Welcome to Behind the Flame, a series created to showcase our incidentios.
Meet Payton Andrews, Enterprise Account Executive here at incident.io.
Q: What has been your favorite incident.io memory so far?
In my first week, we all went to karaoke. I had just started so I barely knew these people and it was the most fun night ever. I felt incredibly welcome. It kind of just broke the ice and made me feel comfortable immediately with the team.
Q: What is the value that most resonates with you?
Win Together. I think on a typical sales teams, the culture can feel very "sharky" and every man for themselves. I think here we're really good at ensuring that as a team, everyone can lean on each other and help each other win, we share tips and best practices. So, I think that value definitely resonates with me, especially when I'm working on deals that are complex and super challenging.
Q: What is your favorite benefit?
First Friday of the month, it鈥檚 such a nice benefit. I've never had that in any other company. It just gives you that time to reset, know, go on holiday, disconnect. It's truly just such a nice benefit. It gives you what, 12 extra holidays a year, absolutely top-notch.
Q: What is your favorite Slack channel?
My favorite Slack channel is #wins. I'm biased, but you know, seeing that channel light up, especially when it's your own deal, it's kind of like a, a high, a quick hit of dopamine. It's also really nice when it's the end of the quarter and that channel is lighting up within the hour. It just kind of gives you that momentum and that excitement for sure. Also, it's not just the sales team that are in that channel, everyone in the company is in the channel and everyone comes together to celebrate those wins for you.
Q: What advice would you give to yourself on your first day?
Give yourself a grace period. I think transitioning from the role I had before this to incident.io was a challenge because I was selling to Sales and Marketing costumes and moving to selling to Product and Engineering teams is a very different beast. Initially, I was very hard on myself to get ramped up quickly and learn the product immediately. But looking back I would tell myself to give myself some grace and the time to learn the product. Looking back, it took time and it wasn't an easy road, but it was certainly worth it.
Q: What advice would you give to candidates interviewing?
Do your research, and come extremely prepared. That will set you apart in the interview process if we feel like you've really kind of taken the time to understand who we are, and what our challenges are. The next piece of advice is cheesy, but be yourself. We have a really, really special culture here, and I think we want to attract folks who are like-minded and people we can really see ourselves working alongside for the next three, four, five years.
Q: How would you describe the culture in three words?
Fun, exciting and unique.
Q: Which incident.io employee would you want to be stuck in a lift with?
Probably Anna Hosey (Office & People Coordinator). She is so much fun, I feel like we would just do jump splits and chat absolute nonsense while we are trapped.
Q: What does the first Friday of the month mean to you?
It means I can take the day to go to Pilates, spend time with my dog, and sleep in.
Q: What are you most looking forward to with incident.io this year and beyond?
In sales since it's such a fast-paced job and career. Oftentimes we forget to unplug and you know not looking ahead to this year, I am so incredibly excited about what we can achieve. Being that I was promoted from Commercial to Enterprise last year, I feel like the possibility of doubling my target again and just absolutely smashing my number out of the water is very achievable. I think I'm also excited about the future hires, and future leaders that we bring in to really help us take things to the next level and add more sales reps to the team that always helps with positive energy and momentum. So yeah, just can't wait to see what this year brings.
Q: What is something that you are excited or proud to have worked on?
The biggest highlight of 2024 was certainly closing G Research. I spoke to G Research every single week for seven months. It was not an easy road, but it was so worth it. I think bringing all of the various teams together, product, CSMs, leadership, founders, everyone was so willing to help and to help us bring the win over the line. It's also just a really proud moment for me because it was the largest deal I have ever closed and they're now our biggest on-call customer to date. Then having that to reflect on that, especially at the end of the year was just really special and a moment that I will never forget.
Q: What is something that surprised you when you joined?
How willing the engineers were to help because this was my first experience working so closely with a product team. I was very apprehensive to ask for their support or ask for them to join calls with customers. Our engineering team is just so impressive to me, the way that they can communicate with customers and demo the product and also kind of work behind the scenes.
Q: If you were to join another team for the day, what team would you join and why?
People & Talent, you guys have so much fun. I'm so jealous. I feel like I just want to be an extension of your team. You guys always bring the good vibes. You're always smiling. You're always laughing. You're planning our off-sites. Like who wouldn't want that job?
Q: Why do you think companies need a reliable incident management tool?
I think it's pretty simple and that every company on the planet at some point has things that go wrong, whether it's related to payments or related to their website crashing or to something even more serious like a train being out of service or people being impacted. I think when you look at all the different kinds of companies that exist, all of them have things that go wrong. As we move into a more digital native world, having something really accessible and easy for engineers to use is going to become even more crucial. So I think that's what's so special about incident management is we're not siloed to one single industry. We can sell to pretty much anyone.
Q: What is something special or unique about the Sales team here at incident.io in comparison to other companies?
What's so unique about the sales team here, I'll just kind of go back to the culture and how willing everyone is to help. I've worked on past teams where people would gatekeep things that were working for them or they would steal leads from one another. The people on this team are so kind and so caring and it's definitely something that I haven't found in the past, so I think it's really special.
