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 outsourced 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.”
