service can be challenging, as Laura acknowledges:
“Dealing with the different types of people was a big change. You could pick up the phone and talk to the nicest, sweetest old lady who just wants help moving her Bitcoin. Or you could get a crypto mogul who feels like they know everything, and if you don’t do something right now, it’s the end of the world for them.”
Keeping morale high is important, and Laura’s positive attitude was a key contributor to her team members’ success. Over time, she moved from customer service toward warm sales, then into a quality assurance role. Eventually, there was little left for her to learn.
Graduating from Bandalier
Shortly after, GlossGenius partnered with Bandalier. They needed talented people who could help build their inside sales team, and we knew just the person who could help them: Laura. She had just built an incredible team, delivering great sales results along the way, and we knew that GlossGenius’ mission aligned with her interests. As she recalls:
“I took a look at GlossGenius and I go “Oh, this is perfect. This aligns with me personally.” I was excited to do something that I could talk with my family and my boyfriend about.”
Laura launched GlossGenius alongside a new Bandalier team member, Meghan Berke. They meshed perfectly and built some friendly competition into their daily outreach. Laura’s experience with sales and leadership, combined with Meghan’s experience in the beauty and wellness industry, made it easy for them to solve problems together. Their teamwork accelerated their growth, and after a few weeks, they perfectly understood their sales process.
As Laura grew with GlossGenius, she took on new challenges. After a few months of outreach, she started running demos with GlossGenius’ new customers. She was connecting with her prospects on a new level – and loving it. Thanks to her hard work and constant improvement, Laura was offered a role with the GlossGenius team at the end of 2022.
At Bandalier, we were equally sad and excited. It’s always tough to see a stellar long-term team member move on, but we were thrilled to see her take the opportunity. We love to see folks like Laura connect with big opportunities, and we plan to keep doing it. We asked Laura what advice she would give to someone considering a path like hers, and here’s what she had to say:
“Be kind to yourself. Sales is a rough and rugged world. It’s fast-paced, it’s definitely not for everybody, but if it’s something you really want to do – be mindful, be kind. Not every day is going to be the best day. You’re not going to have the success you want every single day. So it’s really just – keep pushing and keep going through because you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. The success will be there. You definitely just have to pick through the weeds sometimes.”
