Joanne Montz – Passionate sales leader with the demonstrated ability to meet goals, drive sales, and develop technology solutions for businesses…
September 15, 2022 • 3 Minute Read
Joanne Montz
Senior Global Sales Enablement Manager, Telco and Edge Cloud Business Unit
VMware
Are you looking for a passionate sales leader with the demonstrated ability to meet goals, drive sales, and develop technology solutions that help businesses accomplish their objectives? We know the person—Joanne Montz!
Joanne Montz is the Senior Sales Enablement Manager for the Telco & Edge Cloud Team at VMware. She is responsible for enabling the Global Field Sales Teams in the Americas and Asia Pacific. With over 25 years of business and sales experience, she is a successful and passionate technology professional with proven track record of success. Joanne has the demonstrated ability to meet goals, drive sales, and develop technology solutions that help businesses accomplish their objectives within cybersecurity, network, and telecommunications industries. When she is not working, you can find her volunteering for charity, fundraising for “Pizza for The Park” - a weekly food program she created and spearheads for children in her community, researching the up and coming Metaverse platforms and running a Caramel company with her son.
Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Joanne Montz!
Our 10 Questions for this IT Wondrous Woman.
Fun Facts
1. What’s the one thing about you that your business colleagues don’t know about you?
My son and I have a Small Batch Caramel business called Carson’s Caramels.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
I am not sure, but I traveled as much as possible to the Caribbean/Europe to see my family and Chicago.
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
Open face sandwiches and Schnapps in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
Working for a company that I thought I would become a pioneer in and then learning it was being bought out by a private investor – changed my entire career path. It taught me how to pivot quickly and become versatile in a different industry.
Working for both privately held small companies as well as large fortune 500’s, in several different industries and verticals, has enabled me to learn to communicate effectively with people at any level inside any type of company. I like to say, “I know a little bit about a lot of stuff!” I have learned to be able to speak and build relationships across all functional types of business units and stakeholders.
5. Did you have a mentor in the early part of your career and, if so, what is the biggest lesson you learned from your mentor or influencer?
I had 2 mentors who happened to be my immediate supervisors. I still turn to them for insights after 15 years. They taught me invaluable lessons around emotional intelligence in the workplace, how to network and ways to grow as an individual in my career.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
One piece of advice I would give my earlier self would be to think more about the future in terms of retirement and long-term goals and not so much about the here and now. I would have likely made a few different job decisions, had I thought in that way.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
One of the ways a like to share my leadership experiences with those early in their careers, is to get them involved in a mentorship program where myself and others mentor several newer or longer-term employees. Having a trusted advisor internally, which you can speak with about your current role, in terms of training you may need or your future career path, helps to give the mentee an overall welcoming feeling about the company they are working for.
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
The most interesting project I have worked on in the last few years was a recent project building out internal playbooks for our Global Telco sellers around new and emerging products. This entailed working cross functionally not only with our marketing teams but our Product Managers, field sales, senior stakeholders, and third-party analysts.
9. What skills are you currently developing or refining (in yourself) that will make you a more successful leader in the digital economy?
I am currently developing skills around DE&I by enrolling in an online program at Cornell, as well as trying to shift stakeholder mindset around how sellers truly learn, retain and regurgitate information in order to grow pipeline and create incremental revenue.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
Today’s digital environment needs to be built around trust and empowerment. Companies need to hire leaders who can create an innovation-minded culture full of creative thinking, agility, and speed. The biggest challenge is creating programs not only for speed learning but retention, that fit everyone and bring out their individual gifts and strengths.
