SMB Connect hosts a conference each year dedicated to uniting our sales co-workers located in the Philippines with the key technology vendors they partner with. This year, it was a two-day event hosted in Manila with over 100 attendees. SMB Connect co-workers discovered new technologies just breaking into the market and built a network of contacts to better assist their reseller customers. Plus, they had a lot of fun while they did it!
Straight From the Source: For us to say it was a success may be an understatement. The LevelUp team interviewed many of the Re:Connect attendees, so we’ll let them tell you more about it themselves.
What Is Re:Connect?
Jinky Gamboa, Manager of SMB Sales in the Central region, explained, “Re:Connect is a yearly event held by our SMB Marketing team. It gives [the sales team] the opportunity to connect with the clients, the vendors and also help build relationships for future opportunities and collaborations.”
“It's something that sales, particularly the Manila sales team, look forward to every year. They're saving the date even if there's really no announcement yet,” says Chiela Soto, Manager of SMB Sales in the Southeast. Chiela continues, “The reps get the chance to ask questions. Specifically, [they have] a one-to-one meeting with the vendors asking about different processes that they cannot ask when it's a huge audience.”
Marketing Specialist Twinkle Bout was the overall project lead for the Re:Connect conference. She says, “The objective is really for the vendors to meet their top sales producers… It's a rare opportunity to be able to interact and learn from [vendors] in person.”
IT vendors met with SMB sales representatives, provided in-depth trainings and even gave awards to those who reached for the stars and lead the leaderboards. There was plenty to celebrate, and the small-but-mighty marketing team that led the event made sure the conference was ready to accommodate.
What Was the “Festival of Festivals”?
The opening reception’s theme was titled Festival of Festivals. It got attendees out of their seats and into interactive games from tug of war and bingo to Sungka, the Color Game and other Filipino games many attendees hadn’t played since childhood.
Twinkle shared, “Since we last had people over from the U.S., we thought to play around with a theme that would showcase the culture that we have over here in Manila. So, the Festival of Festivals is really a highlight of how we do parties and festivals here in the Philippines.”
What Was Your Favorite Part of the Conference?
From Chiela: “Surely it is John Phillips’ sales talk.” John is the Senior Vice President of SMB and MSP Sales (you can read his Meet the Team interview here.) Jinky reported, “My favorite part of the event was John’s kickoff talk. He stole the spotlight.” Mae Cainto, the Marketing Manager that helped organize and execute the event told us, “John’s talk was very inspiring… It's one of the highlights that I really liked about the event.”
There seems to be a consensus forming…
Mae continues, “…There was even a segment in his talk where he invited some of the top sales reps to share their experiences while working for the SMB team.” Jinky was one of these lucky speakers who shared how she and the SMB Connect program have evolved and grown over the years. Jinky recalls, “I've been with TD SYNNEX for 13 years now, so I was able to showcase all those achievements to the reps, not to brag, but to inspire them to keep going.”
One of the most inspirational responses came from Lovelyn Losaria, the Manager of SMB Sales in the West region. Lovelyn shared, “During John's talk he mentioned ‘In life, it’s all about perspective.’ For us to be successful, we need to think positively. Some areas in life may seem hard but if you look at the greater picture, this is just a way for you be tough, courageous and smarter to succeed. In sales, we sometimes stumble in a difficult situation and it's normal; that’s part of learning and growing as a salesperson.”
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Re:Connect Continues to Inspire Long After the Closing Session
It seems this event helped SMB Connect co-workers learn not only how to be successful salespeople and consultants to their customers, but also successful people. It trained, motivated and connected attendees.
“It's nice to be able to reconnect with familiar faces and then get to know new ones, too, like the vendors and SMB Connect team members from the U.S.,” says Twinkle. Mae couldn’t leave our conversation without sharing, “Seeing my team grow and be able to deliver what they needed to deliver… it was such a pleasure.”
But the note that stuck with us the most after all our conversations with the attendees of this conference was from Jinky. She said this event made her remember that “Being in SMB, it's a career — not just a job — it's a career.”
A special thanks to all those who planned and attended the conference as well as the many voices who joined our interviews and sang a similar tune – they can’t wait until SMB Connect’s next Re:Connect conference!