VP Unity Technologies, Laura Palmer: Going The Extra Mile: Forging Meaningful Customer Connections

Laura Palmer will never forget the first big technology sales deal she ever closed.

Having only worked professionally as an inside sales rep, Laura took a leap of faith early in her business career and negotiated a half-a-million deal with a customer while “kind of knowing what I was doing and kind of not knowing what I was doing,” she says.

So when Laura stood up for herself by telling the CEO of her company that she believed she should be promoted to a field rep, it’s no surprise she was given the job on the spot.

Since then, Laura — who now serves as Vice President of Sales, Americas & EMEA at Unity Technologies — has built an extremely successful career in sales and sales leadership. On this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Laura talk about returning to the office in a post-COVID world, as well as the importance of building relationships with customers by physically showing up.

In this episode, we cover:

• From inside sales to top field rep: How Laura 'demanded the ball', closed a large sales deal, and earned a promotion. (0:52)
• Career changes: Laura's story of leaving Google — and what her decision making process looked like. (8:02)
• Unity Technologies: Unity's successful video game engine — and the applications this technology has outside of gaming. (16:19)
• Create and operate: The 'two sides' to Unity Technologies' business operation — and the company's 'complicated' go-to-market model. (18:55)
• Finding a balance: The framework through which Laura is making decisions on how to run her sales team post-COVID — and the importance of community building within an organization. (23:42)
• People buy from people': Why Laura believes that field sales is not 'dead' — and redefining 'inside sales' to 'strategic sales.' (29:51)
• Joubin and Laura share stories about the value of building relationships with business customers by physically showing up. (32:59)
• Gaining satisfaction as a leader by helping people grow and learn — and how women can help other women succeed in business. (38:24)
• How Laura defines grit. (43:19)

Links:

• Connect with Laura
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: laurap@unity3d.com
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins